250 years later . . . Part 2: The journey home

By TUKUL WALLA KAIKU
Two hundred and fifty years ago this September, New Hanover Island and New Ireland Province were given their English names, in 1767, by English circumnavigator Admiral Philip Carteret. They are home to about 23 linguistic cultural groupings, most of which are Austronesian with the exception of one.
Carteret left Lambom Island after spending 11 days there to undertake repair work to the Swallow and rest for the sick and ailing members of the crew and set off on a route that would take him up the west coast of New Ireland, overnighting off Djaul Island and then onward to the Admiralty Islands past New Hanover Island.
On leaving, the Swallow caught a wind from the south-east and current to the north-west, and in “such miserable tool of a ship”, it  was unavoidable that Carteret would head into St George’s Bay, as (former buccaneer William) Dampier called it in 1700, and eventually finding a passage through. It was then renamed St George’s Channel.
Carteret also noted that Dampier’s New Britain map had two large islands. Hence, Carteret on Friday September 10, 1767, named the island to the north Nova Hibernia, or New Ireland. He saw the volcanoes near today’s Rabaul, and was the first to call them the Mother and Daughters. He named the Duke of York Islands . . . and sailed between them and the west coast of New Ireland. He commented that it was a better route than around the north side of New Ireland. Also, that provided trade goods were available, that a ship “may easily get many refreshments from the natives”. He lamented his lack of items to trade.
On the 11th he called Watom Island the Isle of Man, and continued on along the west coast. In stormy weather he saw Dyaul, calling it Prince of Wails Island, but that name was later changed to Sandwich Island, after the Earl of Sandwich became the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1771. The Swallow had to lay off Dyaul for the night, and all that night the drums were beating.
Early on the morning of September 12, the Swallow sailed between Dyaul and the mainland, experiencing a strong current to the west. There, Carteret recorded the largest canoe seen in New Ireland waters by the early navigators. Nine to 10 canoes came off with about 150 men in them, so they were all quite big. They were “very long and narrow with one outrigger, one of these canoes was almost as long as our  ship and it must have between 80 to 90 feet (24-27m) long, made out of one tree,  handsome carved ornaments about it, there were 33 men in her”.
Carteret commented that the people “go quite naked, not a bit of covering over any part of the body except a few ornaments of their own making about their arms and legs, but seemed to take great pride in their beard, which some of them had very large ones, powdered with white powder as well as their woolly heads which some had adorned with bird feathers that seemed to me off the tail of the dunghill cock by which it seems that they have that useful domestic birds”.
“At noon [of Saturday 12, 1767] the extremes of the land to the westward . . . and a peeked sugar loaf hill on the Island I afterwards called Byrons Island . . . and a point or cape [of] land by it called Cape Byron . . .”  The sugar loaf-peeked island was actually Salampiu Island. Today, he would have been in the Tigak group.
Carteret regretted that his accounts might not be of the standard expected, “but I hope I may be excused when I say I only found the duty too much for me, who was very sickly and ailing and notwithstanding I was so weak that I could scarce keep the deck.  I yet was obliged (for want of officers) to keep watch with the Lieutenant, besides navigating the ship, making remarks, and other dutys, etc.”
Among some other small islands Carteret saw “a passage rounding away to the NE, this passage or strait is made by the west end of Nova Hibernia, and a fine large island to which I gived [sic] the name of New Hanover and to the strait, Byrons Strait”.
“New Hanover is seemingly a very fine large island with many green spots like plantations, it is very high land well clothed with green trees. The SW point of it makes it a high bluff cape to which I gived the name of Queen Charlotte’s Foreland in honour of her present Majesty.”
The weather on the 13th was stormy, preventing clear observation of New Hanover after Cape Patianging, but a small group of islands were seen. They were the Tingwon Islands which Carteret named the Duke of Portland Islands.
The author is a lecturer with the Information and Communication Sciences Strand, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Univeristy of PNG. He wishes to thank Jim Ridges for the information used in these articles.