‘German Harry’

Some Memories of the By-Gone, Specious Days in Papua

By C. O. Andersen

I FIRST met “German Harry” (or “Harry the Dane”) as he was called, in 1896.

He had been around Papua for some time; and at the Trobriands he had picked up a considerable lot of pearls— in fact, he had an ordinary pickle bottle more than half filled, and the estimated value was in the vicinity of £l,OOO. He also carried with him an old chronometer.

As I, as second mate, had charge of the ship’s chronometer, he asked me to look after his while he was on board.

There was no likelihood of a steamer leaving Samarai for Australia for perhaps many months. So, as Harry was anxious to get to Sydney to purchase a schooner for himself, he decided to take passage to Vila with us, and pick up the Sydney boat there.

During the voyage to the New Hebrides (we also called at German New Guinea on our way, and spent over a week on the coast, doing some freighting for the Germans), Harry told us many tales about his exploits in different parts of the world. His next venture, he said, would be to buy a 50-ton schooner and go beche-de-mer fishing in the Pacific. I agreed to join him as navigator of the cruise, with a third interest in net re sults. At Vila, Harry took the Sydney steamer. 117 E arrived in Sydney the following ▼? year, and Harry was there with his schooner, all set to go north to Cook town. He needed a master to clear his schooner out, as Harry himself, although a very good seaman, knew nothing about navigating in deep water, so when he met me he exclaimed: “My luck is in. I want you straight away to skipper the “Wai wera” out of this and up north to Cook town.”

I replied, “Sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t do it, as I have only a mate’s ticket.”

Harry seemed quite crestfallen, and said: “But why did you tell me on board the “Ysabel” that you had a master’s ticket?”

“I have one alright,” I told him, “but it is from my homeland, Norway, and on the strength of that I was able to get my mate’s ticket here. In a few weeks I hope to have an Australian master’s ticket, which will enable me to take any vessel out from here.”

This mollified him somewhat, but as he had on occasions given evidence of a violent temper I had been half afraid of a rumpus; but he took it quite philo sophically and duly said that he would have to hire a captain—which he did without any trouble.

A couple of months later, when I had been able to persuade the Marine Board, on the recommendation of Captain Bedford, the Nautical Examiner, to issue

me a foreign-going master’s certificate I sent Harry a telegram. Some difficulty had arisen, however, in his plan to fish for beche-de-mer in the Coral Sea as

the Protector of Aboriginals would not give permits to take the native boys out side the Barrier Reef. So I had ta look around for another berth.

AFTER a year or so, I received a tele gram from Harry advising that the ban on aboriginals going outside the Barrier was lifted and requiring me to meet him as soon as possible. He added, characteristically, “If short of cash, wire —will send some.’ However, as it hap pened, I was able in a few days to get my discharge from the coaster, of which I was mate, so I made for Cooktown first steamer north and found Harry waiting for me.

This was in the middle of 1898. The Starkey and Ebagula goldfields had broken out shortly before and Harry had arranged to take a load of stores, etc., to those places before getting ready for the Coral Sea trip.

During this time I had good opportunity to study my prospective partner and I found him to be a most unusual character.

Generous to a fault to anyone he took a liking to and quite the opposite to any one he considered looked “down” on him on account of his neglected education when young. (He was able to write his name, Sorem Christensen, and that was about his limit). Those who tried to take him down generally found, to their dismay, that Harry was anything but a fool in a deal. In all practical work he was really clever, but when it came to figures he was stumped. Someone had taught him once to take the sun at noon and find his latitude (approximately), but he got ambitious and wanted to learn how to work out longitude. I was willing to show him how, so we started in on it; however, when it came to figures he was too unreliable —if he had to put down 34, he might (and did on several occasions) put the 4 before the 3! To him. as long as the two figures were down the order of them did not matter.

HARRY had rather a reputation for sharp practice in bargaining and when I got to know some of the Islands people I was warned to have our contract drawn up properly and made water tight, as Harry was not to be trusted.

When we had almost finished our out fitting for the Coral Sea trip, Harry one day said: “Well, we shall soon be off now, so we better go to Patching, the solicitor, and have our agreement drawn up.”

I said, “What will Patching charge for that?”

“Oh, about three or four guineas, I ex pect.”

“Well, Harry, you can, of course, have it done if you want to, but I think it is foolish to throw away three or four guineas on that.”

Harry seemed to be taken aback at this, and asked: “Do you really mean that?”

“Yes, of course,” I said, “I could not very well abscond and leave you in the lurch at any of the reefs we will be at— even if I wanted to —and as for your try ing to do me out of my fair share of our venture, well I trust you enough not to try that, so what do you say?”

I could see that he was touched, for he was not used to people treating him with confidence. He grabbed my hand and said, “By Jove, you will not be the loser by that.” And I wasn’t. He was scrupul ously fair in all our dealings.

HARRY was a good seaman and he did not know the word fear, but he was a bundle of contradictions in other ways. He always paid his just debts with out grumbling: but, if he had been taken in by unscrupulous “go-getters” he would not hesitate to “take in” others until he got square.

I remember one occasion when some one sold him a large parcel of mining scrip of no value. When Harry found this out, he unloaded half of his pur chase on an acquaintance for what the lot cost him. This man wanted to buy more shares from Harry but could not move Harry to part with any more.

I was walking up Flinders Street, Townsville, with Harry one afternoon when this chap hove in sight coming to wards us. Harry exclaimed. “There’s Cap tain T let us get away.” But it was too late; he had spotted Harry and he came over to us.

He roared to Harry: “You so-and-so, have you any more shares to sell?”

Harry said; “No, not to sell. You wanted all I had, but I would not sell you any more. I still hold a lot, so we were both taken in.”

