A sketch, from a New Zealand newspaper, of the sinking Helen B Sterling.
Newcastle schoolboy’s shipwreck story
Stockton schoolboy Leslie Harris was 10 years old on January 5, 1922, when he went aboard the four-masted schooner Helen B Sterling, along with his mother Edith and his father George - the captain of the ship. The first mate, whose surname was also Harris and who may have been a relative, also had his wife aboard. The ship was carrying coal from Newcastle, NSW, to the Society Islands (part of French Polynesia) and San Francisco in the USA. Aside from the members of the Harris family there were 15 crew members aboard. The schooner was…