Roy Percival Cuthbert

Roy Percival Cuthbert (53) was the owner and skipper of Poppy 2 (LFBG 251), residing at 27 Jose Street, Geraldton with his de-facto wife, Eileen Cuthbert, along with his newly found crewman, Jan Vandenberg (48). Vandenberg had only known Cuthbert for around 4 weeks before their trip to Rat Island at the Abrolhos Islands. He met him at the Shamrock Hotel in Geraldton and Cuthbert asked him if he wanted a day’s work to paint his boat, he painted the Poppy 2 which actually took him 2 days.

After that Cuthbert asked Vandenberg if he would like to go fishing with him at the Islands as his wife had lost her nerve and didn’t want to go to sea again. He made the necessary arrangements and agreed to pay him £100/week, in the meantime giving him £3/day and his keep until the season started.

On Saturday, 8 March Cuthbert and Vandenberg loaded their gear onto the Enterprise carrier boat which was going to transport it over to the Islands. They then went to the Shamrock Hotel along with Cuthbert’s wife, Eileen, later purchasing a fair amount of beer, wine and spirits to take to the Islands. This included two dozen bottles of beer, two 40 oz. bottles of rum, one 40 oz. bottle of brandy, two flagons of Penfolds sweet sherry and one 26 oz. bottle of gin.

They returned to their residence to have a sleep before leaving in the early hours of the morning around 1.45am on Sunday 9 March. Cuthbert had arranged with the skipper of the Everea, Martin Van-der-Oord, to tow Poppy 2 over to Rat Island. As Poppy 2 was only a small boat it was considered safer to go to Rat Island under tow. At about 2.30am they finally left the harbour in tow, both Cuthbert and Vandenberg consuming some amount of liquor on the way out. According to Vandenberg, Cuthbert was visibly affected by liquor but in his eyes wasn’t drunk!

At about 3.30am, 6 or 7 miles from Geraldton the Evereaencountered problems and the tow line to Poppy 2 was dropped. Another boat rendered assistance to the Evereaand towed it back to Geraldton. Van-der-Oord advised Cuthbert to head back to Geraldton but he decided to head for Rat Island under his own power. The weather at the time was fine and the sea calm so all appeared to be well. However, Vandenberg was not happy with the decision given Cuthbert had consumed a good amount of liquor and advised him to return to Port. Cuthbert wouldn’t listen and headed for Rat Island.

They travelled well into the daylight hours until Cuthbert admitted he was lost and started heading (hopefully) back to Geraldton. After a few hours Vandenberg saw the Geraldton wheat bins and agreed to take the wheel as he now knew where he was. During this time both had been drinking, Cuthbert more than Vandenberg. After Vandenberg took the wheel Cuthbert went down to the back of the boat to rest and have a drink. The next thing Vandenberg knew, Cuthbert was alongside him, dressed in only his underpants and dived into the water. He immediately stopped the boat and put it in reverse, it stalled so he started it again in reverse. He could see Cuthbert about 100 feet astern and headed towards him. About half way over Cuthbert disappeared and he never saw him again.

He circled around for about 15 minutes looking for any signs of his skipper. In the meantime he had radioed that the skipper of the Poppy 2 had gone overboard and help was needed. Vandenberg stated that someone had answered his call but he didn’t know who.

There were various sightings of the Poppy 2 that day and statements were given to the police by those people that had sighted the boat. The skipper of the carrier boat Southern Lady, Norman Henry Jackson, said that at about 1.50pm on 9 March he spotted a small white boat in the distance going around in circles. He assumed the person onboard was looking for craypots. However, when he got to within 100 yards of the boat it circled in front of his boat missing him by about 50 yards. He could see only one person who was lolling over the side of the boat and turning the wheel from side to side. He assumed he was either looking for craypots or was drunk by the way he was handling the boat. He continued on to Geraldton Harbour where he ascertained that the boat he had seen was the Poppy 2 and the skipper, Roy Cuthbert, was the person lost overboard. Another crayfishing boat skippered by Edward Smith went out and took the Poppy 2 in tow bringing it back to the Geraldton Harbour.

Upon arrival in Geraldton Harbour the police observed that Vandenberg was intoxicated and had consumed more liquor than he claimed to have had. He was taken to the Office of the Water Police for interviewing, his statement proved to be quite sketchy due to his condition.

He was later taken to 27 Jose Street, Geraldton where he had been staying with Roy and Eileen Cuthbert, however on arrival at the house Eileen Cuthbert would not let him stay so the police took him to the Ocean View Guest House. It was later confirmed that from leaving Geraldton to being towed back to the harbour the men had consumed seven bottles of beer, two thirds of a half flagon of sherry and a third of a 26 oz. bottle of sherry.

It was later discovered that Roy Cuthbert was married to Winifred L Cuthbert, his legal wife. She resided in England and when she heard of her husband’s disappearance contacted the Geraldton Police Station to obtain a death certificate as she was applying for a United Kingdom pension. Cuthbert’s will was made in favour of his de facto wife, Eileen Cuthbert and dealt with accordingly. There was no inquest into his death and the Coroner assumed his death was by accidental drowning on 9 March 1969 contributed to by being under the influence of liquor. It appears that at the time of his death his father, George Charles Cuthbert, was also residing in Geraldton, his wife Hetty having passed away in 1948.

Roy Percival Cuthbert was born on 13 January 1916 in British Columbia, Canada. His parents were English and had migrated to British Columbia but at some stage moved back to the United Kingdom. Cuthbert arrived in Fremantle from Southampton, England on board the passenger boat Maloja on 29 March 1952, listed as single and a motor engineer. He then left from Sydney in September 1953 and went back to England but it is not clear from records when he returned to Australia. The family certainly moved around, and at the time of his death his brother Norman was living in Victoria.