Karl Zekants was born in 1882. He was the third child and second son of Jekob Zekants and Magreete Latīnis. Karl had an older sister, Lizette, and three brothers: Andrejs, Teodors and Žanis. Karl was born in the countryside around the north-western town of Talsi. We don’t know much about Karl’s life or fate. We know that he also trained to be a sailor like his brothers, but we don’t know if he also attended a specific school as his older brother Andrejs did.
We have only one photograph of Karl. It was taken at a well-known studio in modern-day Estonia. The photograph shows Karl with his brothers, Andrejs and Žanis. I imagine they must have been on a job together and thought they would commemorate the occasion with a fancy portrait. This photo must have been taken around 1910 or 1911. By February of 1912, Karl’s brother Andrejs was dead. This photo represents a time and place when anything was possible. Little did Karl and his brothers know that the world was about to change.
The next time we see Karl is in 1913, when he and his cousin, Andrejs Blezurs, headed off to Antwerp and took jobs as crew on the Norwegian sailing ship Pax. This was in the last days of the great round-the-world sailing vessels. Soon ships like the Pax would be nothing but memories. Karl and his cousin sailed for several months until reaching ports in South America. There they offloaded European goods and picked up South American exports. With the Pax fully laden once more, on they sailed to the west coast of Australia.
Karl did not accompany the crew of the Pax back to Europe. He must have made plans in advance to stay in Australia. The pearling industry in towns like Broome on the north-west coast was booming. Karl had probably heard of jobs to be had and money to made. It would certainly be an adventure if nothing else. Karl and Andrejs would have had a heartfelt goodbye as they went their separate ways. Karl headed up the coast to Broome. Here he stayed for the next 6 years. We will never know if that was his original plan. But the advent of WWI meant he was pretty much stuck there until the war was over.
The pearling industry took a huge hit during the war years and conditions must have been fairly grim for Karl. We have no idea if he was able to communicate with any of his family while he was in Australia. Probably not till at least 1920. The last we know of Karl is that he was on a steamer ship called the Wandilla on the 23rd of October, 1920. All research says that he disembarked in the capital city of Adelaide and there his trail ends.
Did he ever go back to Latvia? Did he stay in Australia for the rest of his life? Did he continue to work on ships or enter a new career? Did he marry? Have children? And when did he die?
We know that my father-in-law remembers his father, Žanis/John, still looking in phonebooks and asking around if they went to a new place, looking for his uncle. In 1947 while living in Germany after WWII, Žanis/John, mentions in his diary that he wanted to contact the Latvian Embassy in Australia to look for his Uncle Karl. That means he thought that it was still possible that Karl was living in Australia. Karl’s fate is one of the biggest mysteries of this family history.