Rangitane | New Zealand Shipping Company records for genealogy

The two photographs above were taken on Pitcairn Island. Left photo: Robert Tomarchin holding Moko, his pet chimpanzee, standing next to Pitcairn Islander Floyd McCoy. Right photo: Vi McCoy, Floyd’s wife, holding Moko.

Robert Tomarchin’s first attempt at reuniting with Moko

From Pitcairn Island as a Port of Call, by Herbert Ford (extract used with permission)
Published by McFarland – ISBN 978-0-7864-6604-7
Stop off Pitcairn Island, November 29 1957: M.S. Rangitata, from Panama, bound for Auckland, Captain E. H. Hopkins
An island account says, “Parkin read a telegram to us all before we left the Landing to visit the ‘Tata. Bob Tomarchin was on board. He had stowed away and, by order of Fiji, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, and others, he was not to be permitted to land on Pitcairn. Our interest in seeing Bob again was intense, but he was locked away in the spare hospital room with a guard on watch, and no one was allowed to see him or send him a message. Charles yelled out, ‘Goodbye, Bob!’ And Bob waved pathetically. Some would say Bob was foolish, but Pitcairn Islanders, with the lessons of the Bible before them, would wholeheartedly sympathize with him, and in the gracious words of our lovely Lilly (Lilly Warren – Pitcairn’s midwife for many years), ‘We do not know what his reasons are, and we should not judge him. He must love Moko more than we realize.’ Well spoken. All Christians must surely pray that someday soon Moko and his master will be reunited.”

Robert Tomarchin’s second attempt at a reunion

I would like to thank Brian Sparrow, a passenger on the Rangitane’s December 1957 voyage from Wellington to Southampton, who sent me the photographs shown below and also the following text. A full version of the story of Robert Tomarchin and his highly intelligent chimpanzee, Moko, can be found on the website of the Pitcairn Islands Study Center at the Pacific Union College: Link to full story here.

*Robert Tomarchin reunited with his pet, Moko, during the night-time call at Pitcairn (midnight on 28th December according to Herbert Ford’s book “Pitcairn Island as a Port of Call”)*

Brian wrote: “I was returning to the UK in 1957 with my parents on the R.M.S. Rangitane, we left Wellington on the 21st December for Southampton via Pitcairn Island, Panama Canal and Curacao. Upon arriving at Pitcairn in the dark, one passenger disembarked, ironically she was a Mrs Christian. Islanders came aboard and sold souvenirs, also at the same time a chimpanzee was seen to arrive and this drew our attention to Robert Tomarchin being on board as he met up with Moko.

“Robert was working his passage to the USA and was not listed on the passenger list, I photographed him when he was reunited with Moko on an old Kodak box camera.

“After leaving Pitcairn I purchased a 35mm camera on which I took the remainder of the photos. I mention the latter as it helps with the sequence of when the photos were taken.

“As passengers we had our ‘boat drill’ on 21st December, a day after setting sail, which was the same date as departure as we had crossed the international date line. I had photographed Robert and Moko on the new camera so I think the crew were having a ‘boat drill’ after leaving Pitcairn, passengers can be seen not taking part.

“Robert and Moko can be seen with the crew on one of the hatches, I also caught Moko in his little trousers which had been made by one of the passengers. Robert departed the ship at Panama.”

Click or tap on the photos below to see larger versions.

Much can be found on the Internet about Robert Tomarchin and Moko, and their connection with both Henderson Island and Pitcairn Island. It seems to be a rather complicated story, and Robert Tomarchin is certainly an odd character who, at times, was apparently rather economical with the truth. Some time after the Pitcairn part of the story came to an end, Tomarchin sold Moko to a zoo and then changed his mind about the sale, and kidnapped him back again!

Find out more (external links):
Pitcairn Postcard Magazine, issue 5. PDF version available free (donation to Cancer Research requested)
Mr Moke the Talking Chimpanzee
The kidnapping of Mr. Moke, the talking chimp

Story and photographs originally published in The Bounty, magazine of the Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands Society, January 2022.

“King Neptune, I, Lord of the Sea,
Welcome you all who ‘ere you be:
I am the Lord of the Oceans wide,
Lord of the Rivers … Lord of the tide,
My laws are strict, but do not fear,
If you will only persevere
To keep the freedom of the seas,
As recognized by our degrees,
Here are the Bears, the Suds, the Bath;
They are the only certain path
For all who wish to cross the Line,
And be enrolled as sons of mine.
In order then, as we command,
Before us let each Tadpole stand
Who has his freedom yet to win …
Enough … My Trusty Men, Begin!”

Right: Statue of Neptune in Havana

_{Anon. (2012) Crossing The Equator (The Script of the Ceremony in HMCS Stettler 1957 February 26, 1957 at 106° East Longitude). Nauticapedia.ca 2012. http://nauticapedia.info/Articles/Crossing_the_Line_1957_Ceremony.php}

The following introduction is taken from Wikipedia:
The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite that commemorates a person’s first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a “folly” sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long, rough voyages. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are common in the Navy and are also sometimes carried out for passengers’ entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships.

I purchased these photographs and one postcard over 20 years ago, at a local postcard fair, for the princely sum of £3.50 – for the four that is! Normally I would expect to pay at least that sum for the postcard on its own. They were taken on board the Rangitane on 17th July, 1933.

The reason for the low price was that all four had once been stuck in a scrap book. When removed, a large amount of the page was still stuck to the backs.

I was determined to have a go at removing this paper and asked the dealer what he recommended. I was told that the trick was a simple treatment with tepid water and cotton wool balls. The remains of the scrapbook pages gradually fell off after gently rubbing with wet cotton wool.

It was quite time consuming – I guess that’s why the dealer left them as they were. Fortunately the water did not remove any of the handwriting or the stamp on the postcard. The photographs curled when wet but flattened out again when dry. All that remains now is the staining from the glue.

Above and below, left to right: 17th July 1933. (1) Crossing the Line. (2) They are just going to duck me in the bath. (3) Uckers Team – quite a nice looking lad ha what (writing not clear)

The postcard below, written by the same person (Bert) who captioned the photographs, shows the first Rangitane (1929-1940). She sailed on her first New Zealand voyage from Southampton to Auckland on 20th December 1929.

On 27th November 1940 she was sunk, just seven months after being requisitioned for war use, by torpedoes and gunfire from German raiders. Six passengers and seven crew were lost. Of the 299 survivors, 209 were landed at Emirau Island* on 12th December and the remainder were kept prisoner. (Crossed Flags by W. A. Laxon, World Ship Society, England, 1997)

*One of the survivors was Peter Zerface, the ship’s hairdresser, who was also an amateur photographer. He sold some of his photographs as postcards, illustrating stormy seas and Panama Canal views, to passengers. Peter began his career on the Turakina, c.1903, when in his 20s, and later moved on to the Tongariro, Turakina, Rimutaka and Ruahine before joining the Rangitane in 1930.

The illustration, by Jennifer Toombs, is from a photograph of Peter taken when he was rescued from Emirau Island, aged 60.

Below are three examples of certificates given to NZSC passengers over the years, for taking part in the Crossing the Line ceremony. Left to right: August 1943, Rangitata; February 1947, Rimutaka; September 1955, Rangitiki.

Finally, here are two Pathe News films of the ceremony. Not on NZSC vessels, but no doubt very similar. The first clip (silent) is from 1922 showing how the Royal Navy did it at the time on HMS Hood (perhaps a little rougher than on cruise ships?), and the second, from 1964, apparently shows the cruise ship Pretoria (possibly Pretoria Castle?).