Edward Winnett

Edward Winnett was born in Ireland in 1849 and six years later his family left for London, Ontario. Winnett came to Oil Springs in 1885 and started the Dominion Boiler Works on the corner of Kelly Road and Victoria Street. He married Annie Jane Winnett in 1873 and by 1896 they had 11 children. In 1897, the struggles of providing for such a large family led Winnett to sign a contract with the Standard Oil Company to manage the construction of boilers for the refinery near Palembang, Sumatra (present-day Indonesia). His adventure started as he boarded the train in Petrolia along with other locals John W. Crosbie, John Hall, George Luxton, and John E. Crosbie. For the next nine weeks, he travelled down the St. Lawrence River, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Indian Ocean and finally arrived in Sumatra.

Winnett kept a journal in which he described the people and places he saw while he was in foreign fields. He expressed wonder at the cities and landscapes through which he travelled, remarking on the exotic fruits and wild animals spotted from his boat. He also expressed surprise and curiosity at the local people. Upon his arrival in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he wrote:

"There is another most wonderful thing to see - hundreds of natives doing horse work. They have carts with two wheels and a top and also a pair of shafts. It is what they call a rickshaw. Now they got into the shafts and draw you around town for six pence per hour. A horse is [nothing] to one of these. They go for all they are worth, nothing on them only a rag tied around their loins, not even a hat."

Winnett spent the next year on an adventure that some men only dream about. He battled a three metre cobra and faced 560 angry knife-wielding workers who threated to strike for better pay. Later, he became very ill with yellow fever and spent four months in hospital. He had little to no recollection of the time that had transpired while he was in the hospital.

Upon arriving in Palembang, Winnett took up residence at "the Bungalow", a nine meter by eight meter building with four rooms, a hall and kitchen, "situated within five feet of the river and surrounded with the most lovely fruit trees such as coconut and bananas and pineapples and other fruit." Throughout his journals, Winnett made frequent mention of the resident crocodiles which he tried, on regular occasion, to shoot with his rifle. Despite hitting the crocodile, Winnett was never able to kill one of the reptiles, his shots simply bouncing off the crocodiles' thick skin. 

Due to Winnett's experience with boiler shops, he was put in charge of a large crew to build oil tanks capable of holding 20,000 barrels, a railroad connecting the tanks to the nearby river, and a 200km pipeline linking the oil fields to the coast which, Winnett wrote, will be the longest pipeline in the world.

Winnett made frequent mention of his family and his sense of loneliness at being so far from his loved ones. October saw his wedding anniversary as well as the anniversary of his departure. His good friend and housemate George Luxton had also recently taken a contract with a new company, leaving Winnett alone in the Bungalow. With that, he gave notice that he would not be renewing his contract and that Christmas began his journey home. Upon arriving in Hong Kong, he purchased a ticket for travel straight through to London, Ontario which cost him $120. He crossed the Pacific and arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and then travelled by train across Canada to Petrolia. By the time Winnett arrived home, he had circled the world while most men at this time had never left the town of their birth.

Video Clip. A dramatic recounting of Edward Winnett's experiences in Borneo

Duration: 2:47 minutes - Transcription