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The Life of Bent Gestur Sivertz: A Seaman, a Teacher and a Worker in the Canadian Arctic

by Tracy O'Hara and Bent Sivertz

143 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0024; ISBN 1-55212-360-X; US$17.00, C$19.50, EUR14.00, £10.00

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about the book      about the authors      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book  In 1995 I began working with Ben Sivertz, organizing his files and taking care of his sizeable written correspondence. this familiarized me both with the man and his prodigious personal archive containing letters, diaries, speeches, and employment and education records dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. I had the privilege of listening to an oral history colourfully recalled by a man still very much in possession of his faculties and a walking historical treasure. The stories of his life are fascinating and I felt, worthy of record. Over the course of five years a culling of information took the form of an autobiographical book, the writing of which was done by me, sandwiched between Ben's able storytelling and fine editorial ability. This is a joint project in the truest sense.    Ben's life has spanned the century - he was born in Victoria to Icelandic immigrant parents and recalls Victoria's days at the beginning of the last century with valuable clarity. From rather modest origins Ben lived a life in three parts; as a seaman in the last days of wooden sailing ships, as a teacher in the remote northern end of Vancouver Island, as the head of the Naval Training Establishment at King's College in Halifax during the Second World War, and as a government worker who became Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, remembered as one who left behind a progressive legacy of reform in the North. Ben has lived almost four decades since his retirement, outliving his wife and most recently relocating to Mayne Island to pass the remainder of his days surrounded by young and caring relatives.    In this story the reader will attain an understanding of seafaring in the early days on the West Coast, life on Vancouver Island in pre-war years, sailing ship adventures on the Pacific in the twenties, and government service in the halcyon days of External Affairs in the fifties and northern affairs in the same period. It is a story that will delight many of Ben's devoted pupils who came under his tutelage at the Naval Training School in Halifax during WWII, as well as the student of Canadian, and British Columbian history. It is well illustrated with many photographs from Ben's personal collection, as well as copies of newspaper clippings. Tracy O'Hara

About the Authors Bent Gestur Sivertz- Born in 1905, Victoria, B.C. Educated at Victoria High School, Victoria Normal School (Craigdarroch) Teacher's Certificate, University of British Columbia. Began as a sailor, became an elementary school teacher, and a teacher of navigation during the Second World War. Ultimately head of the Naval Training Establishment, HMCS King's, Halifax, Nova Scotia. After the War worked for External Affairs, Northern Affairs, became Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Retired in 1967. Endowed numerous Canadian Universities with education scholarships and bursaries. Tracy O'Hara- Born in 1958, Toronto. Educated at University of Toronto. Lived and worked in Victoria for twelve years. Married to an artist, two children. Freelance writer and editor. Presently book reviewer at the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper.

Sample Excerpts: From Chapter One: Early Days in Victoria

My life began in Victoria on the 11th of August 1905. My parents, Christian Sivertz and Elinborg Samuelsdottir were from Iceland. Both emigrated from that austere but erudite land, without a word of English as teenagers in the late 1880s. Their families settled in Manitoba, but winters there were cold beyond anything in Iceland - where harbours do not freeze - and the call of the west caused both to leave for Vancouver Island. They met in Victoria in 1890, neither having heard of the other. My father told us that he fell completely in love with our mother in their first moment of meeting and continued so for life.

The Icelandic families of Victoria were not numerous, perhaps twenty in all, settled mostly around Spring Ridge, the district now called Fernwood. This group of about 100 people spoke the language of their birth and were lively, friendly, and immensely helpful to each other as they sought social, economic, and intellectual orientation in the new land. There were Sunday gatherings in different homes where the house would fill with people in an atmosphere of story and song, coffee and cake and poems - always poems. Recent compositions would be read and met with universal applause.

