PIRATES Of BOAT HARBOUR -DESTINATION: WEST COAST July 1999-$ 4.50

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17™' 78624" 70129"" 9"

HISTORY

By Erika Grundmann

George Dibbern: Sailor-PhilosopherA free-spirited wandererwho declared himselfbeyond nationality,Qeorge Dibbern spenttwo years on the B.C.coast, writing, cruising,and inspiring all hemet with his idealismand charisma.

Left: George Dibbern sailed the 32'ketch Te Rapunga from his nativeGermany to New Zealand, then to B.C.and back to New Zealand. She ispictured at the start of the 1934Trans Tasman Race, which she won.

Below: Dibbern aboard Te Rapunga atImmigration Wharf, Vancouver, in 1937.

THEY hove to in the early morning mist. After 31 days enroute from Honolulu, a clean-up was in order for boat andcrew. Te Rapunga had once again made landfall, this time in

Victoria. Canada at last! Skipper George Dibbern, along withRoy Murdock and Eileen Morris, had started their adventurein Auckland, New Zealand almost two years earlier.

The brass polished and the crew, like the deck, scrubbed, the32' ketch sailed (no motor for this lot!) confidently into Vic-toria Harbour. Puzzled by the fact that no harbour boat cameto meet them, they circled, then tied up at Enterprise Wharf,only to learn that they would have to return to William Headfor pratique. It was July 1, 1937.

By late afternoon, with proper clearance, Te Rapunga laysilent alongside Enterprise Wharf. Her crew had been whiskedoff to the hospitality of the Royal Victoria YC. It wasn't long

32 • July 1999 • PACIFIC YACHTING

Dibbern created his own passportdeclaring himself "a citizen of theworld and a friend of all peoples."Eventually it was recognized by NewZealand and Australian authorities.He also designed his own flag torepresent his philosophy—it flewfor the first time on Te Rapunga'sarrival in Victoria in 1937.

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before Dibbern was recognized as a "sailor-philosopher" and invitedto give talks to the RVYC, the Gyro Club and the Women's Cana-dian Club. Both Victoria newspapers of the day covered the arrivalof the plucky double-ender, as well as Dibbern's speaking engage-ments, but neither mentioned Te Rapunga's unusual flag whichhad puzzled the officials at William Head.

WANDERER Born in Kiel in 1889, Dibbern ventured to sea in1907, sailed on square-riggers to the nitrate ports of Chile, andjumped ship in Sydney in 1909. He spent the next eight yearstramping and working at odd jobs in Australia, then in NewZealand where he was interned in 1918-19 and subsequently de-ported back to Germany.

He followed the "normal" path of marriage and children, but itdidn't take him long to realize that his outlook on life, shaped byhis experiences, was far from the norm. He had outgrown Ger-many. Frustrated by failed business ventures, unemployment anddebt—while refusing to buy into the politics of that turbulentperiod—he decided to seek a better future for his family in NewZealand. Financially strapped as he was, his only hope was Te Ra-punga. With a few changes in crew and a few detours along the way,he arrived in New Zealand in March 1934 after a passage thatlasted nearly four years.

For Dibbem, the voyage had been one of self-examination, self-recrimination (at leaving his family behind) and self-discovery. He began to have misgivings by the time he arrived at hisdestination and sought out his Maori friends. Conditions hadchanged and the vision he'd started out with was now clouded. Hiswife and children had made a life for themselves and were notprepared to give up what little they had for the uncertainties thatDibbern could promise. On the opposite side of the globe, broke,unable to face the constraints of Germany, Dibbern had to find anew purpose in life.

His ruminations at the tiller on quiet, starlit nights had led himto favour freedom rather than security, love rather than force, thebrotherhood of all people rather than the division of nationhood.The sea opened his eyes. He would, in his small way, with hissmall boat, give others the opportunity of a sailing experience;he would be a bridge of friendship between people. With this aimDibbern brought together his crew from New Zealand and sailedfrom Auckland to Rarotonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Hawaii andnow Canada.

