Thomas Mentiplay (1835 - 1926)

Born 28 Sep 1835 in Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret Doris (Carstairs) Mentiplay — married 8 May 1863 in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 15 May 1926 at age 90 in Tyabb, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

The following is a newspaper article in the Gippsland Times (Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Wed 1 May 1878 Page 3 THE LAKES FISH TRADE. THE LAKES FISH TRADE. Very few persons are aware of the proportions to which the Gippsland fish trade has grown within a few weeks and as the industry, apart from its importance as a source of revenue to the district, has acquired a special interest since the recent accusations regarding the use of dynamite, and illegal netting, which the fishermen are most anxious to refute, we purpose giving a few authentic outlines of the subject premising that it is only since the opening of the railway, 1st March, that Melbourne began to draw steadily from our piscatorial abundance. There are eighteen fishing craft on the Lakes, with crews of two, in some cases three, men each. Their tonnage varies from two to four tons, and all are efficiently provided with the best deep-sea fishing tackle. Of the ability and experience of the intrepid fellows engaged in the trade, no one who is acquainted with the characteristics of our coast will entertain the smallest doubt. The dwellers at the Entrance were considerably surprised the other day, after the Rosedale steamer had passed in, to see a little speck plunging and tacking most methodically in the offing. It took shape, neared and neared, and then triumphantly came dashing over the bar. Tom Mentiplay, who had navigated his little bark all round from Western Port, not for a wager, but purely as a matter of business and as confident in her strength and his safety as if he were on board Her Majesty's ship Arethusa. He and his brother David have four boats between them. Joseph Shires, the celebrated snake antidote man, who still crushes a few serpentine heads, pursuant to Genesis, for the purpose of keeping his hand in, another two; and the following other veterans sail the number mentioned in connection with their names :- Carstairs, 2; Brown, 2; Holland, 2; Oliver, 2; Field, 1; Baxter, 1 ; Griffiths, 1; Captain Buncombe (known to his comrades and the world by no other name), 1. Total, 18. In addition to these we understand that three or four boats are sailed from Bairnsdale including those of " Tom the Duck" and Bill Smith. All these, with one or two exceptions are centre-board boats, which, as most of our readers know, means that a sheet of iron protrudes from the keel amidships for the purpose of keeping the vessel to windward. Some of the craft are magnificent sailers, the Excel belonging to W Carstairs, having been a noted winner at the Port Phillip Fishermen's regattas; and it is not improbable that when the season arrives the holidaymakers who avail themselves of the Tanjil and Rosedale for a water journey may see a tournament on Lake Wellington worthy of its magnificent blue expanse. The fishermen point with some pride to their fleet, which, with its complication of nets and other paraphernalia, represents hundreds of pounds, its labours signifying likewise the expenditure of large sums every week in the town and district, and ask in indignant tone why the lubbers won't let 'em alone when there a doin' no harm to nobody whatsoever. Mentiplay and Langford are about to place a 6-ton steamer of about 16 hp. on the Lakes, solely for the conveyance of fish from McLennan's Straits and Waddy Point, where the boats most frequently rendezvous, to the Latrobe bridge, speed and punctuality being essential where it is sought to make a profit out of so perishable a commodity. It is not designed, we are given to understand, that the trade of the carrying boats shall be interfered with. The little dolphin steamer is to alternate with the Tanjil in coming to Sale, her mission on days when the Tanjil is bringing up fish cargo being to wait on the craft that are distributed over so wide an area. Regarding the company in course of formation in Melbourne for the Lakes fishing trade, Mr Palmer, who is agent for most of the persons above named, expresses not the slightest apprehension of the effects of competition, his opinion being that there is ample room for all, and that to adequately supply the fish demand in Melbourne will, as heretofore, tax all their energies. He also anticipates, with a preliminary self-caution, against being over-sanguine, that a trade will spring up between this entrepot and Two Fold Bay in oysters, of which there are countless beds at that old cattle port. The present export, which is in its infancy, and greatly hampered besides by the vexatious stoppage of the railway at Oakleigh, is approximately 250 baskets per week of four days (each basket weighing 56lb), and 8 or 10 cwt. of eels every night. These quantities, it is assumed, will be trebled when the present drawbacks are removed. Three teams at Oakleigh are employed to carry the consignments into the metropolis. The freight hence to Oakleigh is 3s per cwt. if delivered at the station between 3 and 4 p.m., after the latter; hour 6s 6d. From the enquiries we have made, the rumours regarding the use of dynamite by regular fishermen, and of the catching of fish below the regulation weight, may be discarded unless far better evidence be forthcoming. It is as much to their interest to preserve the fisheries as to keep their boats seaworthy, besides which the Act of Parliament prescribing the minimum weight of fish that may be offered for sale in market overt is sufficient to prevent any such shameful practices as those which have been so industriously attributed to the men who earn the subsistence by this hazardous calling. The fines range from 10s. to £20, and imprisonment may be the corollary penalty for an infringement of the law. Thus, vendor, as well