Tilicum’s brush with fame

In last week’s story I told of the near-loss of the‘canoe “Tilicum” sailed across the Pacific by John Voss and, at least from Sydney southward, his mate, Hamilton, whose first name I do not know.

She was a giant Chinook Indian canoe carved from a single cedar log nearly forty feet long, but Voss had added a great deal to that basic hull, including masts, decking, higher sides and ballast.

Running into Waratah Bay and then Shallow Inlet to shelter from a Bass Strait gale, the Tilicum was briefly stranded in that most deceptive entrance. Sand built up on her lee side as she rocked to and fro on her keel.

Vos and Hamilton were preparing to abandon ship.

While the huge breakers of the incoming, storm-driven tide were threatening to swamp her as she lay stuck, broadside on, one huge wave broke her free and almost immediately she was in the deeper and safer water of the channel.

There four locals found her and offered hospitality and assistance with repairs. The damaged rudder was repaired and the mate, Hamilton, who’d been dreadfully seasick all the way recovered under the care of the Pilkingtons.

On March 10, 1902 the Tilicum resumed her voyage, clearing the entrance easily. The tide was full and she had 12 feet of water under her, and she drew only three feet.

The Tilicum passed Cape Schank after dark and was not seen from the lighthouse. She entered Port Phillip at 1am on Tuesday morning, again unseen. According to Wikipedia, a sometimes-doubtful source, she arrived in Hobson’s Bay on the 13th, which was the Thursday.

That was day on which the old The Argus reported on her arrival, not the day she actually got there.

Now we saw a side of Captain Voss that was probably typical of adventurers who needed to raise funds to continue their journey but which made him out to be something of an opportunist.

Voss had been hired by Norman Luxton, a journalist who had taken a $500 bet that he could il around the world faster than Joshua Slocum had done. He sailed as crew to Fiji and then came on to Australia by steamer and then overland to Melbourne.

Neither he nor Voss seemed worried about the “within three years” stipulation. Voss had spent nearly 10 months crossing the Pacific and he still had two more oceans and a lot of coastline to cover.

The Tilicum was hauled from the water in Melbourne and taken to 283 Collins Street and placed on display there. Please don’t ask me to explain that. She was then taken by wagon to the Exhibition Building where the Eight Hour Day celebration and exhibition was taking place. I’m not sure of Tilicum’s relevance there, either, but she was at least a popular exhibit. She also nearly met her end because of it.

When the exhibition was over she was being lifted by crane onto a wagon to go back to her natural element. The hook on the crane broke, dropping Tilicum about four feet, enough to put long splits along the cedar log that formed her hull.

Voss went to work repairing her immediately, putting steel ribs and knees into her and caulking the cracks. It took some time, and so did the court case he mounted to recover damages from Thomas Warr and Company.

On July 1, The Age reported that Voss had been awarded five hundred pounds in damages. His lawyers had established the possibility that the hook used by the crane might have been faulty where it joined. This meant that Tilicum had been in Melbourne for more than three months and the clock was ticking.

Nonetheless, Voss now took Tilicum by road to Ballarat and launched her on Lake Wendouree. People paid to see her and the lake’s yacht club presented her with a new set of sails.

Voss and Luxton then toured the boat all the way to Geelong, again by road, where she attracted many sightsees and quite a little cash therefrom. She was put back in the water at last in Geelong.

Voss had a new mate now, McConnell, and thy ailed down to Queenscliff where thy lay up until the Rip offered suitable water for their passage then sailed toward Kangaroo Island and through the Backstairs Passage to Glenelg, and then sailed back to Adelaide.

In both places the Tilicum was put on show and Voss collected most of the cash.

He now took the Tilicum down to Hobart for another halt, and then went east to Dunedin, New Zealand. He also called in to Auckland and to Napier. He was obviously not worried about the time he was taking, and he now headed north again, past Cape Reinga and northwest into the Coral Sea and as far as the New Hebrides. He sailed through Torres Strait. He called at Thursday Island and Darwin before heading for Cocos Island.

He was reported missing in January 1904 when he failed to arrive at the Cocos Islands 114 days out of Darwin, but he was merely becalmed. Eventually a storm let him fill his water tank and he sailed on to Durban, South Africa, where he put the Tilicum on a train to Johannesburg and Pretoria, for some reason I cannot find. I imagine it was more of the display idea with its cash collections but I don’t know.

He went back to Durban and sailed the Tilicum to Capetown, thence to Pernambuco, in Brazil, the Azores and eventually north to Margate, England. He’d been on the voyage for three years, three months and twelve days, and he was still a very long way from British Columbia.

Norman had lost his bet.

Voss had had an adventurous time and made a few dollars. Tilicum was, after a few months of fame, more or less abandoned.

Tilicum was again on display at the Naval and Fisheries Exhibition of 1905, and was then sold off as a private yacht. Several owners had her, each giving up because of her unusual and somewhat awkward setup. She finished up more or less a derelict in the Thames, until in 1930 the City of Victoria, British Columbia, bought her and moved her back to Canada, where she was on display, outdoors, for 30y years.

The Maritime Museum of British Columbia then bought her and brought her inside at last, in 1965. In 2016 she was moved to the Ogden Point cruise-boat terminal for permanent display.

Captain John Claus Voss died in 1922, but the details escape me so far.