Thomas Richard Pearce

Thomas Richard Pearce (1859–1908), born Thomas Richard Millett, was an Irish ship master in the UK merchant marine. He served his apprenticeship on sailing ships with Aitken & Lilburn's Loch Line, and then rose through the ranks on steamships with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP).

On sailing ships Pearce survived three shipwrecks: those of Eliza Ramsden in 1875, in 1878, and in 1879. When Loch Ard was wrecked he saved a passenger from drowning, for which the Victorian Humane Society awarded him its first ever Gold Medal.

Pearce's stepfather was a ship master, both of Pearce's sons went to sea, and all three died in shipwrecks. In 1906 Pearce took early retirement due to ill-health. His death in 1908, aged only 49, prompted RMSP to found its superannuation fund.

Upbringing

Thomas Richard Millett was born on 31 October 1859 at Millbrook, near Cappawhite, County Tipperary, Ireland. He was the son of Richard and Emily Millett. Richard was an engineer, emigrated with his wife and children to Melbourne, and then travelled on business to New Zealand, where in 1874 he died. Captain Robert George Augustus Pearce married his widow, and Thomas Richard Millett took Pearce's surname. In 1875 RGA Pearce was killed when his command, , was wrecked off the coast of Queensland.

Thomas Richard Pearce, as he now was, began his marine apprenticeship with a voyage to Boston. Then he was a member of the crew of the sailing barque Eliza Ramsden, when she was wrecked just inside Port Phillip Heads on 24 July 1875. That was exactly five months after his stepfather was killed on Gothenburg.

Loch Ard By early 1877 Pearce was with Messrs Aitken and Lilburn of Glasgow, and was serving on Loch Ard between the United Kingdom and Australia.

Pearce was on Loch Ard in February 1878, when she loaded cargo at East India Docks in London. This was his third voyage on her. She called at Gravesend, Kent, where her compasses were adjusted. She left there on 1, 2 or 3 March 1878 (reports differ). She was carrying cargo, 17 passengers and 37 crew, bound for Melbourne. The passengers included a Dr and Mrs Carmichael from Dublin, a wealthy couple who were emigrating with their four daughters and two sons.

Pearce was on duty in the small hours of 1 June when Loch Ard struck rocks on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria. Passengers came on deck, some wearing only their nightclothes. The ship had four boats, including a lifeboat on the port side and a gig. These were the only boats carried the right way up, ready to be launched. The other boats were stowed bottom up.

The lifeboat was washed overboard. Pearce and five crewmen were in the boat for a few minutes, but it capsized. Pearce found himself under the boat, but swam out. The boat righted and capsized again more than once, but each time Pearce clung to its upturned keel. The boat and other wreckage drifted into an inlet that was then called The Caves and is now called Loch Ard Gorge. There it struck a rock, throwing Pearce into the water. He swam ashore, using a floating table as a buoyancy aid.

In the water three passengers, Reginald Jones, Arthur Mitchell, and the Carmichaels' second daughter, Eva, clung to a hen coop that was floating among the wreckage. The coop kept turning over, so the trio transferred to a floating spar. Later Jones and then Mitchell were washed away, and Carmichael lost consciousness, but her lifejacket and the spar kept her afloat and alive. Later she regained consciousness, but she did not know how to swim. Pearce heard her call for help and swam out.

Carmichael was cold and weak. Pearce brought her to a cave under a cliff, then found two coats and a case of brandy among the wreckage. He gave the coats to Carmichael, and they shared a half-bottle of brandy. He rested for a couple of hours, then left Carmichael asleep and climbed about up a cliff. He found and followed a track. Early that afternoon he met a man on horseback called George Ford. Ford rode for help to Glenample at Curdie's Inlet, and Hugh Gibson. Gibson and some men rode to the gorge, and brought a horse and buggy to transport Carmichael, but she had woken up and wandered away.

Pearce and Carmichael stayed with for some days at Glenample. Pearce helped with the recovery of salvage and identification of bodies from the wreck, while Mrs Gibson nursed Carmichael. The bodies of Carmichael's mother and her elder sister Raby were found, as well of those of Jones and Mitchell, and on 5 June the four were buried on the clifftop.

On 15 June the Mayor of Melbourne chaired a meeting at Melbourne Town Hall to decide how best to use the various public donations being made as a testimonial to Pearce. A group of horseracing gamblers had donated £32 10s, and Melbourne City Corporation staff had donated £5. There were proposals that the money be spent on sending him to navigation college, or even that a ship be bought for him and named Eva Carmichael. Aitken and Lilburn's agents in Melbourne were John Blyth & Co, whose representative told the meeting that when Pearce reached Melbourne he would join their ship Loch Shiel to complete his apprenticeship.

Pearce planned to move from Glenample to stay with an aunt in the Toorak area of Melbourne. On 20 June the Victorian Humane Society held its annual award ceremony in Melbourne Town Hall. Sir Redmond Barry presented the awards, including a Gold Medal to Pearce, the first the Society had ever awarded.

On 21 June the Steam Navigation Board met at the Custom House in Melbourne to inquire into the loss of Loch Ard. Pearce testified to the Board that a fortnight before the ship reached the Australian coast, he and the officers noted that the ship's compasses were slightly out of adjustment, with a slight disagreement between the standard and binnacle compasses. Contrary to earlier newspaper reports, he told the inquiry that he believed the ship carried about 16 lifejackets.

On 18 July Loch Shiel left Hobson's Bay, bound for London, presumably with Pearce aboard. Carmichael returned to Ireland, where she later married a Thomas Townshend from County Cork.

In August, the Orange Institution of Victoria presented Pearce with a Holy Bible. It is preserved at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum.

Loch Sunart and Loch Katrine

Pearce continued his apprenticeship in Loch Sunart. In January 1879 she left Glasgow for Melbourne, but on 13 January she was wrecked on Skullmartin Rock in Ballywalter Bay, on the coast of the Ards Peninsula, County Down. No lives were lost, and all passengers and crew were safely brought ashore in boats.

According to one account, Pearce completed his apprenticeship on another Aitken and Lilburn ship, Loch Katrine.

Marriage and children

Pearce was engaged to Edith Strasenburgh, whose brother Robert was a fellow-apprentice killed on Loch Ard. By December 1918 he was a full lieutenant and was mentioned in dispatches at Malta. In October 1919 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. One source says Robert was on a minesweeping naval trawler when she accidentally hauled aboard a live mine. It detonated, sinking the trawler, and Robert was one of only two survivors. Another source says he served on Q-ships.

In his Merchant Navy career, Robert served with Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line and then Shaw, Savill & Albion Line. He lived in the Sydney suburb of Watsons Bay.