James Arthur's last gasp

James Arthur's papers, held by State Library of Queensland, are a significant record of one man’s ill-fated experience working for Queensland’s blackbirding labour industry at the turn of the twentieth century. Blackbirding was a euphemistic term for the recruitment of South Sea Islanders to hard labour work, often on cane sugar plantations. The practice of blackbirding was akin to slavery due to the exploitation involved. The papers also contain documents that illuminate the life of Catherine 'Kate' Arthur (nee Gibbons). James Arthur’s death left Catherine widowed with six children ranging in age from fifteen to two years old. They were Catherine (Katie), Mary Ellen, James, John, William (Willie), and Alice.

The life of James Arthur

James Arthur, also known as James Arthur Fitzpatrick (1855-1901), was born in Liverpool to Arthur Fitzpatrick and Ellen Torpey. He sailed from London in October 1878 and landed in Queensland in February 1879. James married Catherine Gibbons (1860-1946) in 1885 at Gympie. Their marriage certificate registers his employment in the timber industry as a sawyer. This collection documents James Arthur’s time as a blackbirder from October 1899 to April 1901 on the vessels the Lady Norman, the Fearless, and the Julia Percy.

James Arthur’s post-marriage shift from sawyer to seaman may have been motivated by money; in his lifetime a sawyer’s weekly pay amounted to shillings, while sailors were paid in pounds. In a letter to ‘Kate’ (his wife Catherine) dated 21 May 1900, James Arthur wrote from aboard the Fearless, ‘I hope when I come back that I will have money enough to clear our debts and get straight once more.’ This letter, like all others to Catherine Arthur, is signed off ‘from your loving husband’ with a great profusion of ‘x’s, representing kisses – sometimes more than one hundred kisses – at the close. In every letter, James Arthur would ask after his children and would usually write messages for them, in his unpunctuated style:

… tell Katie that I hope she will try and be a good girl for my sake do not on any account allow the children near the wharf […] one thing that is heavy on my mind and that is that Willie and Alice are not christened yet I wish you would get them baptised … [21 May 1900]

… I will try to get you a Cockatoo if I can give my love to all the children I hope that Katie is a good girl give Alice a kiss for dadda I am going to try and make you a brooch and you may tell the others there might be one each for them it all depends how they behave themselves tell Willie that I will give him the fruppence I owe him … [15 June 1900]

Letters to Catherine Arthur suggest a man ill at ease with his position as a blackbirder and boatswain:

… this trade is right enough for a single man but it is not suitable for a married one […] I will not leave you or them again if I can possibly help it … [24 July]

… dear Kate I think I must have been mad to come here when I was promised work in Brisbane but never mind I think it is all for the best … [23 September 1900]

His letters hint at the roughness of the work and the conditions out at sea. The final letter in the collection from James to Catherine Arthur tells of an ailing expedition:

… We are not doing as well as I would like the boys are not so easy to get as they used to be we have only got thirty so far I have not been very well lately in fact we have had seven men myself and the captain amongst them all taken bad with fever at the same time but we are clear of it now I had the second attack but I am all right now … [3 April 1901]

James Arthur died weeks before this letter reached his family. He was shot and killed by South Sea Islanders at Atta Bay on the island of Malayta while blackbirding on 19 April 1901. James Arthur was buried at sea. In a brief but evocative note in the collection, an unknown author recorded the event with the following words:

J. Arthur Recruiter Fearless shot dead by natives at Malayta 19th April inform Wife Early Before issue daily newspapers […]

Kate (Catherine) Arthur who was left with six children wrote to family in Ireland with the news of her husband's death. She never remarried, but the collection shows she raised enough money to purchase land and build a home at 62 Annie Street in Torwood (now Auchenflower) and resided there until she died in 1946.

Sources and further reading:

• 6940 : James Arthur papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
• A White Australia, the kanaka labor question, 1901
• Resources about blackbirding in the State Library of Queensland collections

Newspaper articles:

• ‘Mother Accuses Daughter.’ The Telegraph (Brisbane) 15 June 1903
• ‘Stealing and False Pretences. Young Woman in Trouble.’ The Telegraph (Brisbane) 16 June 1903
• ‘Child’s body found woman remanded.’ The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 18 January 1934
• ‘Inquest Ends After 18 Months.’ The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 14 June 1935