Creole

Few particulars are known of the fishing boat Creole, sometimes referred to as a fishing yacht. It had last been seen by the crew of the Tartan near Cape Naturaliste on Wednesday 10 February 1937, only hours before a violent cyclone struck. The cyclone travelled parallel to the south-west coast bringing considerable destruction to the area and sinking, or damaging, many other boats, including the Coolgardie. The Tartan was later beached at Dunsborough.

Yalma Linquist, a long-time fisherman of the south-west region, described the cyclone in an article appearing in the Daily News in 1949. He was caught in it off Canal Rocks, near Naturalise, and had to run bare poles towards Albany, 230 miles away.

The cyclone sprang up at 5:30 pm and lasted until 4:00 am. At times it blew at nearly 100mph (160 km/hour). Linquist had to lash his tiller, tear down the bulwarks to let out the water and just hang on grimly.

At about 4pm on the day following the cyclone, Mr J. Lane, the manager of Cave House at Yallingup, reported to Sergeant Molloy of the Busselton police that the beach near Canal Rocks was strewn with the wreckage of what appeared to have been a fishing boat. Local residents had searched for any signs of the crew without success.

After enquiries, Sergeant Molloy learnt from John Mitchell (manager of the South-West Fish Supply of Bunbury), that a fishing boat named Creole crewed by one man, Gunnar Olsen, was missing. Olsen resided in Wittenoom street in Bunbury and was a native of Norway.

A description of the wreckage confirmed it was the Creole. Constable George Booth was despatched to Yallingup and, with the aid of local residents, continued the search for the missing man.

Olsen’s body was eventually found about 1pm on 16 February on Yallingup Beach, near the Cave House bathing sheds. This was several miles south of where the wreckage of his boat had been found.

In attempting to identify the wreck, Constable Booth had collected and taken to Busselton “an oar, pieces of wreckage from the yacht and several articles believed to have been on the vessel”.

Evidence of the identification of the body was given by Giuseppe Magi, shopkeeper, of Bunbury, who had known the deceased for the past 12 years. He last saw him alive on Monday, 8 February, when he had called by Magi’s place and stated he was going fishing off Cape Naturalise.

Olsen had a half share in the fishing boat, always fished alone and usually remained out for six or seven days at a time. Magi also identified a piece of the boat with the inscription L.F.B.B. 4, as well as two petrol tins belonging to the Creole. His estimated age was given as 50 during the post-mortem examination, by Dr. W. P. Yates.