Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [162]
The pearl shell market was moribund and the buyers in Vienna and Paris were cancelling their contracts. Broome had become a ghost town. Some pearlers had gone bankrupt, some left for adventures overseas and down south, putting a brave face on their penniless condition. Others, barely solvent, sold their boats, paid off their crews as best they could and became verandah pearlers.
Tyndall, like many of the master pearlers, was concerned at the rising dominance of the Japanese crews. A powerful band of Japanese proprietors and merchants acted as bankers for the Japanese divers and crews who were engaged in gambling, selling snide pearls or dummying. Officially, a Japanese could not own a lugger, so they set up white ‘owners’ to dummy for them while they controlled and owned the business. Dummying flourished and, although everyone knew, nothing was done about it.
Trying to break the increasing Japanese hold on the industry was regarded as ‘too hard’. The Japanese tightened their grip by refusing to train divers from other races.
Tyndall tried to get the white master pearlers to unite and form a co-operative, but his plan was not well received. Pearling had always attracted an independent breed of man who socialised with others readily enough but played his cards close to his chest when it came to business dealings.
The only matter that the master pearlers agreed upon at this juncture was the appalling loss of life due to paralysis since the recent introduction of engine-driven compressors to replace hand pumps. Although this allowed divers to go to greater depths, the risks were higher. Divers hated the staging required in ascending from extreme depths, preferring to put their faith in a rice paper charm rather than hang suspended at varying depths as they staged their way to the surface. Many lives were saved by the steel decompression chamber presented to Broome hospital by Heinke and Co., the company, along with Seibe Gorman of London, which made the diving suits.
Tyndall decided to take another tack. Sitting in his office he laboured over a notepad, occasionally screwing up pages and throwing them with accuracy into the wastebasket across the room. He wished Olivia was there to help him, but finally he was satisfied with what he’d written. In an open letter to all the master pearlers of Broome he set out a proposal for culturing pearls as a secondary industry. He told of his visit to Mikimoto, how cultured pearls could replace the dwindling pearl shell market. He explained that, far from devaluing natural pearls, it actually would increase their value. He told of how Mikimoto set high standards for his pearls, those that didn’t meet them were destroyed. He pointed out that the cultivated pearls were produced by the oyster in exactly the same manner as naturally occurring pearls once a ‘nucleus’ was introduced. The use of mother-of-pearl was threatened by the new plastics industry so by creating a middle market for less expensive pearls they would ensure their own survival as pearlers.
‘It was as if I’d let off a cannon from Buccaneer Rock,’ wrote Tyndall to Olivia. ‘I scored a direct hit on the Pearlers’ Association and also the Japanese Club, so help me. They’re all dead against it, accusing me of sabotaging the whole industry. I don’t mind some chaps tackling me in the Lugger Bar, in some cases I’ve almost persuaded them. But a few of them just cut me dead. I’m sure you know the ones! Toby and Mabel are my sole supporters at this stage. Ahmed remains loyal but doubtful, however I know he’ll be at my side whatever I decide. Yoshi is enthusiastic, having seen the Japanese operation although I was surprised at the lack of interest from the local Jap community. Yoshi tells me it is discussed in their club with downright fear. Where do you stand, my dear partner?’
Fondly,
Tyndall
Dear John,
I don’t feel well positioned to advise you on