Death Of Captain

C. O. Andersen

THE death occurred some months ago of Cantain C. C. Andersen, who was well known and esteemed in Papua for more than 50 years.

Captain Andersen arrived originally in Papua as an officer on a small ship, the SS Ysabel, owned by the German New Guinea Co. The Ysabel was stranded on Ostrich Reef, between Cooktown and Papua, but was subsequently floated and sold to Bums Philp & Co.

Captain Andersen later got his Master’s ticket and entered into partnership as a trepang fisher, in the islands east of Papua, with another famous old identity called “German Harry.” Then Andersen and John Clunn, of Cooktown, owned a schooner, which ran between Cooktown and Woodlark Island. Later they had the AMY Papua built for them in Sydney, but she was destroyed in a petrol explo sion alongside a wharf at Cooktown.

After that Captain Andersen bought a sailing cutter and, with his family, settled down in Samarai. He leased a couple of islands and planted them with coconuts, and Mrs. Andersen lived there for a time.

Captain Andersen returned to the sea and commanded a number of vessels on the coast of Papua—SS Keira. for Whit ton Bros., SS Wakefield and SS Tambar, for BNG Co. and SS Queenscliff and SS Papuan Chief for Steamships Trading Co.

After the Papuan Chief was stranded and sold, Captain Andersen was in charge of a smaller vessel, the Moto. Following a serious illness, he took charge of a couple of nlantations, until the evacua tion in 1942. He lived in Brisbane during the war and served in the United States Navy for a while.