On January 3, 2025, Mauro Morandi, an Italian legend who made an art of living off the grid, passed away at age 85. Known as the 'hermit of Budelli,' an island off the coast of Sardinia, Mauro unfortunately never met Oak Bay area's John Kergan, the 'hermit of Trial Island' from the late 1800s. If they had they would have discovered they had a lot in common.
Morandi's passing inspired me to dig deeper into the life of the fascinating Vancouver Island man.
Kergan, an Irish Canadian by birth who grew up in eastern Canada, was a waterman on lakes and rivers including the St. Lawrence, "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife." He first made tools, then started designing and building boats powered by wind and water. He manufactured paints and brushes and started painting the natural world he was so in tune with. How he travelled from eastern Canada to Victoria, B.C. is a bit of a mystery but in 1891 he set up camp on Trial Island in Oak Bay.
John built a home of driftwood on the Island and set about condensing jam from the islands' berries, smoking clams and utilizing a freshwater spring that he found there. He perfected a process of extracting chemically pure salt directly from seawater. He not only built boats but sold them in Victoria along with his paintings. Rumour had it that his paintings found their way into some of the finest houses on the Gorge and were treasured!
He would also dare the elements between San Juan Harbour and Victoria, "often making the hazardous voyage in less than 12 hours," a Daily Colonist article said.
In March 1893 a Daily Colonist reporter and a police officer visited the Island and the result was that everyone read the story and now knew about the hermit. Many tried to visit the island and spot him, some stole small possessions, plus the police were not happy with his homemade contraption that shot a bullet at anyone trying to enter his driftwood abode! John's peace and quiet were gone and he decided to move.
In the summer of 1893, John travelled by boat to an isolated spot at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Port Renfrew. There he built himself a log cabin and continued his ‘Robinson Crusoe’ existence of uprightness, honesty, straightforwardness and living off the land. "My natural life is now half over, and I wish to spend the remainder alone and in peace," Kergan told a correspondent of the Colonist.
On May 24, 1894, John took his little boat to Victoria, bought supplies, and then started to head home. He never made it. His little boat got swamped at Bolder Beach between Jordan River and Sombrio. The boat was eventually found near Sombrio. His body never was.
Mauro Morandi was buried at sea. John Kergan died at sea. Both hermits, but they would have greatly respected each other.
I was introduced to this lovely story by Paul Maurenbrecher to whom I am very grateful.
This article is from the Spring edition of Tweed.
