Emil Hellgren

Emil Hellgren, alias Miller, arrived in Fremantle aboard the ship S/S Faxen on 24 August 1924.

He had boarded in Gothenburg, Sweden along with others seeking a passage to Australia and arrived via Durban, South Africa. At some stage he settled in the Bunbury area fishing with his partner, a fellow compatriot, ‘Gunner’ Olsen. At the time of the accident Olsen had known Hellgren for about three and a half years and also knew that he could not swim.

On 14 October Hellgren and Olsen were in Bunbury town. They were also in the company of two sailors, Ernest Hoff and Robert Hopkins, who were off the American motor ship Swaokla then in port. They had a few drinks together at the Rose Hotel and left around 8.45pm with six bottles of beer. They went down to the jetty where they met another man and consumed two of the bottles of beer between the five of them. Olsen, Hellgren and the two American sailors sculled out to Olsen’s fishing boat, which was about a quarter of a mile from the jetty, remaining on board for around two hours drinking three of the remaining four bottles of beer in that time. They considered themselves a little under the influence of liquor but capable of looking after themselves. At about one o’clock in the morning Hellgren offered to scull the two Americans back to the jetty. Olsen saw them off safely, Hellgren sculling the dinghy. He then went to his cabin and turned in.

On the journey to the jetty one of the Americans, Hoff, remonstrated with Hellgren for rocking the boat and said that he could not swim. Hellgren replied ‘I cannot swim either’ and jokingly sculled harder with the result that the boat capsized. They were only 40 yards from the jetty and all four were thrown into the water. Hellgren and Hoff managed to grab onto the dinghy and Hopkins, who could swim, made for the jetty to get assistance. Hellgren commenced to struggle with Hoff so Hoff released himself and headed for the shore. During the struggle he had touched the bottom and being a tall man, around six feet, he managed to flounder towards the shore, eventually reaching shallow water.

In the meantime, Hopkins had returned with the engineer from the American boat. Swimming out to the dinghy he found Hellgren floating face down and brought him to the landing where he was found to be in a bad way. Dr Cullen was summoned and under his direction artificial respiration was carried out for two hours without success. The body was taken to the morgue for a post mortem examination.

The first Olsen knew of the accident was when a man named Spaniola, captain of the fishing boat Wattle, went aboard his boat around 2.00am and told him of the incident.

An inquest was held at the Bunbury Police Court on Thursday, 24 October 1929 beforeMr L R Honey J.P. Dr Flynn gave the report of the post mortem examination which showed death to have been due to drowning. Hellgren was 35 years of age when he drowned.