Herbert Knowles Tournay

Herbert Knowles Tournay had arrived in Geraldton 18 months prior to his disappearance. He held a residence on Sunbury Road in Victoria Park, but was residing in Fifth Street Wonthella with his wife, Deryth Irene and three children.

At about 7am on Wednesday 6 August 1952, Tournay arose from bed and lit the fire. He had a cup of tea and brought one to his wife in bed. He asked her to come fishing with him to help pull the craypots as he was concerned he might hurt a boil on his arm.

He asked her twice to go, but she refused each time on account of the children. He then kissed his wife and the three children, and ran out to his utility leaving the home at around 7:30am to attend to his 18 or so craypots. He told his wife he would be back “Earlier than usual”.

Some of his craypots were close to the beach, north of Bluff Point, and others were between the Two and Three-Mile Buoys.

Tournay travelled to the West End Beach where his fishing boat Constance (LFBG 45) was anchored about 100 yards from the beach. He waded to his dinghy before making his way onto the Constance. He was wearing khaki shorts and long trousers rolled up, a khaki shirt and a long sleeveless maroon jumper, and was bare foot while on the beach.

At about 10am on the same day, Tournay was seen by another fisherman, Felice Rinaldi Miragliotta. Miragliotta was the sole survivor of the Columbia tragedy of 1921, and was a well-known identity in Geraldton.

Tournay was in the Constance and was pulling his craypots North of Bluff Point and near Drummond’s Cove. Miragliotta passed within 50 yards of the boat and was between a half and a quarter of a mile off shore, and about three quarters of a mile South of the Settlement at Drummonds Cove. Tournay was alone in the boat and was standing up steering with his foot. This was the last time he was seen alive.

At around 11am, Miragliotta saw a boat, which he believed to be the Constance, about four miles out to sea opposite Nazareth House and heading in a Northerly direction. Miragliotta was too far away to make the identity certain, or to be able to see if the boat was occupied.

At 3pm, Tournay’s wife became concerned that he had not returned as scheduled, as she expected him home around 1pm.

She discussed this with another fisherman named Victor Roy Wann, who was a close friend of Tournay’s. He lived about 200 yards away and had gotten to know him quite well.

Wann had known Tournay for the past 15 months and had been working his craypots in the same area. Wann went to the Point Moore Light House and searched the sea with a telescope without success. He then boarded his boat and searched along the coast as far as Drummond’s Cove, without finding any trace of Tournay. Wann speculated that from his experiences working with Tournay on occasions, he was subject to fainting fits and became squeamish at the sight of blood.

When he last saw him on the 6 August, Tournay had a large boil on his outer left forearm. The day prior his wife had also mentioned that he had nearly fainted when he had pulled the sticker plaster off the boil. Wann was certain that if he had knocked his boil on any part of the boat while at sea, he would have fainted.

At approximately 4:15pm, Robert Norman Saunier, owner of the 65-foot fishing boat Eureka II was returning to Geraldton from the North Island in the Abrolhos group, approximately six to seven miles from the Point Moore Lighthouse, when he sighted a 16 (or 18) foot boat. He was travelling with Skipper John Akerstrom and crew Stanley Ramage, and Frank Moss.

The sea was very rough and a strong North-Westerly wind was blowing. Despite the weather, Akerstrom succeeded in leaping upon the Constance, where he found two live crayfish, an old craypot, a small paddle, some crayfish bait and a couple of ounces of tobacco.

The Stewart petrol engine was still in forward gear and the throttle was at idling speed. The petrol tank was empty and there was no petrol in the boat. The sails were furled.

Akerstrom put a line around the mast and attempted to tow the Constance to Geraldton harbour. Twenty minutes later, the mast then snapped and three more attempts had to be made before the smaller craft was made secure.

An anchor from the Eureka II was placed on board the Constance and hooked on to the combing of the forward deck and with the rope attached to the towing bollards of the Eureka II, the trip to port was resumed, with Akerstrom aboard the Constance and steering the boat from the Three-Mile Buoy to the Geraldton Harbour.

The pluck and perseverance of Akerstrom were later praised for persisting with the salvage. They returned to port at around 7:15pm.

By 8pm, Saunier reported to the Geraldton Police Station that he had found Tournay’s fishing boat drifting unoccupied about seven miles out from Geraldton in a North by West direction.

At 9:30pm, Wann returned to the Tournay residence to tell the family the boat had been found out to sea, but without Tournay in it. Despite a wide search by Police and volunteers his body was never recovered.

Herbert Knowles Tournay was 31 years of age, in good health and spirit the day he left for his fishing trip. He left behind his wife and three young children, Margaret, Susanne and Jimmy.

Deryth Irene (nee Hearn) remarried another fisherman the following year, William Clifford Hams and resided on Sixth Street in Wonthella.

Years later, she married Vincent John Combe who was tragically murdered in 1982, when working for the Main Roads Department near the Billabong Road House.