User:Gunantambu

Queen Emma, born Emma Coe, known also as Emma Forsath, Emma Farrell and Emma Kolbe was born in 1850, to Jonas Myndersse Coe, a US Commercial Representative to American Samoa and Joana Talelatale, a Malietoea. Her mother’s bloodline was related to the Moli tribe and Emma was recoginzed by the Malietoea as a princess. In 1869 she married James Forsayth, a Scottish seaman and they set up a shipping and trading business in American Samoa. Emma was involved in island politics with her father and lost favour with the local people after he was deported in 1876. Around this time, her husband was said to be lost at sea, however there was no confirmation that her husband was dead.

In 1878, she left American Samoa with an Australian lover, James Farrell, who was known as a blackbirder, captain and trader for the Duke of York Islands in between New Britain and New Ireland. There they traded mainly copra with the local population for beads, tobacco, knives and mirrors. The area was largely unsettled by Europeans up until that point due to the aggressive nature of the local inhabitants.

Emma and Farrell were to assist people that were involved in the Marquis De Rays incident where over 500 people were swindled out of their life’s savings to form a new colony at the South Eastern tip of New Ireland. Four ships sailed; Chandernagore, Genil, India, Neu Bretagne from France between Jan 1880- Aug 1881 which practically marooned the colonists whilst the founder reported the progress of the colony in an extremely positive light in his newspaper La Nouvelle France in Paris. Emma and Farrell assisted the marooned colonists back to Australia. De Rays was later tried and found guilty of fraud in France.

In 1881, Emma became intrested in land around the Gazelle peninsula of New Britain and differed with Farrell who continued trading. Emma bought the land from the local chiefs and with the assistance of her brother in law, the Dane, Richard Parkinson, set up a large coconut and cocoa plantations around Kokopo, East New Britian. During this period, she became highly successful and well respected. She was known as a heady woman, known to affect her charm on others and for throwing outlandish extravagant parties aided by her nieces. She was the envy of the German colonists who started to move into Kokopo around 1890 and passing trades ships. It was during this period she became affectionately known as the “Queen of New Guinea”.

Commercially from 1880 - 1900 years her enterprises in Kokopo surpassed most in the region and the pacific and and she was most certainly the commerce queen of New Guinea.

Her commercial empire was still in full swing when towards the end of 1907 she learnt of increasing tensions between the Germany and Britain in the colonies and Europe. She sold off most assests in 1909 to Heinrich Walen. She later lived in Sydney and died in 1913 in Europe by the bedside of her estranged husband Paul Kolbe. Her ashes were buried in her old station cemetary “Gunantambu” at Ralum. Today the site of the Ralum Club in Kokopo, New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Ref: Robinson R.W. Queen Emma 1994 Robert Brown & Accociates ISBN 1 86273 080 1