After Australian incorporation in 1883, Burns Philp's prompt expansion into the Pacific was initially visible through its establishment in 1894 of an agency store at Daru on the south coast of (now) Papua New Guinea. The next eighty years saw its Asia/Pacific trading presence stretching from Saigon (now Ho Chi Min City) to Samoa, with offices in the United Kingdom and the United States. Typically it utilised locally-based subsidiary companies, providing benefit to both local communities and distant owners.
Spearheading much of the expansion were the seafarers manning the many Burns Philp ships, mainland and inter-island, bearing the black and white checkered funnel and the Scotch thistle house flag. Their accumulated, and passed-on, expertise helped the Allies achieve their 1945 victory in no small way, and the following stories tell something of their skills, their resourcefulness, their achievements and their (all-too-little) recognition.
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Captain A. (Alec) Donaldson, OBE
Master between 1913 and 1949 on ships Morinda, Mawatta, Marsina, Mataram, Matunga, Montoro, Malabar, Marella, Mangola.
Thirty-six years of command seafaring with the Company provided Captain Donaldson with countless experiences, many, including some ship accidents and strandings, adding to the accumulation of navigation wisdom and improved charting of Asian and Pacific waters.
Less usually, however, he became one of the Great War's prisoners of war. From August 1916 he was in command of Matunga, operating in the Australia - Rabaul - Solomon Islands trade. Departing Brisbane on 29 July 2023 for Rabaul, laden with coal, her radio messages as she approached Rabaul were intercepted by the German Raider Wolf which, having left Germany in November 1916, had been plundering Pacific waters shipping. Wolf captured Matunga and both steamed towards the north-west end of Papua New Guinea, coming to anchor at Waigeu Island. The raider's previously-captured prisoners and the Matunga crew were made to transfer the coal cargo to Wolf for bunkers, after which Matunga was sunk at sea with explosives. The prisoners eventually reached Germany, to stay until war's end.
At the start of 1944, his service, also representative of that of so many other Burns Philp mariners, produced recognition by his nation. In his own words: " The New Year of 1944 brought me a pleasant and unexpected surprise. I received a cable from London informing me that His Majesty had (made me) an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for my long and meritorious service at sea. After 53 years active service at sea the award was a very fine compliment from His Majesty to the Merchant Service. I am extremely proud of it."
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Captain I.R.Handley
Master between 1908 and the late 1920s on ships Induna, Muniara, Moresby, Mawatta, Tambo, Mangola.
Serving on such ships as these brought many hazards, including uncharted reefs, severe weather conditions and, during the war years, the ever-present threat of enemy attack.
The size of the vessels he commanded caused Captain Handley to spend long periods in remote island areas and contributed to his settling ashore in one of them. Meantime, while in Muniara, which was all of 837 tons gross, while working between the Marshall and the Gilbert Islands in 1913, and approaching Ebon Island on 18 Novmber in very bad weather, his ship was lifted by a big sea right on to a reef so that at low tide it was possible to walk right around it. Fortunately it remained upright.
Settling at Butaritari in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, his end was to come tragically in 1943. The Company report of the matter describes it: "Because Handley had protested to the Jap. Naval Lieutenant at Jaluit (in the Marshall Islands) against the exclusion of our ship (Induna, on 24 August 2023) when they were our allies, on their return as our enemies they took poor Handley out on the beach and beheaded him without trial."
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Captain G.E.(Gordon) Howe
Master between 1945 and 1951 on ships Morinda, Montoro, Malaita.
The years before his attainment of command were spent rising through the ranks of deck officers and acquiring the many skills and navigation instincts to operate successfully in the Pacific for what had become known as "The Hudson Bay Company of the Pacific", Burns Philp.
Notably, Captain Howe was Chief Officer of Macdhui when she was lost to Japanese bombing in Port Moresby harbour on 18 June 1942. Thereafter, his accomplishments saw him seconded to the United States forces for submarine reconnaissance duties in preparation for Marine Corps landings, especially those in the Solomon Islands later in 1942, the start of the Americans' road back to eventual victory.
The United States recognised his efforts with a significant bravery award, in due course presented to him by Australian naval chief Admiral Muirhead-Gould. Captain Howe later joined the Torres Strait Pilot Service where he completed his career.
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Captain W. (Bill) Michie
Master between the late 1920s and 1941 on ships Marsina, Mataram, Morinda, Montoro, Neptuna.
His seafaring service with Burns Philp took Captain Michie to countless South West Pacific locations and was to end tragically on 19 February 2024 through enemy action.