as middleman and producer, are equally interested in meeting the market inspector, Mr Donaldson, as he comes cheerfully round with his gold scales, with conscience at rest. If one fin, say a perch or bream, do not weigh down the statutory 8oz, his brow darkens, a second defalcation from the same basket a frown an inch thick gathers, and should there haply be a third fish underweight, the basket is condemned, and proceedings instituted. It is evidently no joke to incur this official's displeasure, whose mene mene tekel are as much dreaded in the fish market as Daniel's interpretation was by profane Belshazzar. Fishermen can tell pretty accurately by the eye the weight of a fish. When, up to the waist in water, they begin to bunt up the nets, the meshes of which are large enough to save them such embarrassment from shoals of the contraband size, they carefully pitch out all infantine specimens as they transfer their argosy to the baskets on board. Regarding the cry against seines, a smile of compassion rather than derision lights up the weatherbeaten countenance of one of these old salts, when it is mentioned. Some of them have grown grey in the service and can tell in the silence of the night the presence of a school of fish when to a landsman nothing is audible but the sighing of the wind and the monotonous trickle of the boat as she furrows through the water. He replies in the style that cannot be matched for figurative euphony:--" There's harvests of the sea as well as harvests of the land, and if the reapers isn't there to take 'em, why the crops goes, don't they, and you don't see 'em any more, doo-ee ?" The lesson which is meant to be conveyed being that there are seasons for fish in their adult plenitude, even as corn ripens in the ear, and that if seines are not employed the fish go out to sea again. So long as the law is observed, it matters not how exhaustively the "reaping" is carried on. One grown fish consumes more spawn and fry than can easily be computed, and it is not an uncommon circumstance to open one whose voracious maw contains two to three dozen. The use of' the seine need not therefore be canvassed as regards a lake fed from the ocean, and which needs only to be conserved and respected as a breeding ing pond. 'Mr Joseph Pickersgill has contributed to the Herald a series of effervescent articles relating to his experiences in Gippsland. In the last one, he remarks:- The nets used by the three fishing companies are enormous ones; one I heard of being nearly three miles in length, and it is not difficult to foresee the spoliation of the fishing grounds within a not very distant period." This statement provoked a burst of ungovernable laughter from the fishermen, to whom it was shown. Their nets never exceed 70 yards in length, which is as much as two men can manage, and as each weighs a hundredweight, a computation of the immense burden which three miles would aggregate at once dissipates so absurd a fallacy. A large amount of needless alarm seems to have been created by envious individuals, who thus obtain the ear of credulous tourists, and spread injurious reports. The query of the fishermen is unanswerable -- What are the fish for, if not to be caught and eaten and if, as we have shown, we respect the fry, what can be said against our avocation which causes hundreds of' pounds to be spent in the district which, otherwise, would be lost? The use of small nets is much to be deprecated but the instance in which it is known refer only dilettante amateurs, who on returning to Sale - vide a recent case in point - boast of their Waltonian prowess, but whose rod has played a harmless part in their so-called "sport.". These are the individuals who stretch a trifling net of miserably small meshes across the Latrobe, and who take all that comes to it from a sprat to a conger eel. Mr Cain the other night felled a tree across one of these illegitimate contrivances. Touching the alleged use of dynamite, some enquiry is highly necessary. The persons pursuing the industry under notice repudiate the charge against themselves with indignation." It is reported that some late visitors from Melbourne experimented to some extent in the Lakes with this terrible explosive, but if their efforts to persuade the' fish out of the water were as successfully fatal as their potshots, much injury could not have, been done. It is alleged: that one or two local residents have used it as an allegation which might easily be verified:' The names of gentlemen who were principals and accessories to the use of dynamite on the Lakes can be obtained by enquiry. At any rate, some of the fishing men are ready to give evidence as to their identity. Fishing as a livelihood is carried on at the dead of night, when most people, are asleep, as the scales then come inshore to feed Moonlight nights on the Lakes are very unpropitious, the finny tribe then resorting to deep water. We purpose obtaining from an official source some information touching this industry as it extends and increases in importance.

Military Service: United Kingdom Merchant Navy. 1853-1857^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S280 BT 112-116, 119-120, series BT116 Name: Thomas Mentiplay Event Type: Military Service Event Year Range: 1853-1857 Event Place: United Kingdom Birthplace: Fife Birth Year: 1834 GS Film number: 1562585 Digital Folder Number: 004650209 Citing this Record: "United Kingdom, Merchant Navy Seamen Records, 1835-1941," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCQK-N2H : 5 December 2014), Thomas Mentiplay, ; From "Merchant Navy Seamen1835-1941," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing BT 112-116, 119-120, series BT116, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey. Certainty: 2

• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=marycotter&id=I95344913
• Source: S280 LDS Merchant Navy Seamen1835-1941 Italicized: Y

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61831947/6156801