Ludvig Verner Helms

Ludvig Verner Helms (April 14, 1825 – July 26, 1918) was an adventurer, merchant, emissary, and author associated with the Far East, especially the Borneo Company in Sarawak. As a manager for the Borneo Company, Helms developed and expanded trade for Sarawak in the country's infancy. Helms traveled extensively and encountered several notable personalities including Mads Lange, the Kings of Cambodia and Siam, the White Rajahs of Sarawak, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Brigham Young. Helms wrote and illustrated an account of his adventures in 1882 titled ''Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878'', providing firsthand accounts of Bali, California, Cambodia, Thailand, Sarawak, Japan, the White Sea, and their leaders during periods of significant historical interest.

Early life

Ludvig Verner Helms was born in Varde, Denmark, on April 14, 1825, the son of Rudolph Helms and his second wife Mathilde Augusta Fridsch. Rudolph Helms was an Apoteker (Pharmacist) in Varde. Helms was the thirteenth of sixteen children.

Southeast Asia (1847 - 1872)

In 1846 Helms left for Bali, sailing via the Cape and Singapore. He spent the next 26 years in Southeast Asia working as a merchant or trader. During this period he would visit Bali, Cambodia, Siam, China, Japan, Australia, and California.

Bali

Helms sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on the Brig ''Johanna Caesar'' on September 15, 1846, with the intention of finding and introducing himself to his fellow countryman Mads Lange, who was reputed to have established a successful merchant business on the island of Bali. He had never met or corresponded with Lange, but had letters of introduction. His ship stopped in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 1846, where he spent several weeks with friends, and then continued to Singapore on December 16, 1846, where he arrived on February 25, 1847.

In Singapore he was told the Bali natives were unfriendly and advised against proceeding. However he decided to continue, and found a ship that was willing to drop him off at Bali. He arrived in the middle of the night and, communicating only by repeating Lange's name, was led by natives to Lange's residence, where he was welcomed.

Helms spent the next two years working for Lange in his growing trade business near Kuta, which included rice, spices, and animal stock, as well as the importing of the Chinese Kepeng, the currency used in Bali. His responsibilities included negotiating prices, and arranging and preparing cargo for shipment. While in Bali, he became well acquainted with the natives and their habits and religions, later extensively documenting them in his book ''Pioneering in the Far East''. Along with Lange, Helms also met and occasionally interacted with the reigning rajahs of Bali, particularly Rajah Kassiman (Kesiman) of Badung.

While in Bali he also witnessed a Suttee, a Hindu practice in which a widow sacrifices herself into her deceased husband's funeral pyre. He vividly described the event in his book ''Pioneering in the Far East'', including a sketch. He also collected paintings and carvings, along with Mads Lange. Later in life Helms and his family donated several pieces of artwork, including some carved statues, a case of cockspurs, and a painting, to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

Helms stayed in Bali with Lange until the conflicts with the Dutch and Balinese in the 1848 and 1849 Dutch Interventions caused trade to dwindle. He played a role as courier and escort for Lange's mediations between the Dutch and Balinese in June, 1849, which resulted in peaceful settlement. Lange's Kuta business gradually declined due to Dutch blockades during the interventions, epidemics, warring between the Balinese rajahs, as well as the growing use of steamships which shifted trade to competing ports in northern Bali. Lange's business never recovered, and on June 21, 1849, Helms left to find other employment in Singapore. Helms returned to Bali only once in September 1858, when he stopped en route to Europe from Sarawak to visit Lange. He was saddened to find Lange had died a few years earlier.

Sarawak (1852-1872)

In 1852 Helms took up residence in Sarawak and commenced trading mainly in sago and antimony. Helms would spend the next 20 years there, then under the rule of Rajah James Brooke and his successor, Rajah Charles Brooke. While in Sarawak Helms would act as the Sarawak manager for the Borneo Company, Limited (BCL), witness pirate battles and insurrections, prospect for minerals, and raise six children before a dispute with the BCL would end his Sarawak employment.

