Pearling lugger JOHN LOUIS

John Louis is a pearling lugger built in Broome, Western Australia in 1957 by Male & Company for Louis Placanica and was named after his son John. John Louis worked for 30 years in north-western Australian waters collecting commercial mother-of-pearl and young pearl shell for the cultured-pearl industry. It was one of the pearling luggers that were amongst the last of the Australian working craft to be operated with sail power. The motor was used for passages to and from the pearling fields, but on the fields it drifted under sail while the divers were down, which had always been the practice.

John Louis was also one of the last pearling luggers built to the traditional configuration used by the Broome pearling luggers, and it remains in its final operating configuration at the Australian National Maritime Museum. The multi-cultural crew used over its working lifespan connects John Louis to many significant stories in the pearling industry.

‘Verandahs’ or outriggers, let down from the sides of the vessel, were used to separate the divers moving over the pearl beds below. Divers worked in hard-hat suits with heavy metal helmets and boots. The work was very dangerous. In 1962 a Malay diver, Pilus Bin Jamiron, died of the bends while diving off John Louis in deep water off Eighty Mile Beach.

Initially John Louis was used to collect mother-of-pearl with the rare find of a natural pearl as a bonus. As the industry collapsed, the pearl-culture industry developed, where divers collected young pearl shell (pearl oysters) which were taken to farms for ‘seeding’ and cultivation. This became John Louis’ use for the rest of its working life. From 1964 it was owned by Pearls Pty Ltd, the biggest cultured-pearl company in Western Australia.

In 1971 Peter Cumming, used John Louis when he trialled the use of hookah gear – light breathing apparatus connected to an air supply on the deck that he had seen abalone divers using in New South Wales. The result was successful and by 1974 the industry had converted almost entirely to the hookah method.

From the 1970s onwards John Louis underwent a number of modifications. In the 1980s there were eight crew: six divers, a cook and the tender. A voyage lasted about ten days. Supply tenders came regularly and took some shell back, while a seawater tank kept the rest alive on the voyage home. The sails were no longer used with the changed method of diving.

John Louis was bought at the end of its final season in pearling operations at Broome and has been retained in exactly the same configuration it had during its final years of commercial operation.