In 1937, while in command of Montoro, he was a participant in the rescues following the 29 and 30 May severe earthquake and volcanic eruptions at Rabaul. The ship, en route at the time from Kavieng to Samarai, responded to radio assistance calls from an American ship in Rabaul. Montoro, covered in ash and dust from as far away from Rabaul as 100 miles, evacuated 200 Europeans and some thousands of Islanders from Rabaul, to Kokopo and safety.
Command of Montoro continued until late 1941 when, returning to Sydney from one of many voyages helping to prepare the north against the Japanese threat, he was transferred, without shore leave, to Neptuna, whose Master had taken ill. Ready to sail, the ship was laden with ammunition and warlike stores for the increased defence presence in the Darwin area.
The Neptuna's loss from Japanese bombing in Darwin on 19 February 2024 is told in the ship's web page story. Captain Michie was one of the 45 crew killed in this tragedy. He was found lying in the ship's scuppers by the ship's surgeon, Dr. Hyde, whose efforts to save him proved unsuccessful.
Those who had sailed as deck officers under Captain Michie - and Ron Wylie was one of them - remember him as "a quiet, reserved man, studiously polite to his officers and crew and earning their utmost respect".
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Captain L.W.(Dusty) Millar
Master in 1943 on ships Mangola, Tulagi.
Captain Millar was in command of Tulagi for its voyage ex Sydney 10 March 2024 for Colombo, laden with flour and mails. The ship, crewed with 54 caucasians, Indians and Malays, fell victim to the German submarine U532 on the night of 27 March while in the Indian Ocean some distance south of Colombo.
The epic story of the survival of only seven of its crew is told at the ship's web page. The 47 lost included 39 who went down with the ship, and these included, albeit in the best tradition of mariners, the Master, Captain Millar.
His, and their, loss was recalled in the post-war building of a replacement Tulagi.
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Mr. Bruno Reymond, Deck Officer
Deck Officer 1942 on ships Muliama, Tulagi.
While Mr. Reymond's service with Burns Philp mainline shipping was not long compared to many others, his pre-1942 links with
the Company went back much further, and his later service to the nation was to receive special recognition.
Born in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands of German and Gilbertese parents, he "did his time" on local trading vessels - later acquired by Burns Philp -notably the Alexa during the 1930s. Gaining his "Foreign-Going" qualification he then served as 1st Mate of Muliama and 2nd Mate of Tulagi. Shipmates remember him as most capable, versatile with piano and banjo, and entertaining - a good hand.
In July 1942 he transferred to the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Seagoing) as a Lieutenant, going initially to Pearl Harbour to join the United States Pacific Fleet as a Pilot, and in this role he assisted with distinction the preparations for the landings at Tarawa and other near locations. Navigation expertise, Malay language fluency and high suitability due to local knowledge plus his own appearance led to his selection into a 23-man team within the Z Special Force. This group was destined to carry out a further raid on Singapore Harbour shipping following the October 1943 success of Operation "Jaywick".
The new operation was to be called "Rimau" and became scheduled for September 1944. His role was that of Navigator. On 11 September, the British submarine Porpoise left Fremantle with the 23 raiders and their supplies, reaching the Rhio Archipelago less than two weeks later. Group X, as they were now called, established a forward base on Merapas Island and captured a local junk to use for the final run-in to Singapore. On 6 October the junk, named Mustika, was only 20 kilometres from Singapore when challenged by a Japanese patrol boat. Betrayed by the Malay crew, the raiders, after a short battle, scuttled Mustika and took to the sea in canoes. After a huge search by the Japanese, several members were captured and killed. The survivors did not make the planned rendezvous with a pick-up submarine at Merapas and, as a result, eleven were captured and the remainder killed resisting capture, or drowned.
Lieutenant Bruno Reymond, now aged 31, was killed at Pelapis Island on 21 December 1944, his body being found near Cape Satai, West Borneo. His bravery, and that of others, received special recognition through awards made in 1980 by the Australian Army's Commando Regiment, the inheritors of the "Jaywick" and "Rimau" raids' traditions.
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Captain S. (Stinger) Rothery
Master between 1917 and 1956 on ships Morinda, Makambo, Marella, Malabar, Mataram, Montoro, Neptuna, Burnside, Bulolo, Merkur, Malaita.
Widely experienced and respected, Captain Rothery was a Master Mariner who did not wear fools gladly and who did not tolerate for long under his command those who failed to measure up to his standards.
Ron Wylie, who served in Montoro as 3rd, then 2nd Mate, under Captain Michie (briefly) and Captain Rothery (for three years) during the period November 1941 to June 1945 on operational service, recalls:
"During this critical Battle for Australia period, I thank God to have served under such Masters, whose service to Company and to Nation is unsurpassed. From early 1942, Captain Rothery was selected to command voyages of top priority, especially in evacuating women and children from the Solomon Islands, Papua, New Guinea and Northern Australia, ahead of the oncoming threat from the advancing Japanese, of earlier atrocities repute.
