WHEN my wife and I walked off the ferry on to the island of Ovalau in Fiji after a long journey from Vancouver Island, Canada, I was fulfilling a long-held dream of visiting the island where my great-great uncle, Captain David Robbie, became a South Sea trader and an influential citizen in Levuka, the original capital of Fiji.
David was born in 1851 in Forfar, one of five children of a local coal merchant who lived in Market Place.
He was educated at Forfar Academy, became a railway clerk, but like three of his siblings, decided to seek adventure and opportunities further afield.
One brother, James, remained in Angus and became the farmer at Netherbow — still farmed by my cousin David Robbie — on the outskirts of Forfar.
Following a family tragedy in 1912, my father aged nine and also James, was sent to live at Netherbow with his grandfather.
The old man was going blind, so young James not only read newspapers to him but also the correspondence (which unfortunately has not survived) from his grandfather’s brother, David.
These tales of his great-uncle’s life at sea, as a miner in the goldfields in New Zealand, and eventually of his move to Fiji, gave my father as a young lad a view of the world far beyond the rural life in Angus, and, in his own life, led him to a successful career in Africa, which brought him the honour of becoming Sir James Robbie Farquharson.
I too was influenced by the stories passed on by my father about this great-great uncle and travelled and worked overseas.
Thanks to the Internet, and with the assistance of our daughter Jane, who has a great interest in family genealogy, we started to delve further into the history of Captain Robbie.
A query posted on Facebook by Jane had a response from Mike Reid, who we knew when we lived in West Vancouver, Canada. To our surprise we learned that Mike had retired and was now living in Levuka. Mike’s emails and phone calls were most helpful and he urged us to do some on-the-spot investigation of Captain Robbie’s life.
This is what took us to Fiji and Mike’s local knowledge and contacts proved invaluable as did the help from Marilyn and John Milesi who run the delightful Homestay in Levuka where we stayed.
It was exciting to be in Levuka, now a UNESCO World Heritage designated little town, mainly because of the unchanged, shabby, wooden store-fronted main street that would have existed when Captain Robbie was living there.
The Fiji Islands were ceded to Britain in 1874 after Bau chief Cakobau could no longer control the traders, criminals, slavers and land speculators who had flocked to Fiji to take advantage of the boom in cotton production caused by the disruption in the market caused by the American civil war.
At that time Levuka was the capital of Fiji and the foremost trading centre in the southern Pacific with a wildwest atmosphere still prevailing and the waterfront lined by bars and hotels.
Soon after our arrival, we called in at the Royal Hotel, dating from the 1860s and advertised as “the oldest continuously run hotel in the South Pacific”, and eventually owned by Captain Robbie.
The hotel burned down but was rebuilt by Robbie. It is still operating and is something of a Fijian Fawlty Towers, with considerable charm and gives a sense of history.
When browsing through some dusty old folders in the high-ceilinged, spacious bar, my wife came across some newspaper clippings about Robbie, a detailed obituary following his death at 91 in September 1940, and a photograph of this tall, erect, Scot and his wife.
This new information fleshed out and gave life to some of the dry facts found on the Internet.
The obituary extols Captain Robbie’s skill as a mariner which began when he signed on as a second mate of the barque Seafield of Arbroath.
In December 1872, in a severe storm, the ship was involved in the daring rescue of the remaining crew stranded on the Mary Pollock adrift in the Bristol Channel.
For saving these lives, the captain and the boat crew, including Robbie, were recognised by the House of Commons and rewarded from the public account.
In 1873 Robbie sailed for New Zealand as second mate on the emigrant ship Queen of the Age, an epic journey of 106 days marred by a mutiny.
After working as a miner in the Thames goldfield, and eventually gaining his master’s ticket in the coastal shipping business in New Zealand, Captain Robbie arrived in Levuka in 1876.
Here he soon acquired his own vessel, the schooner Midge, and began to trade all through the islands of the southern Pacific, including Samoa, the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and the Solomon Islands, with many adventures.
His obituary notes that he was involved in the “labour trade” for many years, the recruiting of indentured labour for the plantations, known in Fiji as “blackbirding”.
This period ended in 1882 when the capital of Fiji was moved to Suva because of the limited amount of developable land in Levuka and the better port at Suva. Captain Robbie followed the commerce to Suva, becoming a manager for William Kopsen and Company, ships chandlers and general merchants.
However this business was lost in the great fire in Suva in 1889, leading Robbie to return to Levuka.
In Levuka he set himself up in business as the trading company of Robbie and Evans, auctioneers, commission agents, exporters of island produce, and general merchants, and about this time married Mrs Ann Thompson.
Another enterprise was the purchase of a 1000-acre estate on the Wainunu River on the island of Vanua Levu, where he established the only tea plantation in Fiji and also produced copra, rubber and cocoa.
An account of a visit in 1907 describes it as “a fine estate…well situated on a beautiful undulating tableland with its own private hotspring…and a hydroelectric plant”. He built a warehouse for the tea in the grounds of the Royal Hotel which is now used as accommodation.
Now established in Levuka, Robbie was clearly a man of substance and became very involved in public affairs, being appointed by the Governor as Warden (Mayor) from 1895 to 1998 and again from 1903 to 1904, and as an elected mayor from 1915 to 1917. In 1905 he was elected to represent Levuka in the first Legislative Assembly for Fiji.
He was a Mason and a founder of Lodge Polynesia, the first in the Pacific. We had hoped to be able to access their records, but the Masonic Hall was burned down during a disturbance in 2000 and all the records were destroyed.
In the published obituary, Captain Robbie is described as “Fiji’s Grand Old Man”, and that “gentleman was the word that came immediately to mind when Captain Robbie’s name was mentioned”.
It was noted that he lived in Fiji for 64 years and “lived a life packed with adventure and excitement”. The record states that “his civic good works were legion, he donated land for the Anglican Church, was a founder of the Ovalau Club, and played a great part in building up the traditions and prestige of the Levuka Public School”, including serving as Chairman of its Board of Governors. He was also responsible for the construction of a new wharf to serve the town, and acted as harbourmaster.
Mrs Robbie died in 1924, but Captain Robbie stayed on in Levuka. Although he had lived a full life and had had many commercial interests, the obituary records that “he was hard put during his last few years to make ends meet”, which state was attributed to his generosity to people in Levuka who were in distress.
The captain died in 1940 at the age of 90 and is buried beside his wife on a ridge overlooking the entrance to the harbour that he had navigated so many times, a fit resting place for a sailor.
A published tribute noted that “Captain Robbie died a poor man financially but rich in the esteem and affection of very many people”.
In accordance with local custom, our last task in saying farewell to the captain and his wife was to clean their headstones and whitewash their graves with the assistance of local friends.
We left Levuka impressed by the friendliness of those that we had met, pleased to have gained some knowledge of the life of Captain Robbie, and proud of his contributions to Levuka and Fiji, a worthy son of Angus.
