Huge thanks go out to Cipher Mysteries reader Poul Gjol for responding so quickly to my request for the 3-volume Log Of Logs by posting up a link to where scans of all three Log(s) Of Logs can be downloaded.
Unfortunately, this quickly reveals that the Incharran’s logs are nowhere to be seen there: but as normal, this merely means that once again I’m starting six feet to one side of where I actually need to be. Instead, the right place to begin is by putting together a brief history of the Incharran, as culled from everybody’s favourite instant online Antipodean historical resource… Trove.
(Photo: Alex Wood)
1944 – The Empire Labrador
The Adelaide Advertiser (OK, the Tizer) ran a short piece on the Incharran and its sister ship the Inchmark not long after the two arrived in Australia in mid-November 1947:-
One of six identical ships specially built in the closing stages of the war to handle heavy lifts, the British steamer Incharran is now on her first visit to Port Adelaide with timber from Cairns. She has 659 tons of timber and 113 tons of plywood. As originally rigged, the Incharran had an 80-ton “jumbo” derrick on the mainmast and a derrick capable at taking a 50-ton lift on the foremast. These, together with the heavy-duty winches, have been removed, but the outsize tubular steel masts and heavy wire stays are still fitted. Launched as the Empire Labrador in 1944. the Incharran is an oil-burning steamer of 3,539 tons owned by Williamson & Co. of Hongkong. Like the Inchmark, owned by the same firm, which is now at No 11 berth, the Incharran carries a Chinese crew. Both ships are under charter to the Australian Shipping Board.
So the Empire Labrador was an Empire Malta class ship, and it was built in West Hartlepool by the British Government to a design that broadly copied high-capacity Scandinavian cargo ships of the day.
It’s official number was 180077, its IMO number was 5151830, and it was launched on 19th August 1944, just in case you ever feel like celebrating its birthday. There’s also a list here of the convoys it was in from then until the end of WW2.
1949 – Incharran (Williamson & Co Ltd)
Technically speaking, it was the Inch Steamship Company (a subsidiary of Williamson & Co Ltd in Hong Kong) that bought the Empire Labrador, and renamed it in its house style to “Incharran”. Before long it was taken out to Cairns in Australia in November 1947, where it had a fairly inauspicious start to life Down Under: it was discovered to be carrying 14,250 contraband cigarettes “of English and American brands” being smuggled from Hong Kong.
Before long, it seems to have been quickly re-chartered by Howard Smith Ltd (perhaps from the Australian Shipping Board?), which almost immediately put it to work batting back and forth between Risdon and Port Pirie, much as we have seen. In late 1949, it may well be that the lead-related work for it at Risdon / Port Pirie petered out, because it started to ship coal instead.
Life after Australia
Its last day in Australia was 12th January 1950, when it left Sydney for Hong Kong. From then onwards, the Incharran found itself hard at work along the Chinese coast, where it often found itself under attack from Chinese Nationalists, particularly near the Straits of Formosa (modern day Taiwan). It also ran aground in 1952 about 400 miles north of Hong Kong, and had to be salvaged from that difficult situation by ships including the British destroyer HMS Cossack.
1955 – sold to Indo-China Steam Navigation Co Ltd, renamed “Ho Sang”
1968 – sold to Golden River Shipping Corporation, renamed “Golden Sun”
1970 – scrapped.
Captain George LeFevre
The ship’s Master from 1947 continuously to at least 1953 was Captain George LeFevre.
I haven’t found out much about him: but I did find an 18th October 1932 article from the Adelaide Chronicle about a ‘Captain G. Lefevre’ who was in charge of “the Chinese-owned steamer Helikon flying the British flag” when it was taken over by Chinese pirates: very likely the same man. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser of 21st October 1932 has a much fuller account (detailed, though a bit slow to load).
He might also be the “Captain Lefevre” mentioned in NAA control record C1937/7600 in series SP42/1: that person arrived in Sydney on the CAPITAINE ILLIAQUER on 30th October 1937 to join the crew of the NOTOU.
And finally… the ever-reliable Port Pirie Recorder ran a story on 28th March 1949 about two Chinese crew-members (Hsu Ming Hsien and Chan San) from the Incharran, one of whom was so drunk and annoyed about not being sold a milk-based drink in a fruit shop that he attacked the shopkeeper and “broke his finger slightly”. Hsu was fined £1 with 6/3 costs on two counts, while Chan was fined 10/ with 7/6 costs for having been drunk, and £1 with 6/ costs on each of the other charges: the Master paid the fines on their behalf.