In Hawaii, Dibbern had been forced into a decision. By law hecould no longer fly the flag of the Germany of his birth. He felt,however, that the obligatory swastika did not represent what hestood for. The concept that had been in his thoughts crystal-lized when a friend who "understood" presented him with the flagshe had sewn to his design. It consisted of a white backgroundwith a red St. George's Cross cutting through a dark blue circle,and in the upper left-hand corner a blue star. The design repre-sented the fundamental and equal rights of people to evolve,each according to his or her individuality; the brotherhood of allpeople and the presence of God within all people. The new flagflew for the first time on Te. Rapunga's arrival in Victoria.

FRIENDSHIP After a couple of weeks in Victoria, the urge topress on to Vancouver took hold. Murdock had relatives there,waiting for his visit. Te Rapunga, as the vessel of friendship, took onfour new-found friends as passengers. Three days later the crowdedlittle boat arrived in Vancouver, met by reporters and an accom-modating harbour master who ought to have fined the skipperfor entering Burrard Inlet without a motor. Instead, he granted a

PACIFIC YACHTING • July 1999 • 33

permit for a year's cruising inB.C. waters.

That summer and fall, TeRapunga explored the GulfIslands. True to Dibbem's vision,new friends regularly visited orjoined the boat as job constraintsallowed. Among them wereDaphne, Jo, the two Dorothys,Noel, Maynard and Frances. KayDay, Mavis Wilcox, WilliamNicholson, Margaret Willis...andGladys Nightingale. Gladys(who later became known as"Sharie" of the legendary coastalcouple, Allen and Sharie Farrell)worked in the same office asMurdock's cousin, Muriel Mur-dock, and had followed theprogress of Te Rapunga from NewZealand to Vancouver. She hadbecome intrigued, and after herfirst visit was hooked.

In the fall of 1937, Roy Mur-dock left the crew and settled inVictoria, later to become asso-ciate editor of The Daily Colonist.That his love of sailing was ce-mented through his Te Rapungaexperience is evident in thepreface to her log, as cited in hisobituary (The Daily Colonist, February 21,1961): "My main ambition had alwaysbeen to sail small boats, not in the shelterof bays and harbors, but across oceans andthrough foreign waters..." The obituarycontinues: "It took him a long time, buthe realized this dream. And from theAugust day in 1935 that the little 32-footTe Rapunga which can be roughly trans-lated from the Polynesian as 'longing' or'searching' sailed from New Zealand, heknew his greatest pleasure, his greatest sat-isfaction on the sea."

VISION Although Dibbern was a skipperwith vision and an enchanting speaker, hewanted to write a book to share the ex-citement and the powerful influence of thesea with those who weren't able to sail withhim. He found, however, that he could notexpress himself on paper in a language nothis mother tongue. He tried dictating toGladys, who had become part of the crew,and found that worked. He decided itwould be better to moor Te Rapunga atEnterprise Wharf in Victoria for the winter

34 • July 1999 • PACIFIC YACHTING

Te Rapunga berthed at Royal Victoria YCin 1937, with the 23' ketch Queen Mary

from Halifax alongside.

in Eileen's care. He returned to Vancouverwhere he rented a room with a view acrossthe harbour to Hollyburn Mountain andwhere he could spend more time withGladys. Mornings he gave talks at schoolsand clubs to earn much-needed cash;afternoons he made notes, and followingsupper with Gladys, he dictated. Occa-sionally they went out dancing. So passedthe fall, punctuated by a surprise visit fromEileen and Jack Shark (an adventurer theyhad first met in Tahiti, who ultimatelysettled in Courtenay), and periodic tripsto Victoria.

