Wanderer II

The Wanderer ll was a 30 foot single-masted auxiliary fishing boat, with a green cabin, mast and boom. She was owned by her skipper, Stephen (Steve) Johnson (58) of Cottesloe.

Steve was married to Mary Mochan in 1913 and had two sons in Albany, John Stephen (1916), and Harold Raymond (1920). It appears he left Albany after his parents and a brother passed away in the 1920s. Steve divorced Mary in 1936 after 19 years, on grounds of misconduct when she left him for another man.

Steve and both his sons enlisted in the armed forces during World War ll. Steve served as a Corporal in the infantry in France in WW1. John became a Lieutenant in signals and Harold a Corporal in unit training.

In civilian life, Steve was a carpenter, who seems to have moved around WA a lot for work. John was a hairdresser who settled in Perth. Harold was a labourer who moved around for his work. John married Jean during the war, and they had children. Harold married Margaret in 1941, however they divorced when Harold moved in with Lorna Brindley and they had a baby.

Between 27 September and 1 October 1949, Wanderer ll left Geraldton with one month of food and supplies, steaming south to Fremantle. Steve’s deckhand was Carl Gustav Evert Berg (43), who was born in Surahammar, Sweden.

In 1928, he absconded from the Sydic in Fremantle without identification papers and went mining at Meekatharra. He was living in Quarry Street Fremantle in 1939, when he was registered under the Aliens Act and in 1941 was drafted into the AIF serving overseas in the Middle East. At that time he was single and his next of kin was Anna, his Mother residing in Sweden.

Wanderer ll was due to dock in Fremantle around 24 October 1949. The vessel was equipped with a radio, which required the boat’s auxiliary to be working in order to operate.

On 7 October 1949, the Wanderer ll was a week overdue, and was declared officially to be missing. It prompted a protracted and extensive search by authorities and Steve’s son, John.

John was residing at 85 Collins Street, South Perth. He spared no cost, or time away from his Walcott Street hairdressing work, and the search covered the Western Australian coast between Fremantle and Geraldton. John hoped his father had laid up for repairs along the coast somewhere.

Wanderer ll was last seen heading south on 7 October by Sydney Knowler, a Cray Fisherman from Port Denison, who was anchored off Beagle Island, 30 kilometres south of Dongara. Weather hampered a search by two fishing vessels around Lancelin. The crayfishing boat, Kingfisher, had maintained radio contact with Wanderer ll for some time after the last sighting.

On 4 November, Police commenced searching for the missing boat with a coast patrol. Steve’s daughter-in-law, Margaret, requested fishermen use their boats to search the areas where they fished.

The Daily News reported a wide search made by two Royal Australian Airforce Mustangs that flew at 1,000 feet along the coast. They found no trace of Wanderer ll, or the two men aboard her.

On 5 November 1949, Flight Lieutenant J Ashton and Flight Officer E Ramsay searched 33 nautical miles of coast between Perth and Dongara. Mr Ashton stated they saw fishing boats scattered along the coast, with only one boat similar to the Wanderer ll, crewed by two men. The plane swooped the boat, and the crew of the boat waved. The boat was a freshly painted pink colour.

A mounted Constable rode along the coast from Dongara to Essex Rocks, and fishing boats along the coast were asked to keep a look-out for the missing boat.

On 7 November, The Kalgoorlie Miner interviewed Mr James Peaking, the pilot of a Tiger Moth chartered from Air Flights Pty Ltd, Guildford, who stated he flew north along the coast to Geraldton, but had seen no sign of Wanderer ll, or her crew.

Flight Lieutenant E Ramsay flew an air force Wirraway to take photographs of a vessel, similar to Wanderer ll. That vessel had four people aboard, and photographs excluded that boat from the search.

On 8 November, a green boom broken off the fishing vessel was found near Whitfords Beach by Patrol Constable T. Wooley, and Road Board Caretaker, Mr Alfred Tree. John and his wife went to see the boom, but could not identify it for certain. After this, John chartered a MacRobertson-Miller Anson plane to search the coast with binoculars.

Flight Lieutenants John Ashton and Cliff Williams took Mustang fighter planes from Pearce Airflield on 16 November, to concentrate a search along the coast between Fremantle and Geraldton.

On 17 November, Gingin Police Constable D. Butterly searched with others from Lancelin Island to Essex Rocks in a launch, focusing on Wedge, Green, Cervantes and Long Islands as well as Essex Rocks. The islands were searched, and the coastline scoured by a mounted Policeman from Dongara, but there was no sighting of any wreckage or items from the Wanderer ll.

There were no further sightings of wreckage, after the boom was washed up on 8 November. Despite the extensive search undertaken, the remains of the missing fishermen were never found.