Hjalmar Lindquist

Hjalmar Lindquist appears to have been born in Haugesund, Norway. His headstone, placed by friends, states he was born on 9 November 1902. Not much is known about his family, and there is no record of a marriage. The West Australian electoral roll shows Sonny lived in Jose Street, Geraldton.

Although his past remains somewhat of a mystery, in Geraldton he was known as “Sonny Boy”, and he was well known as a fin and cray fisherman who worked on the coast between Bunbury and Shark Bay, and out at the Abrolhos Islands. Sonny was popular as a worker and a mate. He worked hard and played hard. He escaped multiple ocean incidents but was never deterred from working on the water.

On a few occasions Sonny found himself in trouble with the law after drinking with mates. On the evening of 1 August 1933, he was one of five line-fishermen arrested in Fremantle by Police Constable Quartermaine for creating a disturbance. After they had spent the night in the lockup, Prosecuting Sergeant Nisbett informed the court the men were likely to be at sea for three to four weeks, so they were given the option of a £1 each or three days in jail. Sonny paid his fine.

On 12 January 1939 Sonny (35) was arrested by Police Constables Moynahan and Harper for drunkenly using obscene language in Market Street where there were women and children. He resisted arrest so he was handcuffed and spent the night in the Fremantle lock up. The next morning the court fined him £2 and 4s 6d in costs and advised him to stop drinking.

When Sonny was 26 years old, he worked aboard Eva, share fishing for Frederick George and Bertrand Winter, Morris Brandt and Charles Nelson who formed the prominent company in Geraldton: Winter, Brandt and Co.

Eva was a line fishing boat that transferred from Geraldton to Fremantle in 1937. She left Fremantle with Coolgardie on 25 January 1937, with three weeks of food and ice aboard. Both boats left Bunbury on 27 January 1937 to line fish around Cape Naturaliste. They were hit by a squall 34.7 nautical miles [64.3 kms] from Cape Leeuwin. Eva lost her main, mizzen and stay sails. The cabin was smashed, and Don was knocked over the cabin deck. Sonny and Bert were temporarily imprisoned in the cabin by the weight of water washing over the boat. The water and flexing of the boat in the wind caused the floor decking to shift, and Eva began to leak. Her ballast came adrift and moved around causing instability. The crew started the pump.

Sonny and Don took an hour each alternately, tied at the waist by rope to the mizzen mast. Sonny was washed over the bulwarks but managed to haul himself back on board by his waist rope. The bulwark and the ice box cover were lost.

Eva limped into Albany at 10am on 13 February, beaten and much damaged. She made the news because the crew managed to save their catch of 600 lbs [272 kgs] of jewfish (now called dhufish) which was consigned to the Albany market.

Sadly, the Coolgardie was lost with her crew; Skipper Frank Casparson, Martin Martinsen and Robert Sharpen (see the Coolgardie story).

Sonny worked in Geraldton for a fisherman who kept a market garden, Dines “Fred” Jacobsen (also known as Yob Yob). Market gardening provided work in the off season (November to March) for cray fishermen.

In 1942 Sonny was a licenced Geraldton fisherman. By 1944 he had joined the cray fishing crew of the 37 ft [11.27 metres] Suomi, a catcher/carrier boat working from Rat Island. Cecil Garratt had bought Suomi G1, her two catcher boats Molly Ess and Lucy, and a camp on Rat Island from Robert “Bob” Carlberg.

Cecil licenced Molly Ess G58 from 1944 as a 22 ft [6.7 metre] bond wood launch with a 5ft 6inch [1.67 metres] beam. She had a 4.5 hp motor. Lucy was licenced G54 from 1943. She was an 18 ft [5.48 metres] catcher launch with the same beam as Molly Ess, and a 4.25 hp motor.

Suomi carried the cray fish for her catchers and sometimes for other boats at Rat Island. She line fished and cray fished as well. The crews who worked for the outfit were nicknamed the “Suomi Crowd”. Some crew members came and went, while others remained with Suomi for years, like the cook “Ole” Olsen. The crew shared a camp on Rat Island.

In 1946 and 1947 Sonny worked with the Suomi Crowd and lived in a camp at the north end of the island. He worked 52 pots with Frank Gibson on Molly Ess. At the end of the cray season in October Sonny boarded Patricia and left Geraldton to line fish at Fremantle and Bunbury.

Patricia was a 41 ft [12.5 metres] auxiliary ketch skippered by William “Bill” Lang with Jack Lang as the other deckhand. They left Geraldton in fair weather but a gale blew up when they reached Freshwater Point, so they sheltered in the lee of the reef. Both anchors were let go, but her cables carried away and she hit the bottom before she could get underway. The rudder snapped at the head, and she was soon thrown ashore, high and dry, bow shoreward. The crew decided to refloat her rather than lose her.

Over the next few days local Geraldton fisherman Bill Burton on Garnet and Dongara fisherman Syd Knowlen on Awanui helped to get Patricia off the beach. The anchors and cables were salvaged. Awanui towed Patricia to Port Denison with her pumps working hard. The crew recalked the hull and 18 days later, with Garnet accompanying her, she limped into Geraldton under her own power, leaking like a sieve.

Sonny went back to Rat Island on Molly Ess for the 1948 season, still share fishing for Winter, Brandt and Co. In 1949 Sonny operated Lucy with Bill Lang as his deckhand. In August that year he went aboard Betty Margaret and joined a search for Albert Gordon Kearle (24) who was fishing in his small launch when his fuel line broke. He was found drifting 11.29 nautical miles [20.9 kms] north of North Island after 39 and a half hours.

