FEATURE
96
FIG. 4 (below):
C. W. Öberg’s cabin
in Hysta.
Hometown Society Museum Stora
Skedvi.
Copy photo © Bart van Bussel.
search eventually compiled a fascinating portrait
of a sailor and trader in the South Seas during
the German colonial period. Much of this information
is drawn from his diaries, which reveal a
remarkable widow into the day-to-day activities
and a personal perspective of a European resident
of the Pacifi c more than a century ago.
THE SAILOR CARL WILHEM ÖBERG
The village of Stora Skedvi, referred to in one
of the clippings (fi g. 2), is located in the middle
of Sweden, well into the hills and woods of the
vast county of Dalarna. In the same county is located
the tiny hamlet of Hysta, where the Öberg
family lived and where Öberg eventually found
himself again, albeit alone (fi g. 4).
Born in 1856 as the fi rst among seven siblings,
Carl Öberg attended the lower grade levels
in school and, when not studying, had to
help his father in the woods to earn a living for
the family.
At the age of sixteen, Öberg took a job aboard
a ship on the nearby Lake Runn, transporting
ore, and four years later he worked aboard larger
ships sailing from Swedish ports with various
cargoes to destinations in Europe.1 As his skills
and opportunities improved, his trips became
more distant and of increasingly extended periods
of time, sailing to North and South America,
Africa, India, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
During his lifetime Öberg made seven circumnavigations,
made seventeen transits of the Suez
Canal, and experienced shipwrecks and starvation
at sea.2
Öberg’s experiences aboard different sailing
ships made him an adept sailor, and it seems he
had no diffi culty getting hired. Like other sailors,
he was tattooed, in his case on both forearms
and on his left back hand.3
the 1920s and 1930s to make the acquaintance
of former colonial persons. However, this does
not imply that Nevermann and Öberg knew
each other or even met, but it does explain why
the articles caught his attention.
The brief text in both clippings is written with
a proud tone, recognizing Öberg and his achievements,
and even referring to him as a “South
Seas King.” As such, the two pieces could have
been arranged through work-related or offi cial
German colonial acquaintances. Other possibilities
could have been Öberg himself or his relatives,
friends, or people from his hometown.
Whoever they might have been, someone clearly
wanted to draw attention and pay tribute to this
person. An immediate search for further information
about him revealed little in sources from
the period. It struck us as unusual to discover
an apparently hitherto unknown individual with
this background, who was the subject of not one
but two newspaper inserts, and those in Germany
rather than his own country of Sweden.
The fi rst clipping appears to be a salute to
Öberg’s retirement in Sweden accompanied by
a photograph that places him in front of three
tall carved wood New Ireland objects, holding a
spear in his hand while dressed in his best, giving
the impression of an exceptional, successful,
and signifi cant person (fi g. 1). The caption for
this photo indicates he had just returned home
to settle as a farmer after many years abroad. It
is not diffi cult to think that he and his collection
would have received quite a bit of attention.
The second newspaper clipping is more of a
short retrospective of his life, with the accompanying
photo giving the impression of an older
man (fi g. 2), although only three years had
passed since the previous article. The text contains
more certain and useful information. It
states the year he settled in the South Seas and
how long he stayed, and it mentions Tasman Island,
his diaries, and the donation of a valuable
ethnographical collection to a Swedish village.
Many questions immediately arose, including:
Who was Öberg? What was he doing in the Pacifi
c? Could his collection and story possibly still
be preserved? What had happened between his
return in 1909 and his death in 1933, and since?
And was there more to Nevermann having saved
these clippings other than just curiosity? Our re-