Formation of The Borneo Company, Limited

Helms arrived in Kuching, Sarawak on the Steamship Pluto on January 16, 1852, as an agent of a commercial firm to purchase antimony ore. Rajah James Brooke was absent at the time and he called upon Captain John Brooke Johnson Brooke, the Rajah's nephew, and moved into a small bungalow in Kuching on a hill above the Sarawak River known as Bukit Mata.
From 1852 to 1856 he worked for McEwan and Company trading primarily in sago and antimony. In 1856, the BCL was formed and Helms was selected by the directors to be the company's manager in Sarawak, although Rajah Brooke favored Spenser St. John. His staff originally consisted of a Chinese Cook and a native clerk named Abdullah. Helms spent much time exploring the Sarawak interior in search of minerals, and vividly describes the Borneo rivers, jungles, and natives he encountered in his book ''Pioneering in the Far East'', including many illustrations.

As the Sarawak manager for the BCL, Helms prospected or traded for antimony, sago, quicksilver, gold, diamonds, gutta percha, coal, timber, and other resources. He would eventually be replaced as manager by W.G. Brodie in 1872.

1857 Chinese Insurrection

Helms was in Kuching during the February 1857 Chinese Insurrection against Rajah James Brooke, and recounted his experiences in ''Pioneering'' through the anonymous diary of a friend, who is now known to be fellow BCL employee Paul Tidman. During the initial attack Helms retreated to a nearby Malay village, where he unsuccessfully attempted to organize a defense, and the next day he returned to Kuching and was forced to attend a meeting with the leaders of the insurrection, along with Bishop Francis McDougall, Tidman, and Mr. George Ruppell (Rajah Brooke's Treasurer). During the meeting the Chinese attempted to appoint him as Rajah (thinking Rajah Brooke dead), an honor which Helms declined. He later was able to assist other Europeans in Kuching, and avoid being taken hostage by the Chinese as they retreated up the river. He then went downriver for help, and assisted the women and children in evacuating. At one point Helms and Tidman were directed by Rajah Brooke to "offer the country on any terms to the Dutch", which he fortunately did not have to do; he was on the BCL Steamer ''Sir James Brooke'' when it re-took Kuching. He then sailed at the Rajah's request to Sambas to inform the Dutch of the Insurrection, and then to Singapore, where he met with Admiral Henry Keppel, who sent a warship as a demonstration of force.

Marriage to Anne Amelia Bruce

On June 19, 1858, he sailed for the UK, via Bali and Australia, to recover his health and negotiate better terms with the Borneo Company's directors in the UK. He arrived in London on March 13, 1859. In London, in 1859, he married Anne Amelia Bruce, with whom he had 10 children (Eve Louisa Mathilda, b. 1861; Dora Helen b. 1862; Dagmar b. 1864; Hilda Constance b. 1865; Katharine Annie b. 1868; Mary Sibyl b. 1870; Vera Ewen, b. 1874; Vera, b. 1876; Harold Verner Bruce, b. 1877; Paul Victor, b. 1880). After a visit to his native Denmark, Helms engaged to return to Sarawak for the BCL and returned with his wife on April 17, 1860. Upon his return, he renamed his bungalow on Bukit Mata "Aneberg" in her honor.

Muka Pirates

Helms participated in the Sarawak Government's struggle with Muka rebels and pirates in 1857–1862, which was dramatically affecting the BCL sago trade. He accompanied Rajah Brooke in September 1857 and sat in on tense negotiations to settle a local feud; and went with Raja Muda John Brooke Johnson Brooke in August 1860 to participate in a perilous meeting with the local leaders for a resumption of trade. He later played a minor role in the Pirate Battle off Muka in May 1862; while visiting a Sago factory at Muka, he observed a large pirate force massing at the entrance to the Muka River. He convinced a native to paddle through the pirate fleet during the night to notify Rajah Muda John Brooke, who then amassed a sizable force on the Steamer ''Rainbow'' to attack the pirates in a pitched battle. Helms' role is documented in several contemporary articles, and Helms later recounted the events in his book ''Pioneering in the Far East''.