By spring the first draft of what wouldbe Quest was completed. Her permit ex-tended, Te Rapunga was towed to Van-couver in anticipation of another seasonof cruising. Eileen set to editing the

manuscript; Gladys retyped.They formed a happy, lovingthreesome. The book finished,Te Rapunga was once again freeto sail: Fender Harbour, Half-moon Bay, Blind Bay and anyother little bay that suited theirfancy. As they explored, acommon dream took shape:they would buy some land; builda truly Canadian log house andsome cabins for friends andfamily to visit for as long as they ,_wished; provide hot baths and |laundry facilities for sailors; 1garden and fish; and from time |to time sail to Vancouver to give §talks for what little money °they'd require...or to San Fran-cisco or even Hawaii.

GALLEY BAY A 200-acreproperty at Galley Bay in Deso-lation Sound, available for $528in back taxes, became the ob-ject of their dreams. Theypooled their limited resourcesand purchased the land. Inspiredand buoyed by the plan, theycruised from summer into fall

until, back in Vancouver, the real-ization hit that George and Eileen's visitorpermits were soon to expire and this timewould not be renewed.

Their only recourse was to apply forlanded-immigrant status. Given the times(early 1939), Dibbern's German birth, hisrefusal to take up arms for Canada (or forany country, for that matter), and officialconcern that he was planning to start somesort of cult or commune in Galley Bay (notto mention the fact that he and Eileen wereunmarried and living in the same restrictedquarters), their application and subsequentappeal were unsuccessful.

In the cold rain of a late February after-noon in 1939, Te Rapunga dragged herselffrom the embrace of Immigration Wharf. Afew days of farewell in Victoria, then on toPort Angeles where the "man without acountry" flying what was lightly referred toas a "pirates' flag" was welcomed...for awhile. The U.S. allowed Te Rapunga andher crew, George Dibbern and EileenMorris, to stay until June 1940. During thattime, Dibbern's German passport expiredand he created a new one displaying his

Pkase turn to page 42

Continued from page 34

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flag and declaring himself "outside ofnationality, a citizen of the world, a friendof all peoples."

TO N.Z. After 72 days of sailing anddrifting beyond the limits of Hawaii, whileEileen sat on deck fine-tuning Quest, atypewriter perched on her knees, the ad-venturesome idealists headed back to NewZealand. Their survival of a hurricane enroute is described in a letter Eileen wrote tofriends in Canada. (A copy of that accountis taped to the edition of Quest donatedby Tom Denny to the Maritime Museum ofB.C. in Victoria.) Shortly after theirarrival in Eileen's hometown of Napier onJanuary 24, 1941, Dibbern was againinterned because the New Zealandauthorities refused to recognize the decla-ration of his flag and passport.

Quest was published by W.W. Nortonin March 1941. Dibbem was released frominternment in October 1945. He andEileen resumed sailing, pursuing their goalof a bridge of friendship among peoples.Dibbern won a lottery in 1950 and boughtan island in Tasmania where he was joinedfor a time by Eileen and their daughter.The Galley Bay property was sold in thesad acknowledgment of a dream beyondrealization. In 1954 Dibbern caused a stirby participating in the Trans-TasmanRace—shockingly, with an all-femalecrew! He made news again in 1957 whenTe Rapunga was driven ashore in a stormnear Greymouth, New Zealand and yetagain in 1959 when, battered by a hurri-cane, she was towed into Auckland.

On June 11, 1962, Dibbern died of aheart attack in Auckland. He was makingpreparations to "complete the circle" byreturning to Germany to visit his familywhom he had not seen, but with whom hehad remained in contact, since his depar-ture in 1930. To the end he remained trueto his principles, never took out citizen-ship in any country and thereby forfeitedold-age security income. To the end, heproudly flew his own flag and carried thepassport that expressed his philosophy. P

Erika Grundmann is writing a book aboutGeorge Dibbern s peripatetic life and wouldlike to hear from anyone who has memories ofhim, photos, dippings and other memorabilia.Write her at PO Box 227, Mansons LandingVOP IKO, E-mail grundman@island.net orphone 250-935-6724.

42 • July 1999 • PACIFIC YACHTING