29-year-old Swedish sailor Carl Emil Pettersson went down with his ship in the middle of the Pacific and washed ashore with nothing but his will to live. But within a decade, he was ruling a tropical island, married to a princess, and running his own gold-rich empire.
On Christmas week of 1904, the Herzog Johan Albrecht was swallowed by the sea off the coast of Papua New Guinea. But the sailor, Carl Emil Pettersson, somehow drifted to the Tabar Islands, a cluster of lush, isolated dots in the South Pacific. Exhausted and half-dead, he was found by local villagers and carried inland to the local ruler, King Lamy.
Pettersson expected to die on those shores, but he got a new life instead. Before long, he’d caught the eye of Lamy’s daughter, Princess Singdo, and a deal was made. If Pettersson could bring great wealth to the island, he would be allowed to marry Sigdo. And in just three years, he did it.
In 1907, Pettersson married Singdo and officially became part of the royal family. The islanders began calling him “Strong Charley,” and he began helping around the village. Pettersson even learned their customs and began managing coconut and cocoa plantations. Soon enough, the island began to prosper through trade.
In the next few years, King Lamy unfortunately passed away. But, Pettersson was crowned the next king, much to his amusement. To the islanders, the Swedish castaway was their beloved King now, and they cherished him. Peterrson, too, had no complaints with his newfound kingdom. He and Singdo went on to have nine children and a perfect life.
But soon, tragedy followed the triumph. Singdo died of a fever following childbirth in 1921, leaving Pettersson heartbroken. He then returned to Sweden as a national curiosity, but couldn’t stay away from his kingdom for long. Reportedly, he had traveled back and married a woman named Jessie Louisa Simpson, since he couldn’t take care of his nine children alone.
The newlyweds then returned to Tabar Island in 1923. But much to his dismay, Pettersson had lost much of his plantations and fortunes by then. Then came the twist fit for a fable. He discovered gold on nearby Simberi Island, turning himself into a Pacific millionaire almost overnight. Yet, disease struck his prosperity again.
Both Pettersson and his new wife, Simpson, contracted malaria and moved to Australia for treatment. Having been away from his homeland for so long, he decided to return to Sweden, where Simpson died in 1935. After the tragic incident, Pettersson lived in Tabar for two years before deciding to leave his kingdom and live the rest of his days in Sweden.
However, he couldn’t make it back to Sweden and died from a heart attack in Sydney at age 61 in 1937. While Carl Emil Pettersson is long gone now, his story remains one-of-a-kind and still reads like one of history’s strangest fairy tales. He arrived at Tabar with nothing but somehow built a kingdom.
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