Name BECKMANN, Ludvik
Born
Died 18 November 1912
Age 28
Cemetery Norway
Grave Ref -
Register 18

In his book 'Logbook for Grace' Robert Cushman Murphy says:

Todays [23 Jan 1913] trip to Beckman Fiord (commemorating the captain of the 'Don Ernesto', who was killed during our stay in Cumberland Bay) enabled me to take much needed bearings from the eastern end of the bay.

The Register of Deaths entry tells us that Bechmann was killed after being struck by the recoiling harpoon gun that he had just fired, and that his body was transported to Norway on the steamship 'Ocean' in January 1913.

In his book 'Pesca' Ian Hart tells us that according to the coroner's inquest he was killed 'by a complicated fracture of the skull due to being accidentally struck and thrown onto the ships deck' when the recoil of the for'ard port harpoon gun on Don Ernesto broke its mountings on firing, killing him instantly. He left a wife and and four children, in Norway to where his body,embalmed and placed in a zinc coffin, was returned.