Mysterious Cruise of the Sutherland 1899
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KANACKI
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- Mar 1, 2015
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The Sophie Sutherland was involved in an earlier trip to Solomon islands by group of adventurers to search for gold. They was told a story gold was easily available by a strange dark character by the name of Sorenson. Who was actually a Dane.
Sorenson was infamous for being declared a pirate years earlier and went to jail for acts of piracy and indecent assault of crew members of schooner called the Duro he deliberated change the nationality of the vessel to hide his true intentions in the Solomon islands. Early in his life he worked as a black birding (slaver ) And was a very brutal man with his crew and with his victims. His main operation at first was human trafficking of natives stolen from islands and sold into slavery in Queensland sugarcane industry. During the United State civil war the confederates exporting of sugarcane was disrupted which England had to find an alternative source. Thus the development of the sugarcane industry in Queensland Australian. At the time the sugarcane industry was a labor intensive industry as demand for suitable labor grew white immigrants could not cut it and at the time legislator was prohibiting Chinese immigration so the government of day looked at indentured labors from the Pacific islands.
The indentured labour system was little short of slavery in fact the labor recruiters got paid per head. By the mid to late 1860s the recruiters resorted to kidnapping who villagers. Sorenson was just one of those brutal slavers from that era.
By 1880 the British government embarrassed by the fact and forced laws of repatriation of natives and prohibition of slaving in the Pacific. So these Slavers was out of job so they drifted into island trading but the profits was not as good paying as blackbirding natives. And islanders was now suspicious of white men and massacres of ships crew was still common. However Sorenson went to the islands to trade for beach de mere and Copra. But trade was more an excuse to steal from the natives.
Why he wanted to return to the Solomon islands after 20 odd years jail is a mystery? However he must of heard stories of gold being found in Solomon islands. The expedition failed to archive the claims of Sorenson. Some of the investors stayed on the island and others died of malaria. Eventually the schooner sailed to Samoa. Sorenson was left in the Solomon islands and was never hear from again.
The schooner Sophie Sutherland had a amazing history it was the vessel the famous author Jack London sailed on as young man.
Kanacki
Sorenson was infamous for being declared a pirate years earlier and went to jail for acts of piracy and indecent assault of crew members of schooner called the Duro he deliberated change the nationality of the vessel to hide his true intentions in the Solomon islands. Early in his life he worked as a black birding (slaver ) And was a very brutal man with his crew and with his victims. His main operation at first was human trafficking of natives stolen from islands and sold into slavery in Queensland sugarcane industry. During the United State civil war the confederates exporting of sugarcane was disrupted which England had to find an alternative source. Thus the development of the sugarcane industry in Queensland Australian. At the time the sugarcane industry was a labor intensive industry as demand for suitable labor grew white immigrants could not cut it and at the time legislator was prohibiting Chinese immigration so the government of day looked at indentured labors from the Pacific islands.
The indentured labour system was little short of slavery in fact the labor recruiters got paid per head. By the mid to late 1860s the recruiters resorted to kidnapping who villagers. Sorenson was just one of those brutal slavers from that era.
By 1880 the British government embarrassed by the fact and forced laws of repatriation of natives and prohibition of slaving in the Pacific. So these Slavers was out of job so they drifted into island trading but the profits was not as good paying as blackbirding natives. And islanders was now suspicious of white men and massacres of ships crew was still common. However Sorenson went to the islands to trade for beach de mere and Copra. But trade was more an excuse to steal from the natives.
Why he wanted to return to the Solomon islands after 20 odd years jail is a mystery? However he must of heard stories of gold being found in Solomon islands. The expedition failed to archive the claims of Sorenson. Some of the investors stayed on the island and others died of malaria. Eventually the schooner sailed to Samoa. Sorenson was left in the Solomon islands and was never hear from again.
The schooner Sophie Sutherland had a amazing history it was the vessel the famous author Jack London sailed on as young man.
Kanacki
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