Hearing this, Captain T quietened and admitted that he might have lost a lot more over the share deal than he did. finally, we all adjourned to the nearest hotel, ONE man, who in his younger days had been diving for pearl-shell in Torres Strait, but who was at this time owner of several luggers, once had an argument with Harry and said that no body could “take him in” on pearls.

Harry contradicted him.

Later on this chap—we’ll call him “A” —shifted over to Papua, with his luggers, working around Samarai.

Mr. A, Harry, Mr. M and I were at a bar in Cooktown one evening, Mr. A. having booked passage with me for the next morning’s trip to Samarai. Harry, between drinks, idly handled a “pearl” and Mr. A, spotting it, asked; “Where did you get that, Harry? Let’s have a look.” Harry passed over the “pearl.”

“What do you want for it?” inquired A.

“Say, £50,” answered Harry.

A. had another good look at it, then offered £35. They began bickering until A agreed to pay £4O and wrote a cheque for that amount.

Mr. M., who was manager of a concern in Cooktown, worried Harry to sell him a “pearl” of less value. Harry wanted him kept out out of it and. realising that Harry was up to something, I, too, tried to fence M. off, but he was very per sistent. So as not to awaken doubts in A’s. mind, Harry accepted a cheque from M. for £2/10/- for a small “pearl.”

When the other two had left us, I said to Harry: “You wanted to show A. that he is not infallible in judging pearls, eh?” “Yes,” he said, “It will teach him a lesson.”

Next morning, on my way down to the schooner, I encountered A., and his first words were: “Have you seen Harry? I’ll tear his liver out—he swindled me of £4O.

Sold me a Brummagen one.”

Just then Harry appeared. “Hullo, Neil, what is the trouble?”

“You blank so-and-so. you took me down—that was no pearl.”

“Calm down, Neil,” replied Harry. “I just wanted to show you that you too could be taken in. Here’s your cheque and you can keep the pearl.”

When M’s. office opened, Harry went down and gave him his cheque back, with a merry explanation.

That was just like Harry. I always thought that in the mixture of his make up his good points largely predominated.

AFTER we returned from a fairly suc cessful beche-de-mer trip in the Coral Sea, Messrs. John Clunn and Sons, of Cooktown, bought the schooner “Wai wera,” with me as a shareholder and

master. She was put on the Cooktown- Samarai-Woodlark Island trade. Harry went to Sydney to bring back an auxiliary boat and I lost track of him for a few years.

Then, in 1902, as I was taking a small steamer to Sydney to be sold there, Harry signed on with me as AB for the run down. He, with the others, was paid off at the shipping office. Harry was rather glad to get out of the office as he did not relish any personal questions being asked about his identity. The reason was as follows:

A year or so previously, Harry had bought himself a small ketch, intending to take her to Papua, but he got an offer to take a load of explosives to Darwin, which he accepted. He had to engage both master and mate before he could clear at the Customs. But Harry had no intention of keeping them, as he reckoned he could do the sailing by himself as he would hardly ever be without sight of land. So (he told me this later) he paid the master £lO and the mate £5 just to sign the clearance and hand it to him.

I don’t remember the name of the hired

captain, but, of course, Harry had to adopt his name for the time being.

Harry got away with two or three deck hands and in due course arrived at Dar win. There the Customs official knew him only by the name on his clearance and Harry answered to it. All went well until one day a Customs-man who had known Harry at Thursday Island some years before, returned to Darwin from his holidays. He ran into Harry and

greeted him with his known name—and “the cat was out of the bag.”

Harry was questioned on how he got away from Sydney and where was the Captain whose signature was on the clearance, etc. Harry’s answer to all these queries was rather naive. He ex plained that the cargo was all in and a good wind was blowing but the skipper and the mate were long overdue on board.

“I did not want to lose any of the fair wind blowing so I left without them,” he said simply.

There was some suspicion of foul play and Harry was detained until replies to questions had been received from Sydney.

It seemed that the master who signed the papers for Harry was still working about Sydney, so the suspicion that he might have been thrown overboard was un founded. Harry was permitted to leave and sign his own clearance. He turned up in Papua where he sold his vessel and went off to Sydney again.

LATER on Harry bought another schooner and took her back to Papua. He ran her on the Papuan coast for a while, then sold her and went back to Australia.

In Sydney, he lived aboard a yacht he had bought. Eventually he became ill, while living on his boat and, being missed by some of his friends, was found in a very bad way. They sent him to hos pital, where he died.

I am not sure about the year in which Soren Christensen, generally called “Ger man Harry,” passed away but it must have been about 1910-11.

M. le Trent, French labour inspector in the New Hebrides, has been chosen to rep resent New Caledonia, the New Hebrides and the Wallis Islands at the November 16 to 20 conference in Ceylon, at which questions concerning labour, raised at the Pan-Asiatic conference at New Delhi will be further discussed.

On arrival in Marseilles, the crew of the French liner “Sagittaire” (which was on strike for a while on its last trip to Noumea) struck, with a demand for pay ment in Pacific instead of French francs.

The strike started on September 20, and, as a result, the Messageries Maritime Co. put the vessel out of commission. The crew of 140, however, decided to remain on board.

Among recent consignments to Australia of New Caledonian timber- were 33 tons of Cook Pines (Araucaria Cooki), those

tall, strange, prehistoric pines with very short, straight branches which members of Capt. Cook’s second expedition, when they discovered the Isle of Pines, mistook for columns of besalt. The pines came from the Plaine des Lacs, and they are to go to a perfume factory in Perth.

After being under repairs in Australia for over a year, the New Caledonian Nickel Co. collier “Cap Tarifa’’ is being recommissioned. A crew reached Sydney by the “Neo Hebridais” to take her back to Noumea.