The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-18

THE MIXED OWNERSHIP
OF TANNING ISLAND
?

Two men stood upon wharf at Sgd
ney, New South Wales, one morning in
the spring of 1853, and shook hands in
parting Waving an adieu, one of them
went upon the bark Wallaby, a British
vessel of about three hundred tons,
then laden with timber under charter
for Melbourne, and gave orders for
hosting the sail. and in few hours
nothing but a speck upon the horizon
could be seen by the man on the wharf
This man was Captain Benjamin F.
Chapman, formerly an American ship
master who traded and resided for
many years in Tahiti, and now is max
ing his home in Honolulu. The other
was young Captain Charles Barnette
Wilson, of Tahiti, father of C. B. Wilson
of Honolulu. Captain Chapman was the
last man on land who saw Captain Will
son alive, for the vessel sailed out of
Sydney that morning on her last voyage
and nothing was ever again heard of
her or her crew.
That vessel was destined to change
the title of ownership to a little island
in the Pacific Ocean known as Fam
-
more or less prominence as British
cable station for the ''All Red" line.
1Half a century ago this spring the
Aand was owned, every foot, by young
Captain Wilson and the unfortunate
termination of his Inflated voyage from
the Australian port placed its owner
ship and manifold industries in other
hands. Today Fanning's Island enjoys
the rare distinction of being the first of
he ell IN
sage under the ocean to the mainland
by the longest section of cable in the
world. and it is now the stopping place
of some of the largest steamers in the
Pacific.
Fate drove the British bark Wallaby
upon a reef al Fanning's one day in the
year 1852. resulting in bill of sale be-
ing drawn up by the ships master,
whereby the ownership of the craft
passed to young Captain Wilson while
she was seemingly going to pieces on
the edge of the reef in the lagoon, the
purchaser being the sole owner of Fan
ning's and its cocoanut oil manufactur
ing industry. Fate seemed determined
that if the bark had not found a grave
on that beautiful and romantic isle OF
the South Seas, that she would find a
deeper and more mysterious one in
some other part of the broad Pacific. for
after leaving Fanning's island for Aus
tralia, Captain Wilson never again re-
turned to it. Years passed by, and then |
Captain Harry English, who had been
placed in charge of Fanning's by young |
Wilson, claimed the island for his own !
for salary alleged to be due him, and
thus il passed into the hands of English. |
Bicknen and Greig, the latter now known
to fame as king Greig. Little |
thought seemed to be given to the
Of Z clai1 2 Va fof IL
son, and to this day neither c. B. VIII
son, who is now So years of age nor his
sbrother, have ever received penny in
compensation from the valuable minia-
sture kingdom which slipped through
their fingers by an untoward interven-
ton of fate.
Some time during the latter part of
the 40's. probably about the year 1S4s,
while the Franco-Tahitian war was
progressing. Papeete, the capital city of
the Society Islands group. was captured
by the French. The expulsion of the
English Protestant mission workers
took place, the result of one of the first
edicts promulgated by the French
authorities after coming into power.
This caused the dissolution of the Eng
lish mission, esta blished toward the end
of the eighteenth century by the band
of missionaries sent out from England
by the London Missionary Institute in
the good ship Duff, in command of Sir
James Wilson.
CAPTAIN WILSON.
Captain Charles Barnette Wilson, ia tn
er of c.. 3. Wilson of Honolulu, was the
nephew of Sir James Wilson, and was
born at the English mission in the viii
lage of Haapapu, near the present loca-
ton Of the present Point Venus light
house. on the Island of Tahiti, where the
7saF~f a tai
Cook of the British Navy, was landed
by that great navigator for astronom-
zeal observations The dissolution of
the mission caused Captain Wilson
father to make a voyage to Samoa,
where he continued his spiritual work
in peace, ending life we'll spent in 1850
During the turbulent war period IN
Papeete, Captain Wilson was member
af the mercantile establishment of Luz
sS~tts,s Colly & Company, and was also a
an Efor pilot and acting English Consul (
4eAt was a pioneer in the establishment "
of trading stations on the many islands .
of the various groups in the eastern :
South Pacific, notably in the Society, :
Paumotu, Samoa, Raraton- }
ga. and the Gomlius, Humphreys. Pier I
sons, Perkins, and Danger Islands.
The trade in the mother-of-pearl shells,
shark liver oil and fins,
tortoise shell. cocoanut oil and copra
was then in its infancy and practically
Nitrate and guano on
these islands were discovered in later
years and proved a valuable source OF I
revenue. All of. Captain Wilson's trad {
ing was carried on in vessels OF his own. 4
As a boy he practically lived in boats /
on the Papeete harbor, and asa young h
man built a schooner of forty tons BUR a
den, which was the commencement OF
his career as a trader. In this small I
vessel he departed from Tahiti during 5
the troublesome times and took posses b
sion of Fanning's island, obtaining 1t by
purchase from an American named a
Eostar There was an exodus of Enc =,