Blake and Knudsen

Arthur Nelson Blake (69) and Thomas Knudsen (46) were members of the crew of the fishing vessel Essie, aboard which they lived. On the evening of 20 March 1949 together with other friends they visited the fishing boat Era. Both boats were moored in Geraldton harbour about 12 yards apart. At 1:30am on the morning of 21 March they left the Era in a small dinghy to scull back to the Essie. After daybreak, the crew of the Era could see no trace of Blake or Knudsen and shortly after 8am, Athol Spencer, a holiday-maker from Perenjori, reported to the Geraldton Police that he had found a body floating in the water at the Westend Beach. When recovered the body was identified as that of Blake. Knudsen’s body was later found by W.J. Meyer of Bluff Point who was assisting in the Police search. The dinghy in which the deceased were last seen alive was also recovered on the foreshore. It is unclear how both men met their end.

Blake was born in Fremantle around 1881 and became a career Fisherman. He was deemed unfit to serve in WW1 due to a large varicocoele. He was single and never married. Knudsen was born in Arendal, Norway in 1902. He served in WW2 with the Australian Army and was also a career Fisherman. Like Blake he was single and never married, and it is unclear if he left any family behind in Australia.

The Essie, a 50-foot fishing boat well known in the Geraldton region for many years, was purchased in 1951 by W. Newbold and stripped to the water line. It remained at its harbour moorings until September 1952 when it sank near the breakwater and required towing to a shallow bank. The fate of this once prominent fishing vessel is unclear.