Ellen

The Tuckey family were one of the most influential families in the early development of the Mandurah and Peel region. Even more remarkable was their connection to maritime affairs.

John Tuckey (Snr) and his children, James and Charlotte, arrived in Cockburn Sound onboard Thomas Peel’s passenger ship, Rockingham, in 1830. James’ sons John (Jnr) and Charles became involved in the Northwest Pearling industry in the 1870s. They had worked the northern Pearling grounds using the Florence and the 47-foot cutter, Jessie, before deciding to set up C. Tuckey & Co.’s Peel Inlet Preserving Works in Mandurah.

Charles is particularly known for his involvement in helping rescue the two lone Croatian survivors, (Miho Bacic and Ivan Juric), from the wreck of the Stefano, off Point Cloates in 1875. Charles had been told an account of the shipwreck by one of the Aboriginals he had employed as a diver, and made his way to the North West Cape the following year to locate them successfully.

In 1880 John (Jnr) and Charles used a share of their profits from pearling to establish the two-storey fish (later even fruit) cannery.

The site sits on what is now Mandurah Terrace on the Mandurah foreshore. Following their experience in the north, the Tuckeys brought in Japanese men to work the small boats on the Peel Inlet, using nets to supply their cannery. The venture being so successful that a few years later the company contracted T.W. Mews to build the 29-tonne schooner, Comet, for coastal fishing, with mullet and herring being the main catch, and to carry their produce to Fremantle.

At its peak, the Peel Inlet Preserving Works was producing 5000 cans of fish a day, mainly for supply to the Kalgoorlie goldfields and for export to India.

John (Jnr) had married Eliza Hawley in 1864, and they had given birth to eight children, including Charles John, Stephen Ernest and Ernest William. John (Jnr’s) brother, Charles married Emma Bell in 1879, and also went on to have eight children.

Charles lived in Mandurah and managed the business, whereas John (Jnr) left Mandurah and went into a seafaring partnership with a Fremantle merchant. He later purchased a large boat and captained the ship, which travelled the trading run between Singapore and Japan.

In another defining event for the Tuckey family, the 455-tonne Barque trading ship, James Service, struck the southern end of the Murray Reef on its way from Calcutta to Melbourne in July 1878. All hands were lost, including members of a theatrical company, as well as a significant amount of cargo.

Constable Robert Holmes and Charles Tuckey were involved in the early search for survivors.

By order of the Collector of Customs, Charles’s father, James Tuckey, was appointed receiver for any salvage found washed ashore from the shipwreck. One of the boats salvaged from the James Service was acquired by the Tuckey family, rigged as a five ton cutter and named, Ellen.

In 1890, Stephen (17) and brother William Tuckey (13), together with their friend Henry Charles Evans (24) (a business associate of Mr. A.G. Rosser trading as Evans & Co.) left Mandurah for Fremantle after spending the holiday period there.

Evans had expressed a wish to return to Fremantle earlier than was first contemplated.

They left the mouth of the Murray River in Mandurah at 1pm on Friday 3 January. The voyage appeared uneventful until the South Passage was encountered, and where it was last spotted from Rockingham.Newspaper reports are conflicting on who found the wreck and the body. Certainly John Tuckey had alerted Police when the boat failed to arrive in Fremantle, and it is said he led a search party from Rockingham where the missing boat and body was found.

Other reports place Mr. A.G. Rosser in the sailing boat, Maud, having arrived on the scene as soon as rumours of their demise had reached Port and found the Ellen lying in about 10 feet of water. Her ballast was heaped in the bow.

The body of Stephen Tuckey was found attached to a spar entangled in the rigging belonging to the Ellen. It was taken back to Mandurah for an inquiry. There were no other traces, or discoveries, of the other two men.

It was supposed by some that in attempting to jibe, the boat heeled over, or it had struck a reef. It was also reported that numerous sharks had been seen in the South Passage since the fatality occurred and therefore the chance of recovering bodies was slight.

In a separate incident, but equally eventful weekend for the colony, a young man named Woodhouse was drowned near Rocky Bay in the Swan River. The Daily News reported that all these men had one thing in common, they could not swim, and used this to argue that the loss of these four lives resulted in a net value loss of £1000 to the Commonwealth, and suggested swimming be taught in all schools.

Charles John, the elder brother had nearly drowned around the same place 18 months beforehand in 1888 using the same boat, the Ellen.

It had capsized off Woodman’s Point during one of his lone trading journeys from Fremantle to Mandurah. Charles had managed to survive, by staying on top of the upturned boat for 17 hours. He later died in 1893 on his second trip out of Singapore from sunstroke. He had intended to join his Father in maritime commerce, and left behind a wife and young daughter.

On 12 September 1893, what proved to be another fateful event for the Tuckey family, the Comet left Bunbury with a cargo of wheat for Fremantle, under the command of Captain William Robinson Hocking, with mate John Henry Hocking (his brother), and crew of John Byrne, P. Yelland and Charles Copp. Two weeks after leaving Bunbury the Comet had not arrived at Fremantle, and newspapers reported that a quantity of wreckage had been found 20 miles from Mandurah. No trace of survivors was ever found, despite an extensive search.

John (Jnr) would become a well-known figure in the Singapore shipping community. After the death of his sons, he withdrew from the partnership in C. Tuckey and Co.’s Peel Inlet Preserving Works so he could settle in Singapore. He regularly travelled to England, Scotland and Borneo.

John’s brother, Charles, stayed on managing the company. In 1900, he was residing in Singapore and was Captain of a Dutch steamer that was lost off Pulau Laut, in the Java Sea. His body was never recovered.