DRENT, Harry

DRENT, Harry (c. 1861-1910)

Drent is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego.

“HARRY DRENT. The Brandegee Herbarium (UC) includes at least 28 specimens collected on Guadalupe Island in 1898 by Harry Drent. Among there are 15 plants Brandegee himself did not collect the year before, including such rare ones as Crossosoma californicum, Phacelia phyllomanica, and Solanum wallacei ssp. clokeyi, the previously unreported Euphorbia misera and Lupinus bicolor, and perhaps the that specimens taken of Castilleja guadalupensis and Nicotiana attenuata. According to Stewart (1965:133), "Dutch Harry" Drent, a Hollander 38 years old in 1899, "uneducated but bright," was a deep-water sailor who made at least five trips to Guadalupe Island. He hunted goats there for about five months in 1896 (San Diego Evening Sun, 30 Sept. 1896), for some time in 1898, and from April to late September of 1899 (Stewart 1965). In 1898 he brought to San Diego four live birds of the soon to be extinct Guadalupe caracara, captured "by a trick I had learned while in South Africa" (Abbott 1933). He died in San Diego in 1910 (MacMullen 1969). ”

In 1898, goat hunter Harry Drent returned from Guadalupe Island with a load of goat meat — and four living Guadalupe caracaras. Drent captured the birds by shooting and winging the first, then using it as a decoy to lure in three others, which he lassoed with a short rope. He later told a San Diego paper that I have been offered $100 for the four, but I will not sell them. I have written the Smithsonian Institute, and am confident that I shall secure a high figure. While awaiting his windfall from Washington, Drent exhibited the birds in the back room of “a saloon on Fifth Street near G” in San Diego, where they “attracted lots of attention” but were eventually evicted by the saloon owner “on account of their dirty habits.” After taking his birds to California, Drent claimed that only three caracaras remained on Guadalupe. In fact, the species persisted, as the famed Rollo H. Beck discovered in 1900. Thirty years later, he wrote that Although I had no idea of it at the time it seems probably to me that I secured the last of the Guadalupe caracaras on Guadalupe Island on the afternoon of December 1, 1900. Of 11 birds that flew toward me 9 were secured. The other two were shot at but got away. The 11 birds were all that were seen…. And all that would ever be seen again.

In the News~

January 13, 1898 [SFCall]: “The Wahlberg on the Rocks. Captain and Two of Her Crew Brought to San Diego. While Gathering Curios on the Lower Coast the Schooner is Wrecked. Her Anchor Chain Parts During Heavy Swell—All Hands on Board Escape. San Diego, Jan. 12.—The schooner Anita arrived this morning from Santo Domingo, Lower California, with a cargo of gold ore and several thousand dollars in bullion. The Anita also brought up Captain Charles Hartwick, Harry Drent and Andrew Anderson of the schooner Wahlberg, which was wrecked at Lagoon Heads, 300 miles south of San Diego, on December 17. On December 8 the schooner Wahlberg left this port for the lower coast to gather curios. She called at Ensenada. At that port she took on a Mexican customs official, his destination being the Calmilli mines. Nothing unusual happened on the trip until Lagoon Heads were reached, on December 17. There the anchor was dropped and the sails furled. A heavy swell was rolling in on the beach, but Captain Hartwick saw no danger. The customs official was about to be landed in a small boat, when the anchor chain parted and the schooner was soon drifting in on the rocky coast. The crew made heroic efforts to save the vessel, but before anything could be done she struck and in a few minutes the bottom had pounded on the rocks, smashing her to pieces. They men escaped without injury, but the vessel is a total loss. The men remained on the beach until the arrival of the Anita. The Wahlberg was owned by Professor A. W. Anthony of this city. She was purchased from Captain Martin and has been used to take trips along the southern coast, gathering curios for the Smithsonian Institution. The trip previous to this one consumed five months and several tons of fish were secured by a Stanford student who took passage in the vessel. A letter was received yesterday by Harry Robbins from Professor Anthony, the owner of the vessel, who is at Portland, stating that he had a charter for the vessel as soon as she returned. The loss will fall very heavily on Professor Anthony, who had just had the schooner overhauled and many improvements made to her. The Wahlberg was valued at $2500 and was made famous through her Hawaiian exploits under a former owner.”

January 26, 1910 [SD Union and Daily Bee]: “Harry Drent dies at County Hospital. After lingering for several days dangerously near death, Harry Drent passed away at the county hospital yesterday. A week ago the man was found at the Santa Fe station in his underclothing. He was crazed from the effects of strong drink and fled when several men attempted to capture him. He was caught near the police station and sent to county jail. Later he was removed to the hospital where his death occurred yesterday. It is believed that his death resulted partly from exposure and over-indulgence in intoxicating liquor. For many years he was a familiar character on the waterfront, where he was known as "Dutch Harry." He was a fisherman by occupation and so far as has been ascertained was without any relatives in this country. ”