Roger Lextrait: The King of Palmyra Island
The life and journeys of Roger Lextrait
By Jesse M. Leary http://wayofsol.blogspot.com/
“he looked ahead…and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea."
- Ernest Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea
I came to know Roger through a series of peculiar and providential circumstances. While researching Palmyra as a location for a novel, I seemed unable to find any reliable source of daily life on the lonely atoll.
After several months of research, I found that one man’s name consistently appeared in forums, histories, and expedition accounts: Roger Lextrait. Whoever Roger was, he had lived on Palmyra, and as far as anyone knew, was the only person to have done so for as long as he did. After posting a request for any information regarding Roger’s whereabouts, and corresponding with several ‘yachties’ who claimed to have spent time with him on Palmyra, I made contact. A forum post response read simply, “Hi Jesse, are you looking for Roger Lextrait? Well you found him--how may I help you??”
At first, I approached Roger as a fiction writer, doing research for a novel. Soon I became enamored with his personal story. Hearing about his quest for freedom, his passion driven lifestyle, and most of all, his time spent on Palmyra, I decided to shift gears, at least temporarily. The following is the story of Roger’s adventures, as honest and honoring as I can tell them.
Introduction
In the not so recent past, the burgeoning rim of a fledgling volcano broke the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Before it could grow beyond a glowing red sandbar, it’s power faded. With time, so did any trace of the volcano, its efforts slipping beneath the waves. What remained was a rough, fertile circle, a few hundred feet below the oceans surface. The naked, nutrient-rich ring attracted an array of coral and fish species. Slowly the reef grew, ever upward, until it began reaching above the waters of the Pacific, creating a way station for migrating birds, and waylaid seeds carried on the winds across the ocean.
White beaches and tall, thick Pisonia palms soon marked the landscape. Now, where once there had been only deep, dark waters, sat an oasis in the ocean. The Palmyra atoll offered relief, even if only for a few hundred yards, from the seemingly eternal blue vast of the sea.
In much more recent times, Palmyra welcomed her first and only official caretaker, and her longest single occupant. A wandering French chef turned sailor and adventurer, found himself intentionally and blissfully marooned on his own personal island paradise for eight years. Before his time there, and since, no one has experienced the atoll as intimately as he has.
The Early Years
Roger Lextrait was born April of 1946, in a small, rural village in the Bretagne province of France. At the time, the atrocious memories of German occupation still hung fresh in the minds of the French Populace. The world after the war saw an opportunity to redefine itself. A new era was approaching. The birthing pains of a new world order echoed across Europe as a generation emerged from the ashes of worldwide destruction. Their dreams were filled not with conquest, of empires, peace, freedom, and unity through self-actualization.
While his peers shouted ‘Vive Le Revolution’ in the streets, a 14-year-old Roger read Hemingway, and discovered a different kind of freedom. He fell madly in love with the images of adventure and struggle on the open waters painted throughout the pages of “The Old Man and the Sea”. They so inspired him, that he left straightaway for the coast to become a fisherman.
Unfortunately, the police, called by his parents, caught him just before he hopped on a train. The young Frenchman’s adventure may have been cut short, but it was only a minor set back in his own mind. His soul had tasted something it could not forget: freedom. The flavor left such a mark on the young man, that he would spend the rest of his life pursuing it.
Paris
Several years later, Roger left his simple home to find work as a cook in Paris. In the 1960’s, the Parisian backdrop served as fertile soil for the growing revolutions of mind, body, and spirit. It was a breeding ground for revolution, a singular universe where a new wave of artists, philosophers, and poets were redefining our modern constructs of life, sexuality and self expression.
It was here that Roger made his home. He spent his days learning the value of hard work in the world-renowned kitchens of the Moulin Rouge. At night, he learned about beauty and freedom in the streets of Paris.
He proved a hard worker, with an intuitive mind for business. Roger had dreams of owning his own restaurant and finding success among his fellow citizens. He quickly learned that such a dream would remain unrealizable in the confines of what he calls, “the still rigid monarchy system” of Paris. Providence stepped in, and Roger was asked by “the Big Chef” at the Moulin Rouge to move to America, and cook in a restaurant there. This was just the chance he had been waiting for. Soon, the 20-year-old Frenchman found himself in Point Reyes, California, experiencing America for the first time.
Portland
Though the United States was itself in a state of revolution, Roger remained focused on his dream. He had come to America seeking the opportunities he didn’t have in France, and wasted no time in pursuing them. Along the way he found love, and married.
