EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
by JACK FAULKNER
On Friday 28th May 1937, I was sitting on the bridge deck of the Durour, when at 1.15pm a wopping big earthquake occurred. I knew what it was as I’d felt them previously in New Zealand but it frightened the life out of the others.
The Durour jumped as though an explosion went off underneath her and broke the chocks under the multi-wheeled cradle. She went up and down the rails as though on springs but she stayed on the rails, held only by the series of ropes which pulled her out of the water on to dry land.
After a couple of minutes we had a small tidal wave that did some damage in Rabaul but as it apparently started at Karavia, no damage was sustained by us.
Earthquakes sound like a grumbling rumble under your feet followed almost simultaneously by a quivering shake of the ground. A couple of hours later another moderate quake hit us and then they came very fast – one every couple of minutes.
It was most peculiar up on the monkey island (above the bridge deck) watching the tops of the coconut palms when a quake came. At first the tops swayed like a wave, but later we appeared to be in the centre of it and the waves spread outward in concentric circles.
After a bad night during which we got very little sleep, everyone aboard, i.e. The Chief Officer, the Chief and Second Engineers, Supercargo and I, were jittery and it was very hard to get any of the native boys back aboard.
The ship was jolting every few minutes, quite a different motion to the usual smooth roll of a ship and therefore unnerving. This of course made the boys very scared and they spent the night somewhere in the surrounding coconut plantations.
I went into Rabaul by pinnace (the ships motor boat) to get some clothes I had ordered from the Chinese tailor – 3 pairs of white shorts and shirts and 2 pairs of sandshoes as well as money from the bank.
From 5.00am to 11.00 am there had been 120 shakes.
I got back to the ship at 12.40pm in the pinnace and during our trip across the harbour, a quake came. It felt just like the pinnace had run onto rocks. A peculiar feeling.
After lunch the pinnace driver said he thought the reef between us and the island was “come up lik-lik” i.e. rising a little bit.
I had a look at the water height in the direction of the Beehives, a couple of very distinctive pinnacles of rock sticking up out of the harbour near Vulcan Island. After half an hour I could see that Vulcan Island was tilted, definitely higher out of the water on the side nearer Rabaul. I estimated about 6 feet.
About 2.30pm, the slipway Manager (Fred Hay) said he was getting windy about damage because there was no way the ship and cradle on which she rested could be fastened securely and asked the Chief Officer to put the ship off into the water because the repairs were completed.
The mate refused as the Captain was in Rabaul and he, the mate, wanted the weekend on the slip. Fred hopped into his car to go and get Captain Parry in Rabaul.
I thought the ship would be unable to get off owing to the height the Island had risen as there had been only 25 feet of water in the channel on the other side of Vulcan Island when we came in to the slipway.
The boys (boat crew) asked me if they could take the pinnace and get some fish which were bound to be trapped in small holes in the reef. I was generally in charge of the pinnace as I always went ashore and weighed the copra on the beach and sent it out to the ship where the Supercargo (Eric Arthur) received it.
I got my camera and was just about to push off when the Supercargo came down with a man and woman who lived on the hillside above the slip and wanted to come with me. The man was the Doctor in charge of the Quarantine Station on the Island.
They confirmed that from their house the whole island had risen. Not just the reef and the side of the island we could see from the ship.
We cruised around the reef toward Rabaul and found Vulcan Island had risen at least 10 feet. The lady got terribly frightened and said she was “fey” and said a lot of trouble was coming and to get back right away. I took no notice but when she got a bit hysterical and threatened to jump overboard, I gave orders to turn back to the ship.
We were about 400 yards from the Durour and about 200 yards from the shore and had just commenced turning when the boys got a bit excited and said the boat would soon by dry.
It was most uncanny to watch the seabed rise before our eyes and little bits of coral pop up out of the sea which moments before was quite clear and of sufficient depth to take the draft of the pinnace. They cut off our retreat to the ship.
I took another photo and then with a loud crack and a whooshing noise, up spouted a 12 inch thick column of smoke, steam and rocks about 100 to 150 yards on our right. It came up in a series of spurts 100 ft then 200 ft then higher and higher till we couldn’t see the top.
The boys got frantic and I grabbed the old lady who was trying to jump overboard. We turned straight for the shoreline but before we had gone 50 yards, the boat was high and dry. A few Chinese who were on the shoreline fled like mad at the first sign of the volcano.
There was a car with some sightseers on the road near the waterline, so I yelled to the Supercargo to take the lady and Doctor and get out of the area. I ran to the Durour for my movie camera. I had to yell because by this time the roar from the volcano was deafening.
Some years later I met an AWA technician in Sydney (I think his name was Burgess) who greeted me with amazement as he said he was on the shoreline opposite Rabaul transmitting station and thought he saw me killed when the rocks dropped between me in the boat and him on the shore. I assured him that although I had been scared, the rocks had gone over our heads and we had not been killed, in fact I was still very much alive.
The Dockyard Manager and Captain were aboard the ship and said unless I came immediately they would not wait. The ships officers had already left. I went aboard the ship and got my camera but could not get at my clothes or spare film (I was filthy dirty and cut about from falling into holes while running across the reef).
During painting and repairs I had locked all my spare gear in a spare cabin and the key, which was on the transom above the door had shaken down inside with the earthquakes.
When I got back on deck, the Captain and Dock Manager had left and the central core of the volcano had enlarged to a very big diameter and tremendous height and small rocks were falling all around and on the ship, although the wind was blowing the other way towards Rabaul.
I had 15 to 20 feet of movie film and took all the photos I could and then started jogging along the road toward Kokopo near the entrance to the Blanche Bay Harbour.
The heat, which was terrific, seemed to be coming in waves from the direction of the volcano. I was opposite the far end of Vulcan Island and with an almighty roaring crash, up started another spout of debris near the shoreline, luckily behind me. With hindsight, I estimate the temperature was well over 100 deg F, a real scorcher, as the thermometer here now says it is 140 in the sun and it was if anything, hotter.
I was driving a few native boys ahead of me with a tree branch as they did not seem to know what to do. Our numbers gradually swelled as more boys appeared from nowhere, all clamoring for information and shouting contradictory advice as to whether to take to the hills, continue along the road or the water.
When the second (volcanic cone) burst broke through the water, I honestly thought we were done for; especially as bolts of lightning were flashing every few seconds and when they hit a palm tree it exploded into fragments. It was just like shell fire.
I knew if I panicked, we would all be done for so I belted them with my stick and told them to run for their lives. They needed no urging and I couldn’t keep up with them as by this time the camera seemed to weigh a ton.
I unloaded the film and parked the camera in its case at the foot of a distinctive tree on the side of the road, a mile or so from the Durour.
We hadn’t gone much further when Fred Hay, who had cleared out while I was trying to get my gear, came back in his car after taking the others about 5 miles.
As many natives as could get aboard climbed in or on the running boards, mudguards, bonnet, carrier and on top. 16 or 17 in all on a 3 seater runabout. We went about another 5 miles and picked up the rest of the officers. As we were well clear of Vulcan, we sat down on the beach to look at it going.
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