- Map of Melbourne from the 1911 Encycopedia Britannica
- Melbourne-1.jpeg (61.51 KiB) Viewed 1475 times
3:30pm - Friday 12th October, 1933
At first light on the 12th a sea pilot is ferried out to the anchored SS Gabrielle from the Queenscliff Pilot Station. Once he is aboard the anchors are raised and the Gabrielle makes her way carefully through the Rip under his expert guidance, navigating carefully through the maze of rocks and reefs using the few channels sufficiently deep enough to allow her passage.
The trip takes several hours, and the Gabrielle passes many local trawlers and scallop boats. Eventually the ship emerges safely through the narrows and into Port Phillips bay itself, as she sails north through the bay the seaport of Port Melbourne comes into view to the north, on the mouth of the Yarra River, with Melbourne itself sitting beyond, past the faint pall of industrial smoke that hangs over the habour.
After the rough seas of the brass straight, and the treacherous narrows of the Rip, Port Phillips Bay is like a clam and placid inland sea. Forty miles wide and thirty miles deep, the bay is one of the few natural harbours in Australia, and is the largest and most protected natural harbour in the world.
The waters off Port Melbourne are crowded with traffic. Huge merchant ships and cargo barges are loaded with boxes and barrels, trawlers unload their catches, passengers queue to embark on ferries and pleasure steamers, the wharves are dark with the motion of dock hands, ship's crews, fishermen and many others. Just beyond the wharves are the rail lines, with engines and boxcars full of cargo, waiting to loaded onto the waiting ships, or steaming away from the harbour. Even out in the deep water those aboard the approaching Gabrielle can clearly hear constant wall of sound. The air is filled with aromas, of the salt water, the freshly unloaded fish and the fumes from the factories lined up behind the port's masses of warehouses.
As the Gabrielle is piloted toward her berth, a myriad collection of smaller craft dart and wheel past her, from sleek and expensive pleasure yachts, to small local boats, trawlers, barges and steam ferries, transporting goods and travellers between the bayside towns that line the banks of Port Phillips Bay.
As the ship finally approaches her berth, the explorers can see a large crowd of people lining the docks, waiting for a glimpse of the famous expedition. When the gangway is lowered, the crowd surges forwards, amid the flash of photographers' bulbs and shouted questions. People around the world have followed the story of sabotage and intrigue aboard the SS Gabrielle with avid interest, listening to Captain Starkweather's daily radio broadcasts on their wirelesses, and reading the wired reports of Jack Wilson in their morning newspapers. This is the first opportunity for the world's press to interview expedition members since their departure from New York a month ago, and journalists from around the world have converged on Melbourne, eager for the chance of exclusives.
A dark enclosed van can be seen on the far side of the crowd, and several tan-uniformed police officers are the first to ascend the gangplank, as Adam Scott is brought down to meet them, his arms gripped tightly by Turlow and a particularly burly engine-hand.
As the lawmen lead a handcuffed Scott away, Starkweather is the next down the ramp, ready to meet with his adoring public. Somehow, despite the stress of the voyage, the unending diet of tinned food and pemmican, and the faint aroma of ammonia that even now pervades the ship, Captain James Starkweather still manages to look well-groomed, cool and eager for adventure.
Starkweather descends the gang plank and is immediately surrounded by newsmen, obviously in his favourite element.
"Tell us about the bomb, Captain!"
"Why d'you suppose the fellah'd want to stop you going south?"
"Was his brother as crazy as he was?"
"Did you know the man Captain Starkweather?"
"Did he put up a fight?"
Starkweather grins his famous grin and holds out a hand, "Now gentlemen, please! One at a time! There is not so much to tell I'm afraid - but this is not the first time that I have faced tragedy you know..."
As Starkweather speaks the investigators notice that other expedition members are quietly slipping down to the pier and away while the reporters flock around Starkweather. The departees are eager for a bath, a hot meal and a soft bed. This would probably be a good time to do the same thing.
