Mr. Wilhelm Adolph Ludwig WOLTER

Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986), Friday 8 September 1933, page 4 WILHELM ADOLF LUDWIG WOLTER "Sobriety, civility, and attendance to work with the assistance of Sunday School and temperance work, to use his own words, “helped” the late Captain Wolter, of Victor Harbour, in his plan of life. Mr. Wolter passed away on Monday at the residence of his only daughter, Mrs. J. P. Cole-batch. He was 91 years of age. Born at St. Pauli, a suburb of Hamburg, Germany, on February 24th, 1942, the late Captain was apprenticed to the carpentering trade with a view to entering his father's business, that of a master ship's joiner. Eventually young Wolter sailed away in a wind-jammer owned by a friend of his father. Seven times he came to Australia, and seven times he rounded the dreaded Cape Horn. Many tales of his sea-roving days and stirring episodes before the mast as cabin-boy, deck-hand and later as an able seaman, would fill many an adventurous page, packed with real exploits. He kept his faculties till the last, and was an excellent raconteur to those interested enough to listen to his yarns—stranger than fiction: earthquakes, brushes with foreign soldiers and sailors of warring nations; queer cus-toms of queer countries; salutations acknowledged by the Czar at St. Petersburg (now Lenin-grad), sour kraut, and scurvey; escapes from alligators, typhoons and tempestuous seas; mates lost one minute only to be saved the next, washed overboard by one wave and swept back by the succeeding one; millions of gal-lons of water, but not a drop to drink ; tidal waves and top-heavy rafts on swift-flowing rivers; and so on. The unstaple gear and behaviour of one of the boats he sail-ed on decided him upon a life ashore, and at Port Adelaide, in 1863, he, with nine mates, walked ashore with their belonging. The “captain” left behind him one of his most prized possessions, an accordian. Ashore he engaged in mason work and, for a while, he continued at Port Adelaide with a Mr. Runge. Coming to Goolwa, he went to Hindmarsh Island where he earned 20/- per week for driving a reaping machine to which were attached six bullocks and two horses. Later he joined the “Lady Augusta” under Mate Charles Elfenbein. At Goolwa young Wolter received his first real set-back. When he first arrived he could speak only broken English, a kind of German-English gibberish used by sailors of Teutonic extraction. He was forbidden the boarding house because the "lady” proprietress "had gentlemen staying who COULD speak English.” The indomitable courage of the man asserted itself. Earning enough money to support himself for six months he set out to master the language problem. He isolated himself from his fellows, taking with him the Bible, John Bunyan’s "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Holy War,” Combe’s "Constitution of Man," a dictionary, and other works. He also included a Mellaphone and music. He could speak reasonably good English when he came out of his voluntary exile, and was now a favoured member of the boarding establishment, where a short while since he had been asked to leave. The trade on the Murray fascinated him, and he joined the river craft. It was a mate saving his life from drowning that led to his conversion to the Methodist faith. From that time onwards he has said "he never looked back.” He lacked nothing. His life was changed, with it his habits. True, he was "chaffed” by his mates, but people respected him more. "Prayer without effort is no good,” he said, and he rose from deckhand to barge-master, from mate to captain. His next step was to own his own river steamer, "The Pilot.” "Captain” Wolter was a different man from the sailor who talked only German gibberish. With his fresh outlook on life, prosperity followed quickly upon his upright life. There was reciprocity in plenty for the man "whose word was his bond.” He studied the use homeopathic medicines and that enabled him to help others. Adventure came his way on the Nile of Australia. The police used the vessel he captained to visit the venue of the shearers’ strike in 1891. He had an experience with an "abo,” and unenviable moments with wild dogs. He recollected witnessing a drowning accident that was featured by Simpson Newland in “Paving the Way.” Few men in his day knew the River Murray like Captain Wolter with his 53 years’ experience. He was a strong advocate for a River Murray Port, and like the late Simpson Newland, hoped one day to see a canal cut through the sand for a deep sea port near the mouth. Mr. Wolter was a staunch Rachebite, a member of Corinthian Masonic Lodge, and a devout worshipper of the Methodist faith. He leaves three sons Messrs. Frederick, Brisbane; William, Sydney, and Herbert, Croydon, S.A., and one daughter Mrs. J. P. Colebatch. There are 19 grand-children and two great grandchildren. His remains were interred at the Currency Creek cemetery on Wednesday.