On 20 March 1951 J Howson was aboard Molly Ess with Sonny being towed over to Rat Island for the cray fishing season. Howson slipped and fell onto a protruding gear lever that pierced his body causing internal injuries. He was lifted onto Suomi, taken back to Geraldton at full speed, and admitted to Victoria District Hospital for treatment.

That year Sonny appeared before Magistrate Ansell in the Geraldton court for consigning 203 undersized crayfish from Molly Ess. He was fined £6 and ordered £1 17s 6d in costs. The prosecutor for the Fisheries Department was CE Stow.

Sonny appeared before Magistrate Hogg in the same court on 1 September 1953 with 26 other cray fishermen. They were all charged with consigning undersized crayfish. On that occasion Sonny had three charges for crayfish he consigned from Molly Ess and received fines as a penalty.

At 2am on 22 March 1952, Sonny was aboard Molly Ess with Arthur “Jumbo” Ward, with Suomi towing Lucy to Rat Island to start the crayfishing season. Thomas “Tom” Rowlands was skippering Suomi with Les Sells and W Jones on deck. They had Mrs D Davies aboard as a passenger. Suomi started to take on water.

Mrs Davies was transferred to Molly Ess with Jumbo, and they headed back towards Geraldton to raise help. Sonny went aboard Suomi to help on the pump. Tom flew the distress signal, and the four men pumped, rotating between 5 minutes on the pumps and 15 minutes with buckets. Tom set off eight to ten flares from the top of the mast at intervals to attract help from any boat in the area.

Tom’s brother on the Queen intercepted Molly Ess and both boats headed towards Suomi. Queen found her at 8.30am. By 9am Queen had a towline on Suomi and set off at a good pace towards Geraldton. Even with Suomi’s mainsail up there was still too much water sloshing around in the hull for her to sail and water poured in faster than the crew could pump it out.

Tom let go 70 new cray pots to reduce Suomi’s weight. They jettisoned a drum of fuel, a drum of kerosene and anything else on the deck that was loose. When there was eight feet [2.4 metres] of water below decks Tom told the men to abandon ship.

The crew salvaged the compass, barometer and anything else they could. Tom grabbed six bottles of beer and leapt onto Molly Ess just as Suomi’s decks went underwater. Dawn sailed to the stricken boat just in time to see her sink.

At 10.50am, Suomi settled by her stern, rolled and nosedived, her distress flags still flying. Five minutes after she sank the bulwarks shot to the surface. That was the end of Suomi. Dawn picked up the cray pots, and other gear that was floating around. The boats were back in Geraldton by 12.30pm.

Mr and Mrs Cecil Garratt had insured Suomi when they purchased her. She had carted 2,000,000 lbs [907 kgs] of cray fish during her career as a carrier boat. In February 1953, Cecil advertised Suomi’s harbour mooring, three Chapman marine motors, mainsail and sundries for sale.

On 4 March 1954 Sonny skippered Molly Ess again and headed out to Rat Island for the cray fishing season. When he failed to arrive at the island in the afternoon, the fishermen there were concerned. Police were informed and a search planned. Before the search could commence, Sonny arrived at Port Denison. He had missed the islands in bad weather and decided to tack back to the mainland. Both he and the boat were fine.

In July 1954 an overnight storm lashed the Midwest coast. Sonny was in Geraldton when Betty Margaret broke away from her moorings during a heavy rain squall. She was driven onto the stone seawall approximately 50 yards [45.7 metres] east of the boat slip. She hit the wall side-on and her hull was badly holed. Sonny helped tie the top of her mast to a steel post to prevent her from rolling onto the rocks. A quantity of loose gear and equipment was thrown overboard to help stop her rolling.

On 15 December that year, Sonny was line fishing aboard the Toba at Hamelin Bay on the Southwest coast. Skipper Martin Martinson and crew Charles Johanson and Carl Burg tried to escape strong winds and rough seas. They struck reef in a narrow passage, approximately half a mile from an old jetty on Hamelin Island. Sonny and the rest of the crew were picked up by a Bunbury fishing boat and taken to Hamelin Bay with their catch of eight cwt [406.4 kgs] which went to the Fremantle market for sale.

On 26 August 1955 Sonny skippered Betty Margaret with Frederick “Fred” Tetlow, and a Norwegian fisherman called Chris (25) on deck. They were 5 days overdue from a line fishing voyage. The previous evening Geraldton Police had received a radio message saying a boat had seen the Betty Margaret approximately 52.1 nautical miles [96.5 kms] south of Geraldton. A search was commenced, but Sonny brought Betty Margaret home before they set out.

Sonny continued to fish from Rat Island for another 10 years. He died on 9 October 1965 from a lung disease. He drank liquid morphine to manage his discomfort.

His headstone at the Geraldton Cemetery, placed by friends, states he died in Geraldton. Local fishermen talk about Sonny dying in the camp at Rat Island.

The Arnold brothers from the Elizabeth May used the camp and said Sonny haunted the place. They saw someone with a torch, but when they investigated there was no one there. Things moved around the camp or were found scattered. One fisherman said he saw Sonny’s ghost. The camp was used by Laurie Kannikowski from 1959. In 1998 it was taken over by Hadley Harmer.