Sea Witch

In 1929, The West Australian Trawling Company purchased the 273-ton fishing trawler, Bonthorpe. It sailed in June from Fleetwood to Fremantle, being the first trawler to make the journey with the intention of trawling the south coast. The Company’s slogan was “Eat More Fish”. Her captain was Claxton, a man with 13 years’ experience in deep-sea trawling and previous service with the American Army, having been born in New Jersey, USA.

Their early trawls around the Australian Bight collected rare specimens for the West Australian Museum, and sea water temperature logs were maintained of the deep sea areas. The vessel continued on several fishing trips with various success until February 1930, when the vessel was laid up at Albany due to industrial action. Neither Claxton, nor the 11 members of the crew, which he had bought with him from England had been paid their wages, and he, as Master, was legally liable in respect of their wages. He obtained a writ of attachment to protect himself and them, but after holding the vessel a few months the Government advanced a prior claim, which necessitated his withdrawal.

Claxton was unwavering in his belief that trawling off the WA coast could be profitable. By the end of 1930 he journeyed to Broome and returned with the Hughie, a 40-foot pearling lugger. It was fitted out for deep-sea fishing and a 15 horsepower engine, with an ice-box capable of carrying two tons of fish. Three of the original complement of the Bonthorpe crew were to join Claxton on fishing trips. It is unclear if Claxton retained an ownership of the Hughie, but in September 1931 tragedy struck two of the vessel’s crew, when their dinghy was swamped near Moore River.

On 10 April 1931, Claxton purchased a share of the Sea Witch (formerly the Florence) from William Francis Collins. Cyril Gibson also held an interest in this vessel. The Sea Witch was a fishing yawl built in 1914-15 of 22-feet in length, with a beam of nine feet and it carried about three hundredweight (3 cwt.) of ballast. It was considered a good seaworthy boat, having made trips to Albany and Cape Naturalise, and had just been thoroughly overhauled the week prior to the accident. Sea Witch had two life belts on board in the cabin, but events transpired so quickly that these were not used.

The Sea Witch left Fremantle at about 12:30am on Sunday 19 April with Leslie Claxton and Cyril Gibson. Also onboard that day were Cyril’s father, William Reuben Gibson (63), hairdresser, and Cyril’s brother Stanley Ernest Gibson (18). Leonard Brigham (30), an experienced seaman previously from the Bonthorpe completed the crew of five. It was William’s first-ever fishing trip in an open boat.

They reached Rottnest Island waters at dawn, and after breakfast they commenced fishing for snapper. At about 8:30am, a strong East North Easterly breeze sprung up and several of the men became sea sick. Claxton decided to equip himself with rubber thigh boots and a coat and head for the lee of the land for calmer waters. At 9:00am the jib sail was hoisted.
At about 9:15am they were drifting with the mainsail up about two miles from the western shore of the island when a sudden squall caught the boat and caused it to sway violently to one side. Claxton had asked Brigham into the aft-cockpit to get a hand pump. To reach this he had to bend down into the lee side of the cockpit, at that moment the first squall struck the boat and it heeled over. Claxton tried to put the tiller over to bring the boat up into the wind, but Brigham’s body being in the way prevented this. Just as the craft was righting itself another squall caught her with greater violence and sank her in three minutes. She sank in about 15 fathoms of water. Stanley grabbed a small water tank and Cyril grabbed onto a piece of flooring board about four feet long. Brigham, who could not swim, grabbed onto Cyril’s throat so tightly that he was nearly strangled, and he was compelled to release himself by force. He did not see him again.

Claxton was saved by clinging to an ice box after shedding all off his heavy overalls. He climbed upon the icebox to attract attention. Cyril Gibson floated with the piece of timber for over an hour, and both were rescued by an Italian Fisherman named Enrico Magi in his boat the Laurenda.

Magi and his crew had been attending to their craypots when they noticed the fishing party. After a gust of wind came through they could no longer see them and could hear cries for help coming from the direction they had last seen the party. They sculled over to the scene about a mile away. Claxton was first rescued, followed by Cyril Gibson. Cyril states his father and brother were only 20 yards away when they were rescued, but once he was onboard they had disappeared. William Gibson’s body was recovered by Magi and artificial respiration was tried for an hour and a half without success. In the meantime, Magi circled the area searching for the others but failed to find any trace of them. They reached Fremantle at 3:30pm. For his part, Magi was referred by the Royal Vice Consul of Italy for a recompense for bravery.

A subsequent inquest was held for William Reuben Gibson. The verdict being accidental drowning about 1.5 miles North West of Rottnest Island due to the capsizing of the fishing boat, Sea Witch, in a squall whilst on a fishing excursion. The fisheries launch, Kooruldhoo, failed to find any trace of the boat, or missing men and aborted the search after two days. The ice-box belonging to the Sea Witch was recovered two months later by Inspector Brown of the Fisheries Department.

The disaster more firmly cemented the bond between Claxton and Gibson. In July 1931, Gibson purchased a blind-making enterprise called the Sunproof Blind Company from Talbot and Smithers. Talbot and Smithers had expressed an interest in purchasing the Bonthorpe for fishing purposes. The management of the business was left to Claxton who had knowledge of sail-making. The business was a failure from the start, attributed to an increase in sales tax, depressed trade conditions, and the purchase of a business at a slack period. Gibson’s only source of income was from rather irregular wage as a tailor’s presser, out of which he had to contribute towards the support of his widowed mother. It is unclear how life transpired for Gibson and it appears as though he remained single. Claxton went on to marry Cyril’s sister, Nellie in 1935. He later worked as a taxi driver and resided in South Perth.

Leonard Brigham was born in East Riding, Hull, UK. He left behind a wife, Bertha (nee Gallon) Snr and two young children (Bertha Iris Jnr and Marion) in North Sydney. Bertha Snr gave birth to a third daughter, Beryl, the same year Leonard died in WA. According to his family he was working his way to Sydney to be with his family by sailing and fishing his way over on various vessels.