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Currency Lass, the

Schooner[1] out of the Dutch East Indies on a pearl-fishing expedition across the Pacific Ocean[2] in late 1870 and early 1871.[3]

Though seemingly named for the Currency Lads and Lasses — white colonists born in Australia, known pejoratively as "currency" — the schooner was actually named for a favorite public house and tea garden in Sydney frequented by her crew.[1]

In November of 1870,[3] Paul Carthew and a crew of pearl fishers sailed out of the Dutch East Indies.[2] In January of 1871[3], having succeeded in harvesting a valuable haul of pearls, a Dutch cutter chased the schooner into a fog where it broke up on a reef. The crew was able to man a small boat and make it to Midway Island[2] forty miles away.[1]

See: The Wrecker