Dispute between James Brooke and John Brooke Johnson Brooke

Helms was a first-hand witness to the dispute between Rajah James Brooke and his nephew, Rajah Muda John Brooke Johnson Brooke, which eventually resulted in the disinheritance of the latter, and the removal of his title "Raja Muda". Helms made a point of meticulously documenting the details of the dispute in ''Pioneering in the Far East'', particularly the perspective of John Brooke Johnson Brooke, whom he felt had not been fairly treated. In his preface to Pioneering, he states,

I may seem to awaken slumbering controversies and challenge hostile opinion. The references to the dispute between two men, both of whom I knew and admired—Rajah Brooke and his nephew, Captain Brooke—will be uninteresting to many and displeasing to some, but there are also those who will remember and who were interested in their careers, and who will see that I have attempted, though somewhat late, to do an act of justice. As one who shared the intimacy of Rajah Brooke, I hold that his whole life will stand out as great and heroic, and such a man can bear the imputation of errors in judgment, and will not need to have his faults shielded. It has been my object, while doing full justice to Sir James Brooke, to deal fairly also with the memory of his gallant nephew, who no less devoted his life and sacrificed his fortunes to the cause of civilising Borneo.

Tegora Mine and Quicksilver

Helms played a large role in the discovery and development of the quicksilver (mercury) mine at Tegora in Sarawak in the late 1860s for the BCL. He is attributed with the first discovery of Cinnabar ore in the area, and established the original ore processing facility at the mine. Technical problems plagued the mine for several years, but eventually the mine became profitable.

Departure to London

Helms stayed in Sarawak until May 30, 1872, when he returned to Europe via China, Japan, and California. Helms intended to return to Sarawak as manager for the BCL, but a lawsuit terminated his relationship, and he remained in Europe.

Sarawak Legacy

The last Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, commented on the contribution of the BCL during Helms' era in his Forward to ''The Borneo Story'' in 1956:

So strong was the link between the State of Sarawak and the Borneo Company in the early days that Sarawak and the Borneo Company were almost synonymous terms....the present day progress and prosperity of the Country can be clearly traced to the great efforts of this Company in those early days when capital outlay and unremitting labour reaped no spectacular reward.

Helms is credited with creating one of the earliest maps of Sarawak, developed during his explorations of the region.

While in Sarawak, Helms attended court weekly and acted as jury foreman and magistrate. He was also appointed Lloyd's agent and Vice-Consul for Sarawak.

While living in Sarawak, Helms met naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who was collecting specimens in the region in 1854. Helms assisted him in transporting specimens, and guided him to various locations. Wallace would later become famous for his theories on natural selection along with Charles Darwin. When Wallace departed, Helms employed Wallace's assistant Charles Allen with the BCL.

Later in life Helms encountered financial difficulties, and returned to Sarawak in the early 1890s for several years to prospect.

Helms' bungalow "Aneberg" on Bukit Mata in Kuching remained as the BCL manager's house for many years after Helms' departure. During the World War II Japanese occupation it was used as a brothel for Japanese officers, and was destroyed after the war.

China, Japan, and California (1872)

China and Japan

On his return to England from Sarawak, Helms traveled from Kuching to Singapore, Saigon, Hong-Kong, and Shanghai, where he marveled at the changes over the last two decades; and then on to Nagasaki, Japan, arriving on June 28, 1872.