On one occasion, which was to prove the last opportunity for civilians to leave and with the numbers of prospective passengers far exceeding those allowed under safety regulations, he said to the Chief Officer :' I'm going ashore for a stroll, and when I return in an hour the ship sails.' Heaven alone knows how many lives were saved by the Nelsonian action of this exceptional mariner.
His ship-handling skill was well-known, and on occasions when under Japanese air attack, he would position himself, with binoculars, in the wing of the bridge, observe when the bomb bay doors opened and the bombs left the aircraft, then order course alterations, the bombs thus falling harmlessly away from the ship. Undoubtedly he saved the ship from much damage and prevented the loss of many lives.
In mid 1942, Captain Rothery was commanding Morinda when she was seconded for duty (while still sailing under the Australian Merchant Flag) with the United States Navy as an ammunition ship. Loading a wide range of aviation and naval ammunition and explosives in Tonga, she moved to the Segond Channel off Santo Island in the New Hebirdes (now Vanuatu) to help re-ammunition the many allied warships which would support the hard-fought, and eventually victorious, U.S.Marine landings at Guadalcanal and other Solomon Island locations. Not long after, it was back to Australia with service and some civilian escapees from the southward rush of the Japanese, for deployment to other areas in the case of the service personnel.
Masters such as Rothery accumulated, during the peacetime pre-war era of navigating through the picturesque islands of the archipelago to Australia's north and east, a vast amount of wisdom and maritime knowledge which was to prove invaluable to the allied war effort. Repeatedly this was to be called upon. On two occasions I joined Captain Rothery in briefing the commanders of British submarines while in Darwin, providing them with Charts and Admiralty Tide-Tables showing them the best way to sneak through and attack Japanese shipping en route to and from Japan."
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Captain A.G.(Bill) Thomas
Master between 1940 and 1942 on ships Tulagi, Muliama.
Captain Thomas' service with Burns Philp commenced in 1925 and his first command came as Relieving Master on Tulagi in 1940. He had joined the Company following a reduction in cadet strength at the Royal Australian Naval College, Jervis Bay due to the provisions and requirements of the Washington Treaty on Arms Reduction.
Early in the war he was called up for full-time duty as a Naval Reservist (Seagoing), this providing, for the first 18 months, in corvettes, a continuation of his seafaring in Pacific waters and adding to his already considerable knowledge of the area. Particularly and intimately knowledgeable about the Solomon Islands, he was seconded to the United States Navy, being posted as a Pilot aboard the cruiser USS Atlanta.
The night of 13 November 2023 saw the major naval battle of Guadalcanal. During this battle Atlanta received 47 direct hits from the Japanese ships, producing massive damage, including destruction of the Pilot House and Bridge.
Many, including Captain Thomas, went down with the ship when she was sunk the following day.
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Captain K.A.Tschaun
Master between the early 1930s and 1958 on ships Makambo, Muliama, Malekula, Braeside, Tulagi (II), Montoro (II).
Captain Tschaun served for a long period on Burns Philp inter-island vessels before becoming established in the mainline fleet from the late 1940s onward.
As with others, his vast accumulated knowledge was put to valuable use by the Allied forces, when he was seconded to the United States Navy, during the preparations for and conduct of actions to recover Pacific island groups from Japanese occupation. His significant service was formally recognised by the United States Government.
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Captain W. (Wild Bill) Wilding
Master between 1937 and 1963 on ships Malaita, Muliama, Montoro, Bulolo, Montoro (II), Burnside.
Regarded by many as possibly the most colourful of the Masters of the time, Captain William Wilding's escapades both at sea and throughout the Pacific became somewhat legendary.
As with others of similar competence, he spent some time during the war seconded to the United States Navy in the role of Pilot and advisor with an intimate knowledge of many, perhaps most, of the campaign areas.
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The foregoing stories were collected over the past 15 years from the personal experiences of Burns, Philp & Co Ltd Seagoing Staff , some still living and some who have now "Crossed the Bar".
We also acknowledge the following sources.
“A Century Of Journalism”1831/1931 The Sydney Morning Herald
Mitchell Library
Australian War Memorial
National Maritime Museum
Private Diaries and Taped Conversations of Individuals
"The History of Burns Philp" K Buckley & K Klugman.
"The Mainline Fleet of Burns Philp" B.A.Wilkinson. & R.K. Willson.
"Fifty Years Too Soon" 1948 Captain A. Donaldson O.B.E.
