The shipwrecked adventurer who set sail to Australia 7300km away

Shipwrecked in violent seas, young Norwegian captain Anders Harboe-Ree mounted a daring rescue bid to save his crew.

Anders Harboe-Ree standing in an old graveyard on Possession Island, Crozet Islands, 1906 or 1907.

When young Norwegian adventurer Anders Harboe-Ree was shipwrecked with his crew on a remote island in the Southern Ocean, it was only the start of his ordeal.

In a feat that’s been compared with Ernest Shackleton’s 1330 km stormy ocean voyage in a whale boat, Harboe-Ree set off in a tiny boat to Australia 7300km away to raise the alarm.

The story is told in the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, with his granddaughter, Castlemaine author Cathrine Harboe-Ree:

The Monash University adjunct research associate has shared her grandfather’s thrilling story in a new biography, The Unlucky Viking: A Saga of Sealing & Shipwrecks in the Southern Ocean.

At the age of 24 in 1906, Harboe-Ree became captain of his first ship, a small sailing vessel.

During a horrendous storm, the sealing ship was dragged onto a reef and destroyed.

The 14 men were lucky to all make it through heavy seas onto the shore of Possession Island, one of the uninhabited sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands, southeast of South Africa.

“In the end, they were on that island, as Robinson Crusoes if you like, for three months, some of them,” Ms Harboe-Ree says.

Anders Harboe-Ree, aged 25, wearing the Order of St Olav medal he received for bravery.

Anders Harboe-Ree, aged 69, in a portrait by the Norwegian artist John Paulsen.

In freezing conditions, for the first 10 days the men huddled under small upturned whaling boats until they finished building a one-room hut from the ship’s wreckage.

They survived by eating penguins, seals and eggs from birds, especially albatrosses, along with some food salvaged from the wreck – and some spoiled tins of food left on the island in 1880 for any shipwrecked sailors.

“They said afterwards that mostly they couldn’t tell whether they were eating or drinking tea from the tins or rat poison from the tins, because you couldn’t tell the difference!” Ms Harboe-Ree says.

Cathrine Harboe-Ree has published two books telling the story of her grandfather’s adventures.

The Unlucky Viking: A Saga of Sealing & Shipwrecks in the Southern Ocean.

Harboe-Ree realised there was little prospect of rescue and they may never be found.

“And so my grandfather made the extraordinary decision to reinforce one of the small whaling boats, to put a sail on it and try to make it unsinkable, and attempt to sail it from the Crozet Islands to Australia, which is 7300km away through the Southern Ocean, which is one of the stormiest stretches of water in the world,” Ms Harboe-Ree says.

Harboe-Ree and two crewmen survived a gruelling eight-day voyage in the small boat, christened Hope, before they were rescued by a passing ship hours before a mighty storm hit.

The ship brought them to Melbourne, where they became instantly famous.

Harboe-Ree raised the alarm, and the stranded crew were rescued by a New Zealand passenger ship.

To find out more, listen to the interview in the free In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper every Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.