Death Of Captain Stringer

BOTH Captain H. Stringer (who was lost in the foundering of the “Bom bo” off the NSW coast) and Mrs.

Stringer (now a resident of Sydney) were very well known in Ocean Island and Nauru. Captain Stringer, in the service of the British Phosphate Commission, was in Nauru for 8 years, and for over 20 years he was harbour-master at Ocean Island.

Mrs. Stringer was one of the Europeans captured by the German raiders in 1940, when the Nauru installations were bom barded. She had been in Australia, and was on her way home to Ocean Island by the “Triona” when the “Triona” was

taken off Nauru and sunk by the raider.

She and others were a fortnight aboard the raider before they were all put ashore on Emirau (near New Ireland) at Christ mas-time, 1940.

Another Ocean Island woman aboard the raider, who was landed at Emirau at that time was Mrs. W. Allen, another old resident, who was cruelly murdered on Ocean Island last month —see report else where. Mrs. Stringer and Mrs. Allen re turned to Ocean Island in 1941, but were evacuated before the phosphate islands were invaded by the Japs, a year later.

Captain Stringer, who was held gener ally in high regard, was to have taken command of the “Bombo”—he had gone aboard as first mate, to learn something of the coastal service, just before the vessel left on her last voyage.

The late Captain Stringer and Mrs. Stringer.