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Ludvig Verner Helms

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Ludvig Verner Helms
Ludvig Verner Helms in 1846
Born(1825-04-14)April 14, 1825
Varde, Denmark
DiedJuly 26, 1918(1918-07-26) (aged 93)
Hampstead, England
Occupation(s)Merchant and Author
EmployerThe Borneo Company Limited
Notable workAuthor of Pioneering in the Far East, with Journeys to California in 1849 and the White Sea in 1878 (1882)
SpouseAnne Amelia Bruce
ChildrenEve Louisa Mathilda; Dora Helen; Dagmar; Hilda Constance; Katharine Annie; Mary Sibyl; Vera Ewen; Vera; Harold Verner Bruce; Paul Victor
Parent(s)Rudolph Helms and Mathilde Augusta Fridsch


Ludvig Verner Helms (April 14, 1825 – July 26, 1918[1]) was a trader, merchant, and author associated with the Far East, especially the Borneo Company in Sarawak.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

Bali

Helms sailed from Hamburg, Germany on the Brig Johanna Caesar on September 15, 1846,[5] 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.[6][7]

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.[8]

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.[9]

Sketch of a Suttee witnessed in Bali by Ludvig Verner Helms ca. 1848, published in his book "Pioneering in the Far East" in 1882.

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.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[13] Lange's business never recovered, and on June 21, 1849 Helms left to find other employment in Singapore.[14] 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.[15][16]

Sarawak

In 1852[17] he took up residence in Sarawak and commenced trading mainly in antimony. In 1856, the Borneo Company was formed and Helms was engaged as its manager in Sarawak. During the Chinese Insurrection against Rajah Brooke in 1857, the insurgents proposed making Helms Rajah, but he was instrumental in their defeat. In 1858, he left for the UK, via Bali, to recover his health and negotiate better terms with the Borneo Company's directors in the UK.[18]

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).[19][20]

Helms engaged to return to Sarawak for the Borneo Company in 1860. Helms and his growing family stayed until 1872, when he returned to Europe via China, Japan, and California.[21] A lawsuit terminated his relationship with the Borneo Company.[22]

White Sea

In 1878, he had a trip to Lapland to investigate the potential of re-opening old mines in the White Sea. He sailed from Copenhagen to the White Sea, and returned overland via Archangel and St. Petersburg. The mines proved unproductive and the venture was unsuccessful.[23]

Pioneering in the Far East

In 1882, Helms had returned to London[24] 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 chronical the dispute between Rajah James Brooke and his nephew, John Brooke Johnson Brooke, which resulted in the disinheriting of the latter.[25] The book generally received good reviews, and is still in print today.[26][27]

Later life

Helms returned to Sarawak around 1890, where he prospected for various ores,[28] and was in Malaysia around 1899-1903, where he was involved in establishing the Temelong Hydraulic Tin Mining Company.[29] The mine failed in 1903,[30][31] and he eventually returned to London, where he stayed until he died in Hampstead on July 26, 1918.[32][33]

References

  1. ^ Helms, Hans Jorgen (1929). Stamregister over Familien Helms (PDF). p. 46.
  2. ^ Helms, Ludvig Verner (1882). Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878. London, England: W. H. Allen & Co.
  3. ^ Helms, Hans Jorgen (1929). Stamregister over Familien Helms (PDF). pp. 46–47.
  4. ^ Pioneering in the Far East, Chapters I-III
  5. ^ Gardner, Estelle; Roe, Nancy P. (Ed.); Roe, Rebecca P. (Ed.); Clapp, Timothy W. (Ed.) (2021). Footnote To Sarawak (notes on the life of Ludvig Verner Helms). p. 22.
  6. ^ "Shipping Intelligence, Arrivals of Passengers". The Overland Singapore Free Press. March 8, 1847.
  7. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. p. 7.
  8. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. pp. 10–14.
  9. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. pp. 15–71.
  10. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. pp. 58–66.
  11. ^ Wulff, Inger (November 30, 2002). Early Indonesian Collections in Copenhagen. In Schefold, R. (Ed.) & Vermeulen, H.F. (Ed.) Treasure Hunting? Collectors and Collections of Indonesian Artefacts, Leiden, Netherlands: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), University of Leiden. Pp 109-128.
  12. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. pp. 69–70.
  13. ^ Nordholt, Henk Schulte (1981). The Mads Lange Connection. A Danish Trader on Bali in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century: Broker and Buffer. pp. 45–46.
  14. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. p. 72.
  15. ^ Footnote To Sarawak. pp. 62, 146–147.
  16. ^ Pioneering in the Far East. pp. 198–199.
  17. ^ Helms, Ludvig Verner (1882). Pioneering in the East. p. 129.
  18. ^ Pioneering in the Far East, Chapter IV
  19. ^ Helms, Hans Jorgen (1929). Stamregister over Familien Helms (PDF). pp. 59–60.
  20. ^ "Deaths". London and China Express. Feb 19, 1875.
  21. ^ Pioneering in the Far East, Chapters VI-VIII
  22. ^ Longhurst, Henry (1956), The Borneo Story
  23. ^ Pioneering in the Far East, chapter IX
  24. ^ //familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQQR-YVB English census, 1881
  25. ^ Pioneering in the Far East, Chapter VI
  26. ^ "Pioneering in the Far East". Pall Mall Gazette. April 25, 1882. p. 4.
  27. ^ Bassett, D.K. (September 1970). "Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 1 (2): 145. doi:10.1017/S0022463400020427.
  28. ^ "Baram. Monthly Reports, September". No. 299. Sarawak Gazette. Dec 1, 1890. p. 160.
  29. ^ "The Temelong Hydraulic Tin Company, Limited". The Straits Times. Aug 30, 1899. p. 2.
  30. ^ "Temelong Concession". The Straits Times. May 5, 1902.
  31. ^ "Untitled Article". The Straits Times. November 10, 1903. p. 5.
  32. ^ Helms, Hans Jorgen (1929). Stamregister over Familien Helms (PDF). p. 46.
  33. ^ Births Marriages And Deaths, Sept, 1918
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