My father was a labourer and his first job was at building barns for the new city streetcars. They were located at the corner of Store and Pandora Streets. His pay was $1.25 per day. My mother worked at household cleaning for various people. They had little money but they married in 1893 and went on to raise a family of six boys. My father was able to borrow money in spite of his low pay, and build a grocery store with his younger brother Bent Gestur who died just before my birth, and after whom I was named. The grocery store was assembled in short order with the help of people in the Icelandic community, all of whom had experience in building. It was number 2137 Spring Road. Our family lived above the store and a big sign on the front read "SIVERTZ BROTHERS GROCERY" and looked straight west down Princess Street. It was a success from the start, all of Spring Ridge came there for groceries. Then the Depression of 1896 invaded Victoria and smallpox appeared. My father said they simply had to give things away in the store because all of their customers were hard hit by these circumstances and unable to pay their bills. When the shelves were empty they closed their doors and handed off their unpaid account.

At this time my parents decided to go to Point Roberts where some of their relatives were living. In 1889 several Icelanders in Victoria wanted to take up farming so they sent out scouts over Vancouver Island and the lower mainland to find proper sites. Point Roberts was recommended because of its salubrious climate and abundance of salmon travelling to and from the Fraser River. About twenty Icelandic families moved from Victoria to the 'The Point' between 1890 and 1895, and homesteaded forty-acre plots. Among these people were members of both sides of my family. My parents moved there with their two sons who had been born during the heyday of their grocery business. My father soon discovered he was not a farmer but an urban man. He wanted to return to Victoria, and did so after three years, having helped build five houses and barns. For many years in our youth we would visit these Point Roberts people during the summer. While I learned to handle rowboats and acted as a tolerated unpaid worker on the cannery tenders, general purpose vessels, perhaps forty feet in length. In this way I acquired a certain level of competence in handling ropes and spars around vessels of that sort.

When my father had come to Canada in 1883 at age eighteen, he spoke only Icelandic. By 1893 he had mastered English and could read at a university level. He developed a keen interest in public affairs and joined the Liberal party as well as another group of men who were admirers of the "single tax" system developed by the American economist, Henry George. Mr. George had acquired world fame and a remarkable following of people interested in his concept of a single tax based on the land one occupied or used. His admirers in Spring Ridge had formed a club which my father joined. So taken was my father with the concepts of this man that he named his first son Henry George Sivertz in his honour. Upon returning from Point Roberts my father found work with a biscuit manufacturer in James Bay. The Liberal Party and Sir Wilfred Laurier came to power and my father was informed that because of his membership in the party and his work during the election he could be recommended for a job in the civil service. After a few months there was a vacancy in the post office for a letter carrier and he was given the job. This was a financial blessing for my parents. It enabled them to buy a house on Denman Street that had been built by my uncle, Jonas Samuelson, one of the principal leaders of the farm community of Point Roberts. Victoria of 1910 was small town in many ways. Its 20,000 people felt they knew or knew of all the others. Local politics and events were to the fore, and Victoria had an elite at its core. Many of this elite had hand-me-down status from colonial days. Some had power through politics and government and of course Victoria was the centre of that. Some had military rank from serving at the Esquimalt naval base or the army establishment at Work Point. These people were very British and many of them had come out of England on appointment. However, a substantial proportion of all ranks made Victoria their home upon retirement. The officer corps, retired and serving, formed the backbone of the elite. It was filled out with people who were kin to landed families in Britain, sometimes even titled ones. This group was also augmented by men of wealth from merchant and industrial activities and from shipping. Touching the fringe of all this was a steady stream of retirees from India and China stations. By and large they did not join the Victoria elite, instead they took up residence in Sidney, Metchosin, Cobble Hill, Salt Spring Island, and formed the heart of the Duncan-Maple Bay community. Retired military officers usually put their rank on their gates, such as, "Lieut-Col. George Hamilton". After World War 1, a returned Canadian soldier dealt a blow to this practise by posting on his gate, "Private Joseph Haggerty, 2nd CMR".

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