Karl Karlssen

Karl Karlssen (22) was a crew member on the fishing boat Elphis which fished out of Bunbury in Western Australia. The other members of the crew included Fred Erikssen, Percy Francis James Manning and Bernhard Danielson.

On Friday, 3 October all four men had been drinking at the Gordon Hotel in Bunbury. They were there for an hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon before leaving around 5.30 pm for the fishing boat Elphis which was moored near the Baths, about forty to fifty yards off the jetty. According to Percy Manning he was sober, the others all being drunk after consuming a little too much before leaving the hotel.

When they got about forty yards from the jetty two of the men got hold of the oar to try and skull the boat, it seems from media of the day that they were Erikssen and Danielson. It appears that Karlssen also went to get the oar and during the wrestle for the oar the boat turned over. By this time they had got to within thirty feet of the Elphis but all struck out for the jetty once the boat overturned. Danielson in his affidavit said that Karlssen put his foot on the gunwale of the dinghy when he tried to get the oar causing it to partly fill with water and overturn. Erikssen made for the jetty clinging to the dinghy, the other three swimming freely. Danielson last saw Karlssen swimming strongly near the piles of the jetty and did not see him go down. That is the last that anyone saw of Karlssen, the other three men making it safely back to the jetty. Danielson reported the dinghy capsizing near the Baths and the fact that one man was still missing. In company with a Constable Gee they went to the jetty and searched but discovered nothing. The next day Constable Brown and Danielson started dragging operations but were unable to find the body. The dinghy was under the jetty at the first steps, capsized and partly smashed, the top planks having broken. Righting the dinghy they found some stores consisting of a tin of kerosene, some onions along with a few other stores.

On the morning of Sunday, 12 October two boys, named Cooke and Moffat, discovered a body floating amongst the seaweed on the North Beach near the Quarantine Station, Bunbury. Water Police Constable Lyons was notified and after locating and securing the body conveyed it to the morgue. A pocket book was subsequently discovered in the clothing bearing the name of ‘Karl Karlssen’. An inquest was opened that afternoon at the Bunbury Courthouse before the Acting Coroner, Mr A.F. Spencer and a jury consisting of Messrs. Kelly, Gill and Johns. Evidence was heard from P.C. Gee and Water P.C. Lyons, along with affidavits from Manning and Danielson. A verdict of accidental death by drowning was returned, the jury stating that in their opinion no one was to blame.

In May 1914 the Elphis again suffered a loss. Paul Rierson, a former storeman and paymaster at the Argyle Mill, Bunbury, was aboard to recuperate as he had been in bad health. He went on deck around 7.40 pm and when the skipper, George McCormick, went on deck some four minutes later to check on him he saw the body of Rierson floating in the water. The body was recovered but could not be revived. The Elphis had a low bulwark, a foot to 18 inches, and given Rierson went on deck because he felt ill and was also shaky on his feet he could have easily fallen overboard. At the inquest a verdict was returned of accidental death with no blame attributable to anyone.