Yammy’s daring tale of piracy a treasure to behold

IT’S old and faded ... no, not me! Not yet! It’s a book I speak of, a book that led me to the magical realm of the Great Barrier Reef.

It led me to adventures of the pearlers and their search for the “tears of the sea”, as the ancients called them.

Lizzie Watson of Lizard Island, Jimmy Morril, the wreck of The Gothenberg and Yongala, the mystery tribes of Cardwell, and so much more.

I read it over and over, and it truly caught my imagination. Since then, I‘ ve had a passion for the tales of discovery of this wonderful part of the world.

The pages have turned brown, many eaten by silverfish and wayward crocs, it’s been artistically enhanced by decades of gecko droppings, and the cover is no more, but Ships In The Coral by Hector Holthouse holds pride of place in my little library.

So it was when I heard that the Museum of Tropical Queensland has a fantastic travelling exhibit on Horrible Histories – Pirates, it reminded me of a tale about a pirate who just may have come here ... well, legend says so ... and who doesn’t like a real good legend?

So with a duster, a cricket bat ( the cockies are big) and a bucket of wishes, I went to my books and found Hector, my old friend, and his wondrous stories.

I read Hector for the first time 35 mango seasons ago, when I sat in Townsville Library to learn all I could about the city I was to have the privilege of broadcasting to, and its stories I remember to this day, and this is one very short one.

In fact, in his book he only gives a couple of paragraphs to the pirate, Yamada Nagamasa. Now Yammy was somewhat naughty, he would rob the Portuguese and Spanish in the early 1600s, and then sneak off to Siam.

In search of this sorta fun and frivolity, he travelled south to, as his scribe had written, a large land running into the sea like a wedge, Cape York.

He had a thriving pillaging business centred at Booby Island up in the strait, to which he enlarged his fleet to many junks, and his treasure of plundered gold, jewels and pearls was legendary.

Many old coins were found on Booby, but of the treasure, none could tell. That is, of course, until the day they found some maps many, many years ago suggesting where Yammy decided to hide his treasure while the Spanish were busy looking for him.

The story goes, he went south and found a glorious Rocky Isle, perfect to hide his immense treasure. The natives called it Yunbenun.

Over 100 years later, it was given another name, Magnetical Isle or Head. It’s but a legend, but every trip around to Five Beach Bay, I look and wish for mysterious glitters in the rocks ... that’s not a washed up stubby.