Helms spent a month touring Japan, including Nagasaki, Kobe, Hyōgo, Osaka, Kyoto, Arima, Jeddo (now Tokyo), Yokohama, and Enoshima Island. In Osaka he obtained special permission to travel to the Kyoto Arts and Manufactures Exhibition, a rare opportunity since Kyoto had previously been restricted for foreigners He traveled by land and sea to the different cities, traversing portions of the Tōkaidō road, and visited several Japanese temples and shrines in Kyoto and Jeddo. In his book ''Pioneering in the Far East'', Helms extensively described the Japanese culture, gardens, religion, architecture and art from his European viewpoint, and noted the extensive change occurring as they adapted to foreign influence, often commenting prophetically:

Like, probably, all travelers in Japan, I had been delighted with the country, but astonished at the rapidity with which the ruling classes of this old and exclusive empire had divested themselves of their old ways and habits, and the docility with which the people submitted to it.... I did not then believe in the undisturbed progress of the new state of things; but, happily, time is rolling on, and the Japanese are still progressing and apparently consolidating, a spectacle that cannot but affect their mighty neighbour China.

California Revisited

Helms departed from Yokohama on the Steamship ''Alaska'' on August 8, 1872, arriving in San Francisco on August 31. He was amazed at the contrast in technology and comfort from his previous journey in 1849, and found San Francisco almost unrecognizable. Helms' primary purpose was to observe quicksilver mines in California (to assist in resolving problems being encountered processing the ore at his Tegora mine in Sarawak) and he visited the Almaden mine near San Jose, and the Redington, Manhattan, and Phoenix mines near Napa. He then visited the Calistoga hot springs and geysers, and the Petrified Forest before beginning his journey East across the American continent. He took the Central Pacific Railroad to Reno, Nevada, where he stopped to tour the Comstock mines via an unpleasant stagecoach journey:

...perched on some boxes on the roof of the coach, without my rug, and barely able to hold on as we rattled along the rough mountain tracks, I was numbed and shaken to pieces long before we reached Virginia city. When returning by the same coach it was daylight, and we then saw that it was full of bullet-holes, the work of robbers, while the inside was well supplied with irons, intended, as the driver told us, for unruly passengers.

He resumed his journey east via railroad, stopping only in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he had a brief interview with Brigham Young, before resuming his journey to New York and on to England.

Borneo Company Lawsuit

During the last few years of his tenure at the BCL in Sarawak, Helms had been dissatisfied with the profit and loss accounting for his portion of the BCL activities. When he returned to London, one of his goals was to renegotiate his contract for a more equitable arrangement, and obtain compensation for past inequities.

One of Helms' concerns was that financial losses due to coal mining activities in the Simunjan District in Sarawak were being attributed to his division, but were not under his control. Helms had regularly expressed concern over this arrangement during his correspondence with the BCL managers in Singapore and London. He was also concerned that an 1866 agreement, signed by Helms but not ratified by the BCL Board, had never been finalized, leaving him operating under an 1860 contract which incidentally gave him a third of any profits from his division. This had not been lucrative up to 1867, when the BCL was struggling to survive, but became a subject of dispute when the mines at Tegora were discovered and became profitable.

Upon his arrival in London in 1872, he found the BCL directors resistant to correcting the problem. This was compounded by the death in 1871 of BCL Chairman Richard Henderson, Helms' long-time friend and advocate on the BCL board of directors. By 1876, when an agreement could not be reached, Helms filed a lawsuit against the BCL in the London Chancery court. Several attempts were made to settle out of court but were unsuccessful and in December, 1876, the court ruled in Helms' favor, the judge directing that the Sarawak branch of the company should be liquidated, if necessary, to pay him and appointing a receiver.

All BCL business in Sarawak was temporarily suspended in December, 1876, due to the court order, causing significant confusion and concern in Sarawak, but business appears to have resumed by January, 1877, when Helms and the Directors settled out-of-court. The settlement appears to have been quite advantageous for Helms, allowing him to retire from BCL employment.

White Sea

In 1877, Helms was asked by friends to investigate the potential of reopening some abandoned mines in the White Sea. The mines were rumored to have been opened around 1732 by Baron Curt Alexander von Schömberg, a Saxon working for the Russian government, and then been abandoned several years later when Schömberg fell out of favor with the Russian court. In July 1877, Helms traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to investigate the validity of the claims and obtain permissions from the Russian government. He found the records to be legitimate, and the government willing to allow it:

The concession embraced more than a dozen localities on the coast of Russian Lapland, and on islands in the White Sea. For a specified time we were to be at liberty to examine and work these, and on the expiry of that time we had the refusal to take them over for a certain consideration.

