ALTHOUGH it happened 131 years ago, the remains of this tragic incident always bring back memories for those who lost their ancestors.
The ship Syria arrived on our foreshore on May 11, 1884, carrying 497 passengers, who left their homes for greener pastures.
As a remembrance to those Girmitiyas who lost their lives in that tragedy, The Fiji Times today takes a look back at the incident and re-tells a story about how the 1040-tonne iron sailing ship arrived here.
ON May 11, 1884 a ship known as Syria carrying 497 indentured labourers approached the coast of Viti Levu after sailing for 60 days from Calcutta.
The ship had left Calcutta on March 13, 1884 carrying adults, children, infants, and a crew of forty-three (including 33 lascars.)
Its journey to Fiji seems to have been remarkably uneventful except for a minor storm as the night closed in and the wind and sea rose. But all was supposed to be going well until about 8.30pm when breakers were seen to the leeward side of the ship.
This was reported by Pranesh Nageshwar in The Fiji Times on May 11, 1984 where he stated the Syria was fully rigged iron ship with a length of 207.7 feet, breadth of 34.1 feet and depth of 20.8 feet.
Constructed by William Pile of Sunderland for the Nourse Line, and named after the Syria River in Karnataka, India, the ship was primarily used for the transportation of Indian indentured labourers to the British colonies.
Within the influence of the swell, Syria was carried up past the edge of the Nasilai reef despite attempts to put the ship about.
Not anyone in the ship nor the Captain, Charles Belson, had the faintest idea as to the precise location of the vessel, a heavy sea that night ran into Syria and broke bodily over her, smashing in all her boat (lifeboats) and sweeping the decks.
It’s believed that about 11.30pm crew members, the engineer, carpenter and another European with three lascar (Indian crew) were sent to Levuka to report the disaster and to get help.
Faced with great difficulty they managed to get about five miles through the shoals on a falling tide as they anchored for the night.
The next day, the group continued their journey in the morning and arrived at Levuka in the afternoon.
After the matter was reported, a ship known as the Union Steam Ship Company’s Penguin was sent to fetch Syria’s passengers.
When they arrived at Nasilai at noon, the sea was much lighter and the tide had fallen considerably with women, children and those who were injured being the first ones to be carried to the waiting boats. Locals in Nasilai also had a hand in assisting the passengers to shore and provided them with shelter.
Of all that was happening that fateful day, Mr Nageshwar reported that perhaps the most moving scene was that of 10 men who were left to their fate on a sandbank.
Unfortunately, later attempts to find the men failed and they were presumed to have drowned.
And those who lost their lives in the shipwreck were 32 men, 15 women, five girls, three boys and two babies.
Earlier this month, a descendant lessee Padma Wati Charan, whose great grandfather Thakur Kuldip Singh was a survivor from the shipwreck, returned home to pay a visit to the villagers of Nasilai who had assisted their forefathers in 1884.
Reminiscing what her grandfather Sarabjeet Singh told them in her younger days, she said her great grandfather was an indentured labourer, who was brought to Fiji to work on plantations.
“My great grandfather was one of them,” Ms Charan said.
Ms Charan said unlike most who had to labour in the sun back in the days of indentured system, Mr Thakur was lucky enough as he was given a supervisory job distinctly different from the ordinary labourers as he was from a military background.
Ms Charan said over the past years they heard stories of how she and her 12 siblings were descendants of one of the survivors of the ship Syria that ran aground at the Nasilai reef during the early days of the indenture system.
Brought up at Raralevu in Nausori, Ms Charan migrated with her family to New Zealand and more than half a century later, she and her son decided to take the chance to travel back to Fiji and visit the village where her great grandfather Mr Thakur was offered assistance when he swam ashore from the reef.
The trip was something Ms Charan’s husband Shiu Charan of the Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ had been planning for the past years but unfortunately for Mr Charan he fell sick and doctors recommended him to rest.
But Ms Charan says, “We’re here representing my family especially my husband who’s not able to make it with us today”.
Ms Charan revealed that upon his attempt to make it to shore alive, Mr Thakur who waded through the rough waters, carried with him his most prized possessions.
“He was carrying a bugle which he got when he was in the army, a sword that belonged to the Thakur family (the warrior clan in Rajasthan) and a brass gong and hammer which was played to announce the meal was ready and later it was used as accompaniment to a Hindu prayer-ending hymn. It is called Ghanta Ghadiyal,” she said
“At the end of the indenture period (Girmit) he opted not to go back to India but settle in Raralevu, Tailevu.
Meanwhile, the turaga Daunakelo of Nasilai Village, Vanavasa Vono, said his late father told stories of how the villagers rescued the labourers that night.
“Unfortunately, for me I wasn’t born that time but I use to hear stories about how our forefathers rescued the indentured labourers,” Mr Vono said.
And for this, they have requested the Fiji Girmit Foundation New Zealand to build a monument to honour the Girmitiyas.
Today members of the organisation have requested Government to include the history of Girmitiyas in the education curriculum.
