Marriage
Page 2
My wife’s ring was used in the ceremony... the ship’s doctor gave the bride away.
Written in September of 1954 on Brigantine Yankee letterhead, and signed by Irving M. Johnson, the letter attests to the performance of a marriage ceremony on February 12, 1934 on board the Schooner Yankee. “I, Irving M. Johnson, as owner and master of the Yankee performed the ceremony in English using the usual Episcopal Prayer Book. Arthur Herbert Young, one of the older Pitcairn men, interpreted for Ruau, who at that time spoke very little English. My wife’s ring was used in the ceremony and the ship’s doctor gave the bride away. The ship was dressed up and a proper and solemn ceremony was performed. A certificate of marriage was issued by me at the time and presented to the couple.”
Written in September of 1954 on Brigantine Yankee letterhead, and signed by Irving M. Johnson, the letter attests to the performance of a marriage ceremony on February 12, 1934 on board the Schooner Yankee. Enlarge image
“Everyone who sailed on Yankee and went to Pitcairn remembers the skipper marrying two Islanders and I certainly realized this man was their son,” said Parker. “I can vouch for the authenticity of that piece of Yankee Brigantine paper he had with him and for the skipper’s signature. We have all seen a copy at some point.”
Though time was short before sailing, Captain Sacks believed that one other person in the ship’s company of students would be valuable to the conversation. Dennis Nixon, Professor of Marine Affairs and Associate Dean of the College of Environment and Life Sciences at University of Rhode Island (URI), is a specialist in admiralty law.
L to R: Erwin Warren, Ken Moller and Warren’s daughter.
According to Nixon, the place for Mr. Warren to seek legitimacy was not with the French government, but with the British. Captain Johnson’s letter also read, “After the voyage was completed I had an Admiralty lawyer in Boston, Mr. Albert Gould, look up the laws concerning this union and he found an old English law which was still in force that made legal a marriage performed on shipboard or on Pitcairn Island by the master of a ship when one member of the couple was a bona fide Pitcairn Islander.” Nixon also noted that, since Pitcairn Island had officially stamped the Johnson letter as a ‘certified true copy’, the Pitcairn government, a British Settlement since the late 1800’s, had authenticated the marriage. He suggested that it was likely there was a British consulate in French Polynesia who could speak for this marriage as an official act of British law and that nations generally respect the validity of certification from one country to the next.
Only a month has gone by since this unique confluence of people and circumstances in Papeete. Language barriers and distance make a continuing dialogue difficult. But with the support of Irving and Exy’s son, Robert Johnson, many who met Mr. Warren that day are determined to follow this story to its conclusion. As with so many others in the SEA community, Mr. Johnson’s immediate response to the story was, “Let me know how I can help.”