Struggling to save Keppel's History

By Gail Steen
August 2004

Late in the evening of January 28, 1855 the Allen Gardiner, a topsail schooner of eighty-eight tons, slipped quietly into Committee Bay at Keppel Island and dropped anchor. The next day Captain William Parker Snow and his party, which included a carpenter and a mason, prepared a boat and went ashore.

On the morning of August 5, 2004 nearly 150 years later another intrepid party landed on the shore of Committee Bay. This time not so quietly, as we roared in on the sea riders of HMS Cardiff anchored in Keppel Sound. We must have presented a very different sight to Captain Snow and his party. Dressed as we were, in the bright orange immersion suits and blue life vests of the Royal Navy, we resembled a cross between the Telly Tubbies and German sausages.

Snow was sent by the Patagonian Mission Society to find a suitable unoccupied island in the Falkland group on which to establish a Mission Station. The Society, following the dreams of their founder Allen Gardiner who had died in 1851 in Tierra del Fuego during an attempt to establish a mission there, determined to carry out his plan.

This plan was to establish contact with the Fuegian Indians, persuade them to come to Keppel Island, educate them in Christianity, English language and skills that would, in his view, save their souls, enrich their lives and encourage them on their return home to spread the ways of the white man and his God among the 'poor benighted Fuegians' as one of the mission wives called them.

Our plan was to carry out essential maintenance and continue further removal of the gorse started by earlier work parties. We were sent by the Historic Buildings Committee and our party consisted of seven hardy souls - Lillian Kidd, Jo Brennan, Mike Morrison, Vernon Steen, Steve Massam, Gail Steen and our inspiring leader Rob Yssel. But without the assistance of several people the trip would have been impossible.

Our grateful thanks go to Captain Beardall, the Officers and Crew of HMS Cardiff. They looked after us magnificently and got us on and off Keppel with the expertise, we in the Falklands know, is the byword of the Royal Navy. Major Marc Brennan's help was invaluable, as was the preparation work done by Debbie Summers, Jane Cameron, Hay Miller and Lillian Kidd. Thanks also to Sulivan Shipping and to Raymond Evans who kept a listening watch on the 2 meter from Pebble Island and to Dave Pole-Evans of Saunders Island who was ready with help if we should need it.

Today Keppel Island is again unoccupied; it is owned by Lionel Fell who lives in England. Mr Fell welcomes Historic Buildings to the island for work, and extends that welcome to Sulivan Shipping, who organise visits for cruise ships in the summer.

The island was named in 1765 by Commodore John Byron in honour of Augustus Keppel a Lord of the Admiralty. It was later named by the Spanish in 1770 as 'Isla de la Vigia' (Lookout Island), an apt name as the views from Mount Keppel are breath-taking.

Captain Snow's party must not have spent much time on sightseeing as in only four days they had nearly completed their six roomed temporary house, as he recorded, "… we had the roofing on and the interior made perfectly watertight, flooring put down, doors hung, windows of oiled calico fixed up and a middling sized hall." They then concentrated on getting gardens started and a supply of peat.

Our first task was to get the peat in, light a fire, clean the house and store our supplies. Everyone set to and soon all was in order with a good fire going in the Rayburn. In Snow's party of 1855 one of the crew was so disgruntled that he set fire to the island itself, which burned for several weeks. Later he was fined £20 or three months imprisonment, but Snow spoke on his behalf and he was held liable only for costs and expenses.

Today we have another fire risk - the gorse. This plant has spread all over the place, creeping ever nearer to the buildings and into the trees. A fire, either from a lightning strike or the sun shining on a piece of broken glass, could be disastrous.

By 1856 disaster had struck the Mission. The party was no longer getting along, the carpenter and mason had resigned and Governor Moore in Stanley was not in favour of Indians being brought to Keppel, as he thought the place was not being properly managed. There was talk of 'Slave Trade' in reference to the Indians. There were disagreements between Captain Snow and Reverend George Pakenham Despard, the General Secretary of the Society and the first clerical missionary to arrive at Keppel. Eventually Captain Snow was dismissed.

Happily for Keppel today, there is no falling our among our work parties. The 'management' of the island is down to the efforts of the Historic Buildings Committee, and the brilliant people who give their time, arrange work parties and go there to try to halt the relentless effect the weather, the vegetation and time is having on the island, the buildings, and the equipment.

The first day and a half was spent burying about half a mile of water pipe leading from the supply tank to the 1950s farmhouse we were living in. This proved very successful as on the second morning the water pipes didn't freeze up. However, the water was barely warm despite a good fire, so this meant a bit of plumbing work. No dirt was found in the system and getting it all back together there was enough hot water to scald a chicken! Just as well, as there would have been some very whiffy workers climbing back on board HMS Cardiff at the end of the week.

