The ‘Emily Taylor’ was a 200 tonne Brig built in the Bombay shipyards for the commercial and military powerhouse the ‘British East India Company’. Launched as the ‘Antelope’ it carried 12 guns and in addition to being a troop transport, carried trade goods such as spices, Opium, textiles and silks.
It was later sold off and acquired by a private company Robert Taylor and Co. and renamed ‘Emily Taylor’ after the proprietors wife. It sailed to Western Australia and in 1830 was chartered by the colonial governement to transport settlers, including members of the Bussell and Molloy families, to Cape Leeuwin to establish WA’s third settlement, Augusta.
On the return journey to Fremantle ‘Emily Taylor’ was blown ashore in a gale and wrecked. It is considered it carried the first Chinese ‘migrant’ to Western Australia, a (likely) Cantonese man called ‘Moon Chow’ (also known as Chow Moon) He was the ships carpenter and found himself stranded when ‘Emily Taylor’ was wrecked. He was a skilled tradesman, joiner and boat builder and his talents were highly prized in the young colony. There is romantic speculation that Moon Chow, was the first to manufacture and sell dumplings in WA. This theory was fueled by a court case where a leg of pork was stolen from his home. Tragically in 1877, Moon Chow was killed when he was struck by a horse drawn mail cart on Fremantles High Street, close to where the Orient Hotel stands today. His death led to the first road rules in Western Australia including speed limits and the requirement to carry lights at night.
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