A funny thing happened when I was at the Edinburgh Book Festival last week with Ishbel. While she was browsing in the book tent I sat down at a vacant cafe table in the centre of the tent. A few minutes later I was joined by a lady about my own age; we got talking (as I am apt to do).
She was Australian and was on holiday. However it turned out she and I both came to the UK when 'doing Europe' in the mid 1960s. She eventually returned to Australia; I stayed.
When she heard I was from British Columbia she said "Oh I've been to Victoria to visit the B.C. Provincial Museum. We wanted to see the boat Tilikum but it was not on display. Her great uncle sailed on her in the early part of the 20th century.
Tilikum? I'd never heard of her. Certainly it was a word I hadn't heard in 70 years. However. I recall that it was the name of a children's 'reading club' which featured in The Vancouver Province newspaper and I had the little silver-coloured totem pole broach to prove it.*
So while Ishbel chose some stories to read I sat and listened to her story of this boat and her uncle's role in her history.
Once home I found lots about this vessel on the internet. Excepts are here:
The boat:
The boat was built in the early 19th century as a dugout canoe made from a large red cedar log. Tilikum was purchased for $80 in silver from a native woman (Voss describes her as a "siwash") in a transference ceremony allegedly sealed by a bottle of rye whiskey - the name Tilikum means "friend" in Chinook jargon.
Apparently, John Voss and his companion in this venture, Norman Luxton, were inspired by the voyage of Joshua Slocum, who sailed the 37-foot (11 m) sloop Spray around the world a few years earlier and wrote a best selling book about his adventures."
Source: [www.revolvy.com/page/Tilikum]
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Luxton was a newspaper man and not an experienced sailor. They set off from Oak Bay in Victoria in 1901:
"The boat was refitted - reinforced, covered and rigged with sail, 230 square feet (21 m2) in total, and readied for her voyage. Tilikum was sailed out of Oak Bay harbour [Victoria, Canada] on May 20, 1901, captained by Voss and mated by Norman Luxton. After 10,000 miles (about 16000 km) and five months on the Pacific Ocean, Tilikum struck a reef and Luxton was thrown from the boat. ... The boat limped into harbour at Penrhyn Island in the Cook Islands on 2 September 1901, and Luxton was forced to abandon the trip in Siva, Fiji on 17 October 1901."
At this point it appears that Luxton had fallen out with Voss and gone on ahead to Australia.
The story of her great-uncle:
Source: [www.begent.org/voss.htm]
His name was Walter Begent and he was taken on as crew in Suva.
"In October 1901 in a bar in Suva he met up with Captain John Voss who was looking for a mate to replace Norman Luxton. [They] left Suva in the Tilikum bound for Sydney. During the yoyage, Voss claimed that Walter Begent was washed overboard in a storm taking with him the boat's only compass. Norman Luxton, later in a posthumously published biography, accused Voss of throwing Walter (Louis) Begent overboard in a drunken rage."
"In England, Captain Voss was feted for his adventures, and nominated for a Fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society although for unknown reasons he was never elected nor ever officially became a member. The vessel was exhibited at Earls Court, London in 1905 after which it was sold and passed through a number of hands before it was discovered lying derelict on the Thames in 1929. Tilikum was crated and returned to Victoria by freighter where restoration was carried out by the Thermopylae Club. Since 8th June, 1965, the Tilikum has been on display at the Maritime Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada."
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And finally ... what became of Norman Luxton? "After his arrival in Sydney, Luxton said Voss was in the hospital for weeks suffering from exposure and 'sickness he contracted through the women on the islands'. The two erstwhile adventurers made numerous appearances together in Australia, then parted company in Melbourne. Luxton never saw Voss again, and returning to Canada, married, and founded a tourist haberdashery, trading post, and taxidermist shop in Banff. He died in 1962.
Source:[website http://www.begent.org/voss.htm]
* * * * * * * a UK reference * * * * * * *
British Museum Photograph from J M Booth Collection
[www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3164626&partId=1&searchText=british+columbia&page=5]
Sign describing a canoe, in front of a building; Beacon Hill Park, Canada. [Victoria]
Gelatin silver print
Source: Old Tillicum’ photographic print British Museum No. Oc,A65.359.
Credit: J M Booth**
Curator's comments: The sign in this image reads: " Old Tillicum This dugout canoe under command of Capt. J. C. Voss, F.R.G.S with only one seaman sailed 40,000 miles around the world. The Old Tillicum left Victoria, British Columbia, May 27 1901. Donated to the City of Victoria by Messrs. E.W.E and A. Byford Greenwich Yacht Club London England. Returned to Victoria July 1st 1930 through the efforts of The Victoria & Island Publicity Bureau.
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Footnotes:
* The Club was sponsored by the Vancouver Province newspaper in the 1950s to promote children’s stories from all of the coast cultures. Shaped like a souvenir-shop totem pole, its motto reads, Klahowya Tillicum, which means “Greetings, friend” in Chinook. From "Klahowya Tillicum Coming Home to the Stories and Songs of the West Coast J. Edward Chamberlin, University of Toronto.
** No relation!
Books:
Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss by John Claus Voss, Charles E. Lauriat Company, Boston, 1913. First published in Yokohama in 1913 a second edition appeared in London in 1926.
Luxton's Pacific Crossing, by Norman Kenny Luxton, edited by Eleanor G. Luxton, Gray's Publishing Ltd., Sidney, B.C., 1971.
