9 March 1912
Cover to England with a British 2d stamp cancelled with PCH type 5a paying the correct rate to England. The
cover is accompanied by the letter which shows that this is the
only known letter so far from Hog Harbour, Santo from these years. It was written on
23-2-12 by Jeanie Mackenzie, the wife of the missionary in Hog Harbour and then
carried by S.S. MALAITA, Burns Phil & Co. Ltd., Captain R.S. Millington to Port Vila and Sydney.
Backstamped Edinburgh 27 April 1912. (Klinger coll.)
No, the cover is not one of these clean ones you can see in European postal history.
It travelled in the Pacific in difficult circumstances.
9 March 1912
Cover to England: 2d cancelled type 5a, correct rate. (Klinger coll.)
Letter page 1
First page of the letter.
Letter page 2
Second page of the letter.
Letter page 3
Second page of the letter.
Hogg Harbour
Santo
New Hebrides
23-2-12
Dear Mrs. Fraser
I have just had a letter from Mrs. Doy, & she tells me of the parcel you sent to
her for us. In my own name & the Dr's, let me send you a word of thanks. It
is good of you to think of us. Half worn garments are specially nice for our poor
sick folks. The weather just now is hot, hot, & very trying & we are just
longing for cooler days to come.
Last month we had a terrible hurricane, the worst that ever visited our Islands.
There was a steamer lost, & a great many smaller vessels - a great many whites
& natives were drowned. It was an awful time indeed. Our house stood, but was
damaged and our nice new Church which my husband built only 4 months before,
was blown right out of position at both ends. Our hospital fared worst of all &
is almost off the foundations. It will take much time & labour to get it into
thorough repair again - and the Dr. is too busy at translation work to begin
carpentry right now.
We look forward to going on furlough towards the end of the year. I long to
see our dear girlie in Scotland. She will have grown out of all recognition I
am sure. We all keep pretty well altho fever has us in its grip at times. I hope
you are all well.
Remember us please to Mrs. Percival & your younger sisters. We will hope
to see you all when we go home. Again thanking you, & with kindest
regards, in which the Dr. joins.
Yours very sincerely
Jeanie Mackenzie.
The letter was carried from Hog Harbour to Vila and Sydney by the Burns Philp & Co. Ltd. steamer
MALAITA. She called at Hog Harbour on 26 Feruary. The ship was back at Sydney on 23 March 1912.
Image of the Syndey Morning Herald issue article of 25 March thanks to Australian Newspapers
On the same day the P & O Royal Mail Steamer MOLDAVIA left Sydney with this letter.
She called at Colombo, Aden, Port Said and had permission to call at Brindisi. She arrived at Plymouth
on 3 May. But she called at Suez on 21 April and then at Brindisi. where the mail was transferred to a train
running via Bologna, Dijon, Paris to London. So the letter could reach Edinburgh at 27 April.
The Mackenzies
The Mackenzies
The picture at left shows Dr. and Mrs. Ewen Mackenzie. Mrs. Jeanie Mackenzie
was born as Jean Crow in Lochgilphead, Scottland. Dr. Mackenzie was appointed by the
John G Paton Mission Fund to succeed Dr. John T Bowie as mission doctor at East Santo,
with his base at Hog Harbour. They sailed from London on 19 January 1900 and
reached the islands in April and landed in Hog Harbour on 5 July 1900.
As mentioned in the letter above, natural disasters proved to be a serious
problem at this place. In early 1901 a hurricane damaged some of the mission buildings
and severely cut the food supplies of the people. In 1902 furlough was due for
the Mackenzies as they suffered from bad health. They did not leave until September
1902 due to the confusion caused by the wreck of the Burns Philp & Co. Ltd. ship
Mambare.
From 1906 to 1908 they went on a long furlough again due to bad health which
they spent in Scotland. They had three children by now. In 1910 they began to build
a church in Hog Harbour. On 9 November 1910 all New Hebrides suffered from a
serious earthquake which wrecked the mission house in Hog Harbour and other buildings.
But the church was finished in June 1911. On 11 November 1911 Hog Harbour was visited
by HMS Torch with the High Commissioner, Sir Francis May on board.
Hurricanes in
early 1910 and on 4th January 1912 (the one mentioned in the letter) did much damage. The small
steamer which Mrs. Mackenzie notes was the SS Tathra which sank
near Ambrym with the loss of 25 lives.
Felix Speiser, who travelled with this ship two months earlier wrote: "A steamer arrived, which came to the archipelago
for the first time to compete against the Burns Philp ships. It was a clean nice ship,
well set up for passanger transport which just keeled over during a cyclone between
Malekula and Ambrym in which 27 lost their lives. It was never thoroughly clarified what
had been the reason for this weird accident. It seems that the cargo had not been stowed
correctly and that the ship - constructed for river cruises - was not seaworthy on open
waters."
The ship was operated by Kerr Brothers Co. for the A.U.S.N. (United Steam Navigation Company),
captain Hoenden.
In this accident Soeur Marie Ephrem and Graham Kerr's 2 year old son Muriel lost their lives.
In September 1912 the Mackenzies left on long furlough (as written in the letter here) and returned to
Hog Harbour in May 1914. In February 1916 Dr. Mackenzie left for war service under the
Australian Forces, Jeanie returned to Scotland. After the war, Dr. Mackenzie served
for three years as Government Medical Officer in Haapai, Tonga. In 1925 he took over the
Malo-Nogugu missionary station which had been his brother Noble's station from 1895 to 1909.
He died on Malo on 12 May 1927 from black-water fever.
Mrs Jean Mackenzie lived in Sydney with her family where she died on 28 June 1941.
Sources:
J. Graham Miller, "Live" vols. I to VII, Vila 1978 to 1990
Père Paul Monnier S.M., Apôtres des Nouvelles Hébrides, Maison Mariste, Port Vila 1994.
Felix Speiser, Südsee, Urwald, Kannibalen, Stuttgart 1924
The Mackenzies 1904
The Mackenzies
14 - 22 January 1912: Here are three newspaper clippings from New Zealand's Evening Post from 14 to 22 January 1912:
Evening Post 14. Jan.
Evening Post 14. Jan.
Evening Post 15. Jan.
Evening Post 15. Jan.
Evening Post 22. Jan.
Evening Post 22. Jan.
S.S. Tathra
14 - 22 January 1912
This is the steamer which capsised during this hurricane:
Image and text thanks to Flotilla Australia
483 gross tons, 193 net. Lbd: 170'3" x 27'1" x 9'4". Steel twin screw steamship built by Scotts of Kinghorn
Scotland for N Cain's Coastal Co-Operative Steamship Co Ltd. Coal fired twin triple expansion engines making
about 12 knots. Passenger accomodation for 68 and boasted 'electric light'. She was placed upon the MacLeay
River in direct competition to North Coast S N Co., causing fierce rivalry. After only six months this vessel
was found to be quite unsuitable to the river trade and, in a deal struck with North Coast S N Co, was
withdrawn from that route and subsequently sold. Her purchasers were the Illawarra & South Coast S N Co.,
Sydney in April 1908. Renamed Tathra she worked the southern reaches of coastal New South Wales, only to be
found unsuitable in her duties. She was chartered out to the Kerr Bros, Vila New Hebrides late 1911 only to
be lost after capsizing in a Gale off Ambryn Island near the New Hebrides on the 4th January 1912. Of the
24 souls aboard there were no survivors.