Horry's"

"Deliverance Horry's"

True Identity The Hermit of Torres Strait

THE true story of “Deliverance

Harry” the island hermit of

Torres Strait, has teen pieced together

by a Danish writer, Mr. B. Rosenkilde

Nielsen, who supplied the following

article to the “PIM.”

The story of “Deliverance Harry”

was told to the world by Somerset Maugham many years ago — but, un fortunately, under the title of “Ger man Harry ” “German Harry” was

the popular name of another Dane,

Captain Jep Soren Christiansen, who

once was well known in the South

Pacific.

APPARENTLY, “Deliverance Harry” actually was Henrik Enevoldsen, who was born in a farm labourer’s cot tage in Denmark in 1854, and who ran away to sea in 1870. A few letters came from him, which indicated that he was in Africa. Then correspondence ceased, and the man was almost forgotten; until one day, in February, 1928, it was an nounced in the radio news, in Denmark, in a message from Sydney, that a Dane.

Henry Evoldt or Ewald, had been found dead on Deliverance Island. The people of Langebak remembered the lad who had disappeared so many years before; and in due course “Deliverance Harry” was iden tified as Henry Enevoldsen, of Langebak. 117 HAT happened to cause Henry Ene ? T voldsen, of Langebak—who as a lad had set out for Africa—to end as a castaway on an island in Torres Straits?

Many years ago—in the late ’eighties— Henry Enevoldsen was on board an Eng lish vessel sailing through Torres Strait.

These are difficult waters, on account of the many submerged coral reefs. On one of these reefs their ship struck, and be came a total wreck. Part of the crew, Enevoldsen among them, succeeded in reaching a deserted island. For three long, terrible years they remained on this island, until in 1893, a ship appeared

and the castaways, by means of smoke signals, were able to summon assistance.

Of the 16 shipwrecked men only five were alive. Four were taken on board and landed in Sydney, whilst the fifth, Henry Enevoldsen, elected to remain alone on the island.

He was asked—and in years to come the question was often repeated—“ Why did you wish to remain on the island when you had the chance of getting away?” He answered, curtly and brusquely: “During the three years we were shipwrecked here I experienced such deeds of cruelty that I have acquired a horror of the human race and will no longer live amongst them.”

People who met Enevoldsen in later years asked him to tell them what had occurred during those three fateful years to imbue him with such a horror of man kind. But he would give no information.

FROM time to time, statements appeared in various journals about “the Her mit of Deliverance Island.” Legends about him were as numerous and diverse as the tales of the Flying Dutchman.

Deliverance Island is a mere sandy tongue of land, some 1,000 kilometers in length and 400 kilometers in breadth, surrounded by sandbanks and coral reefs.

A few coconut palms and fresh water en abled the castaway to support life. Mr.

Hockings, a pearl fisher, is said to have planted 200 more coconut palms on the island, and to have assisted Enevoldsen in building a corrugated iron tank for catching rainwater.

Wild birds, an abundance of fish and shell-fish from the sea, and last—buhnot least —turtles, furnished the hermit’s table. Sea-turtles come to the peaceful shores of Deliverance Island to lay their eggs. It was an easy matter for a strong man to turn the turtles onto their backs and secure the freshly-laid eggs, and the meat as well.

Enevoldsen spent the first years of his solitude in pearl-fishing; and Maugham believes that he must have concealed a cache of pearls somewhere or other on the island.

During the south-easterly monsoons, shell-boats came to Deliverance to fish, and Enevoldsen frequently received sup plies of flour, matches, utensils of various kinds, newspapers and magazines from their crews.

Preben Monsted is said to have visited Henry Enevoldsen on his island, and to have sent him newspapers and periodicals regularly to lighten his solitude. It may have been Monsted, too, who presented him with a Danish flag.

Dick Roche, a Bird-of-Paradise hunter, whose home was in New Zealand, is often mentioned as Enevoldsen’s faithful friend —the only friend, perhaps, he had dur ing all the long years of his solitude. It was Roche who found the hermit’s dead body. mHE visits of the shell-boats, which J. came to the coral reefs of Deliver ance Island every year, and their crews who came on shore with news and supplies for Enevoldsen, suddenly and

unexpectedly ceased.

For four years, as completely isolated as if he were living on another planet, the Danish seaman lived alone upon his desert island.

His daily duties kept him human, pre served his intellect, and prevented him from running up and down the beach, shouting and yelling like a maniac just for the sake of hearing a voice and of rending the deadly silence.

In his little hut, he fashinoed chairs and a table out of driftwood, and each day there were the wants of other creatures, the dog and a few hens he kept in an enclosure, to be attended to. There

was also another thing which required to be fed and kept alive that others might not die—his fire.

One day the pearl-fishers returned to Deliverance Island, and they found that Henry Enevoldsen had become an old man during the past four years. They told him of the reason of their long absence—World War I.

“Old Harry” could now obtain regular supplies of matches, and was thus no longer tied to his precious fire.

DICK- ROCHE sailed from Merauke in Dutch New Guinea to Deliverance Island with a couple of American tourists, who were curious to make Harry’s acquaintance; but, on reaching their destination, they found him lying dead. His body lay half in, half out of the doorway and was much decomposed.

Dick Roche buried Harry on the island where he had found “his earthly Para dise,” as he used to express it. The police on Thursday Island received Roche’s report of Enevoldsen’s death, and through them the Dutch Consulate in Sydney obtained the short statement which was transmitted to Denmark.

Johannes Henrik Enevoldsen died on January 27, 1928, the last date marked on his calendar, a common school slate, which he had always carefully kept up to date; but, the body was not discovered by Roche until a month later.

After 35 years of unbroken seclusion, this strange existence, one of the strangest of its kind on record, was brought to a close.

Sir Howard Ellis returned to Fiji in early May after several months’ holiday in New Zealand.