Helms intended to investigate two abandoned mining areas: copper mines on the far eastern coast of the Kola Peninsula at Rusinga Creek just north of the Ponoy River; and silver mines on Bear Island in the Kandalaksha Gulf near Umba.

Helms planned the venture for the summer of 1878, during the brief period when the weather was suitable for travel and work in the extreme northern regions where the mines were located. He purchased the steamship ''Vestfold'' in Christiania, Norway (now Oslo) in May 1878, and ordered supplies to be delivered to Trondheim, Norway, and Arkhangelsk, Russia. He recruited a crew in Christiania, and traveled north to load supplies in Trondheim. He continued north, recruiting Norwegian miners at the Alten Copper Mines at Kåfjord, and traveling around the North Cape via Hammerfest, Vadsø, and into the White Sea, arriving at the mines on Rusinga Creek on June 23. Helms was joined the following day by two Russian officials who accompanied him on the remainder of the trip.

The mines on Rusinga Creek proved difficult to access due to the steep cliffs and lack of anchorage; however Helms dispatched a team of miners to establish a base and begin prospecting, while he went for supplies at Arkhangelsk in the ''Vestfold'' on June 29.

After resupplying at Arkhangelsk, Helms attempted to return to Rusinga on July 6, but inclement weather forced the ship west and they decided to head instead for Bear Island. During this journey the ''Vestfold'' ran aground and narrowly escaped disaster, but by unloading their entire cargo of mining timbers, and most of their coal, the crew was able to float the ship free, and reached Bear Island on July 8. They located and began pumping the flooded mines to determine their extent. Helms then sailed to Arkhangelsk on July 13 to replenish coal, and returned to Rusinga creek in the ''Vestfold''. The Rusinga party had made progress investigating the copper mines, which showed promise, but Helms felt it did not justify the risk of continued activity on the rugged coast. He decided to move the men and supplies to Bear Island, including 30 cases of dynamite which they towed in a small boat, arriving at Bear Island on July 19.

They investigated three silver mines on Bear Island, and were able to pump them dry and continue excavating. They found the 150 year old submerged timbers to still be sound, and the largest mine was 153 feet deep with eight drifts. Although it was clear much ore had been taken from these mines, they failed to find any promising new veins.

Overall, Helms felt that reopening the mines would not be profitable and considered the effort unsuccessful. On August 27, the team departed Bear Island for Arkhangelsk, and home. The ''Vestfold'' sailed home to Christiania, and Helms resolved to return home to London via St. Petersburg. He traveled by steamboat down the Dvina River, disembarking at the Siya Monastery; travelled overland west to Vytegra on the shore of Lake Ladoga; and by steamship across Lakes Ladoga and Onega to St. Petersburg, where he arrived September 9. He later recounted this journey in ''Pioneering in the Far East'', extensively describing the Northern towns, the scenery, the plight of the native Laplanders, and Russian officials he encountered and including numerous sketches of them.

''Pioneering in the Far East''

In 1882, Helms was living in London and published ''Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878'', a history of his adventures in Southeast Asia, Sarawak, and California. The book also attempted to impartially chronicle the dispute between Rajah James Brooke and his nephew, John Brooke Johnson Brooke, which resulted in the disinheriting of the latter. The book generally received good reviews, and is still in print today.

Later life

Helms returned to Sarawak around 1890, where he prospected for various ores, and was in Malaysia around 1899–1903, where he was involved in establishing the Temelong Hydraulic Tin Mining Company. The mine failed in 1903, and he eventually returned to London, where he stayed until he died in Hampstead on July 26, 1918.Births Marriages And Deaths, Sept, 1918

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Ludvig Verner
1825 births
1918 deaths
People from Varde Municipality