[NEW CALEDONIA] “Congé de mer” (maritime passport), issued to the indigenous female owner of a commercial vessel in the Loyalty Islands, 1903.

[Nouméa], Nouvelle Calédonie : Service des Douanes, 1903. Single sheet, 480 x 250 mm, printed recto and verso, with manuscript entries recording that the permit – valid for one year – was issued on 24 July 1903 to ‘femme indigène Kaïpiane’, resident of the Loyalty Islands and owner of the “Chanedra”, a cutter of 10 tons; entries on the verso record five different voyages made by this vessel during 1903, between the islands of Maré and Lifou in the Loyalties and Port Vila on Efate in the New Hebrides; with the relevant signatures, annotations and stamps of the local customs officials; light damp staining at one edge, original horizontal folds, complete.