I have it on good authority that the white liquid substance sold to the honourable Chan San as milk, was submitted to the eminent South Australian analyst James Cowan for identification. He was unable to do so.
Milk eh? Mr Hsu wanted milk. That is suggestive because milk was widely considered to be an antidote to lead poisoning, and it probably was to some extent. And, a Chinese in 1949 getting cranky about milk not being available? I am under the impression that very few Chinese would think of drinking milk in 1949. Any Chinese like to comment?
Nick, Not sure where this belongs but here’s a gallery published by The Adelaide Advertiser today, it covers the 1930s and it gives a pictorial insight into life in South Australia in those times:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/photos-fnlmw1po-1227136837846?page=1
B Deveson: yes, lots of people with lactose intolerance there: http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000661
It’s certainly a novel idea that milk-based-drinks might have been what Australian lead-powder handlers used as a first defence against long-term lead poisoning. Perhaps we should be trying to network through to people who used to work in Risdon or Port Pirie, see if they say that that’s what everyone did. 🙂
Nick,
the use of milk as an “antidote” for lead poisoning was generally known in the past and recommended by medical authorities.
The Sydney Morning Herald 27th August 1910 page 7
“LEAD POISONING.
In 1908 a departmental committee was appointed to make an exhaustive research Into the subject of lead poisoning and the Home Office has just issued its report. In particular it urged that manufacturers in the potteries and other trades where lead is largely used should be compelled to supply their employees with milk, or with cocoa made with milk…..”
Chronicle (Adelaide) 6th July 1950 page 19
“Treatment of lead poisoning consists of giving regular doses of Epsom or Glauber salts to form insoluble lead sulphate. Milk is also very useful, as the lead .combines with the casein and becomes inert. …”
Wodonga and Towong Sentinel (Victoria) 10th July 1942 page 6
“MILK SAVES LEAD POISONING For many years milk has been used as a preventive agent or cure for lead poisoning, even though its effect was not entirely understood. Recent research on the subject helps to clarify its function……. Some industrialists have found it so important to protect workers from lead poisoning that they have provided milk to employees who come it contact with lead regularly….”
Port Pirie Recorder and North Western Mail 8th January 1910 page 4
“ …Had eaten a lot of fruit as a precaution against leading; that was what the majority of men at Broken Hill did. Did not use much milk as he did not like it……”
Daily Herald (Adelaide) 25th July 1910 page 2
“LEAD POISONING.
MINIMISING PROPOSALS
BOARD OF HEALTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS.
……………
4. Every worker before beginning work should have a full meal. It would be well if he could drink half a pint of milk before going to work and half a pint after work is ov
The following newspaper account mentions that an ore bucket was used to load or unload the Incharran at Port Pirie. This method of loading or unloading ore concentrates and suchlike would generate copious clouds of dust. If SM was a stevedore who specialised in shovelling bulk cargoes in and out of ship’s holds this would account for his impressive upper body development.
Recorder (Port Pirie) 24th December 1948 page 1
“Chinese Seaman Injured By Swinging Ore Bucket
When he was struck by a swinging ore bucket on the deck of the steamer Incharran at Smelters Wharf on Wednesday Ke Ching Chow, a Chinese member of the crew, had a shoulder injured. He was taken to Pirie Hospital for attention and discharged yesterday afternoon.”
1. Given the assumptions made thus far are correct, would it be true to say that all you would have to do is to be a passenger on the boat for say a weeks trip in order to be sufficiently exposed? Either that or maybe a stowaway?
2. Are you saying that the man was suffering from severe lead poisoning and yet Cleland didn’t recognise the effects?
Gordon: as this develops, the scenario I’m seeing forming is more of a single acute lead poisoning episode, a brink from which the Somerton Man seemed to have pulled back from, probably thanks to drinking copious amounts of milk-based drinks in the days (and indeed weeks) following the incident. However, this left his body in a parlous state internally (e.g. enlarged spleen), such that a secondary (but as yet undetermined) ‘insult’ was sufficient to push him back over the edge.