Roamer: Introduction to Carlingford Lough’s South Pacific writer Louis Becke

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd Jun 2024, 07:00 BST

The main thrust of the story was his WWII visit to Bangor, Co Down; his heroic sorties with the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) were also recounted.

Like many other parts of Northern Ireland, Bangor played a crucial role in the build-up to D-Day and Gable was there on a special assignment making a USAAF recruitment film.

He also led a film crew embedded in the American Eighth Air Force, in action over Europe.

“Good morning from the other side of the world,” began a recent email in Roamer’s mailbox.

It continued: “Some people have denied that Gable flew real wartime missions but he certainly did, and came close to being wounded more than once.”

The email was from Dr Chrystopher J Spicer, a cultural historian and Senior Research Fellow at James Cook University in Cairns, Queensland.

He also writes about Australian and American cultural history.

“I've written two books about Clark Gable,” Chrystopher explained, “and one of your readers sent me a copy of your column (about Gable) of May 18. I was actually in touch with some of the last surviving members of USAAF crews with whom he flew and they had some great stories.”

Hopefully he’ll share some of those stories another time, but Chrystopher’s email continued “I'm currently engaged in a research project about the life and work of the great Australian writer about the South Pacific, Louis Becke (1855-1913), who by the end of the 19th century was the world’s best-known author about that region.”

He also had strong links with Carlingford Lough!

But first, Chrystopher explained that Becke’s work was translated into at least half a dozen languages “and in a writing career of barely two decades he wrote 35 books and over 400 stories and articles.”

He has been favourably compared with Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, and James Michener, author of the Broadway musical South Pacific, claimed Becke’s books about that region were unrivalled.

His debut - ‘By Reef and Palm’ - was an instant best-seller and after publication “Becke moved to England,” Chrystopher explained “and then, wait for it - to Ireland!”

He’d previously had a remarkably eventful life around the South Pacific before starting to write - when he was about 40 years old!

Then, while living in Eastbourne on the south coast of England, probably because of the burgeoning tourism, Louis moved with his family to the more tranquil Greenore in Co Louth in 1901, on the shore of Carlingford Lough.

Their address was Number 3, The Bungalows - “It’s still there, and I've enclosed a photograph,” said Chrystopher, who thinks Becke liked being near the sea because he was born in the seaside town of Port Macquarie in Australia.

Greenore also had good transport links with Belfast and London and Chrystopher reckons the Beckes remained there until they moved to France in 1903.

“Louis wrote the introduction to Moby Dick in Greenore,” says Chrystopher, “that's how significant he was at the time!” He also wrote at least three books and a number of other stories there “as well as making it a base from which he travelled to Jamaica and the United States and Canada.”

He had a hugely colourful life and lifestyle and it’ll be intriguing to read what Chrystopher discovers about Becke’s sojourn in Greenore.

Louis was a friend of Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, the Earl of Pembroke, and British Prime Minister Archibald Philip Primrose (5th earl of Rosebery) to name but a few cultural giants and celebrities that he was acquainted with. Chrystopher believes passionately that “Becke’s story really needs to be told. He was the first to bring the real people and culture of the South Pacific to a world readership.”

Born in 1855 in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Becke was an adventurer, explorer, gold prospector, trader, merchant seafarer and ethnologist throughout the South Pacific from 1872 to 1891 yet the prolific, internationally renowned author and friend of the great and the good (and the not-so-good!) died alone, in poverty.

Dr Spicer hopes that someone reading this might know even a little about Becke’s time in Greenore from 1901 to 1903.

Please email [email protected] and correspondence will be forwarded to Chrystopher forthwith.