The fault on the tractor was repaired, the generator, after nearly turning Mike's hair to frizz in a nasty shower of sparks, was repaired, the Tilley Lamps were brought back to glowing life, as were several other appliances, which became a nightly challenge for the 'tinkers' of the party.

However, the big task was the removal of gorse! Sounds easy - not so - it is one of the most tenacious plants. The yellow flowers look and smell wonderful in summer but once it has grown outside its boundaries it is a real pest. So battle commenced - armed with handsaws, rakes, spades, shovels and thick gloves we set to - sawing, tearing, pulling, swearing, and getting thorns in unmentionable places. Four days later we had managed to remove a good section, getting the gorse once more outside the yard fence. The tractor, hauling a net, was great for disposal of the debris, as was the trailer.

So, a successful week for us, and eventually the missionaries too were successful in their endeavours. Once in a while as we paused from our labours (suffering from exhaustion) you couldn't help but wonder at the tenacity of those missionaries. These people carved homes and utility buildings from the hillside itself. You can still see the old quarry site from where the stone was hewn in 1857 to build the distinctive three gabled house where William Bartlett, the farm bailiff, lived with his wife and family. The stone wool store built in 1877 with its decorated keystone over the arched doorway still stands, as does the workshop built earlier in 1857.

All of the buildings were built using clay and lime mortars. These buildings, the remaining walls and foundations, are in various states of disrepair and need constant attention. Bartlett's House has had a new roof put on but the walls need repointing and the interior is in a bad state. All is not beyond saving but it would take money and a couple of good stonemasons a few months for the restoration. Sadly, far beyond the means of the Historic Buildings Committee, who do what they can to hold back deterioration, but in the long term the future of the remaining buildings is bleak - unless something changes. If a place has a soul, then the soul of Keppel Island surely needs saving.

Impressive as these structures are, the ruins of a little stone house named Okoko's House after a Fuegian man, is the structure that symbolises the life of the Indians at Keppel. Okoko, who had been baptised as George, and his wife Gamela lived there for some time; they were 'tutors' to Thomas Bridges who, after many years, mastered their language and compiled the Yaghan-English Dictionary.

The ruins stand on a small mound, cut out of the hillside for drainage, giving it a moat like appearance. The central fireplace is still intact, and leading out from it are the remains of four walls - this would have given a fireplace in each of the four room, an ingenious design. The roof was pyramidal and thatched with tussock grass. One Christmas Eve a baby boy was born in this little house to a Fuegian couple, who named him Shukukurhtumahgoon 'Son from a House Thatched with Grass'.

Eventually Keppel's importance as a mission decreased and it was decided to run Keppel mainly as a farm, the proceeds from which would support them and help the other missions in Tierra del Fuego. The island proved very productive; along with wool and meat they produced tons of potatoes, pounds of butter, cream, cheese, vegetables, barley and berry fruits. They kept horses, farmed cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, and kept geese, ducks and hens. They planted trees brought from Tierra del Fuego. Some of these magnificent Southern Beech and Monterey Cypress dominate one valley and in more recent times other trees have been planted and are doing well.

All this represents a lot of work and the Fuegian Indians (over 150 Indians had been brought to Keppel over the years), either the missionaries' willing helpers or captive labourers, did much of that work. Whatever view you take and whatever the trust be, the fact is these people created comfortable homes and developed a viable business from an unforgiving land and climate in a time well before tractors and other modern means.

Before we left we visited the graveyard. There are two gravestones standing, one in memory of Jemima Waugh wife of Robert Hunter who died on Saunders Island, the other in memory of Charles Henry Bartlett the baby son of the farm bailiff. There are many indentations in the ground with no markers. It is recorded elsewhere that James Askwith Ellis, a surgeon who committed suicide, is buried there. So many stories …. Some lost forever.

As HMS Cardiff slipped smoothly out of Keppel Sound and the island slowly sank into the sea mist I wondered about the future of the old stone buildings so intertwined with the early history of the Falkland Islands. I had a feeling of inevitability - that they would all disappear. Photographs would record the images today and tomorrow the fallen stones, like the remains of Okoko's House and the graveyard, will be all that shows the passing of a people who, whether you admire the missionary purpose or not, achieved much in their time there.

Our time on Keppel was fantastic, hard work, good food, great company. And we too achieved much.

Our thanks to the author Gail Steen for kindly allowing us to publish this article

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