Ever the entrepreneur, Roger searched for a large town with around a million people or so, where a cabaret-esque restaurant could succeed. Soon they had their answer, and were off to Portland, Oregon. Only a year after landing on US soil, he opened L’odeon, his first restaurant.
It was a success, and within 2 years, he would open a second Cabaret: Brasserier Montmartre. It proved as great a success as the first, and remains open to this day. Despite his success, it was not long before a familiar call from his childhood, came back. It rang clearly through the thick mists of commerce, calling out to him. It was the call of the sea.
Roger had pursued life in America and found it wanting. He saw this nation with the eyes of an outsider. As he puts it, “People (in America) are transformed (into) machines to make money, it is very sad to see so many people lose their sense of humor, their ‘joie de vivre’ and lack of passion because of it.”
He saw only one option, only one-way to satiate the calling: take to the open waters. After selling the restaurant, his ranch, and most of his possessions, he loaded what was left onto his boat, ‘Cous-Cous’. He parted ways with his wife, though to this day they remain friends. Roger sailed north, traversing through the Northwest Passage, making his way out into the lonely waters of the Pacific. Here he would search for a life free from the follies of men. He would embrace the ancient attraction of the ocean. His only guarantee was hardship and loneliness, but it would be on his terms, his destiny his own. Any joys would be his, any triumphs, his own personal victories.
Palmyra
The South Pacific held a great many things for Roger. Stopping at the various islands, living among the native people, exploring and experiencing the open seas: here he was truly free.
Gone were the busy streets and capitalist driven lifestyles of the so-called socialized world. The men of land subvert the will of nature by constructing walls and digital methods of prediction. On the open seas, man must step aside and give way to nature doing what it does best.
Steady winds carried Roger to a small, isolated atoll, 1,000 miles due southwest of Hawaii, at the center of Pacific. The destination was distant, lonesome, and pure. A few friends and fellow sailors had suggested he stop for a visit along his travels. He wasn’t the first by far. At this point, he was just another passing soul on a long, motley list of visitors.
Since then, she has housed everyone from wayward sailors, to treasure-laden pirates, unfortunate pilots, and the US Navy. Even the fourth king of Hawaii, Kamehameha, claimed her as his in 1862. Several years later, the Pacific Navigation Company made a minor colonization attempt, but it never came to fruition.
After switching hands several more times, eventually becoming an official part of the US territory of Hawaii, it was finally sold to its current owners. The Fullard-Leo family took full possession of Palmyra (save for a few minor islets around the atoll) on August 19th, 1922 for $15,000. However, in 1934, the Department of the Navy seized control of Palmyra, along with several of the nearby islands and atolls.
The swimming hole at the Palmyra Yacht Club
In 1941, Palmyra was set up as a naval air station to use as a way point for planes flying between the US and friendly territory in and around East Asia. Rusted skeletons left behind litter Palmyra, though the living green of the atoll swallows them into herself more and more each year.
It wasn’t until 1947 (2 full years after the close of the war) that control of Palmyra was returned from the US government to it’s rightful owners, the Fullard-Leo’s. This victory came after a long and hard legal battle, going all the way to the Supreme Court, who finally decided in favor of the family. Their struggle preserved a precious and rare space of the earth from joining other less fortunate isles to be used as nuclear waste dumpsites.
Though the years of human interventions have left scars, nothing has stopped it from producing some of the worlds most diverse and colorful coral structures. It’s beaches serve as home to one of the largest breeding grounds for rare ocean birds such as the brown and white booby. Perhaps its strangest attraction is the blue crab, which lives in the atolls trees and grows to nearly 2 feet wide.
What Roger found when he landed on Palmyra was a unique sense of peace. This place was wild, free, and for such a soul as he, inviting. He remained on Palmyra for a full 6 months, enjoying it’s many beaches and vivid wildlife. He left, promising himself that someday he would return.
It wasn’t long before he was back on land, ending up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Perhaps providentially, he made friends with the Fullard-Leo’s, the owners of Palmyra. During the early 1990’s, they were looking for someone to go and stay on Palmyra as the year round caretaker. As technology was developing, the ocean and it’s vast, open distances were growing smaller and smaller. Despite it’s remote location, Palmyra’s beauty was too great a secret to be kept for long. Roger immediately came to mind as a prime candidate, and upon request, he agreed with no hesitation.
For the next 8 years, Roger called the beaches, reefs and palms of Palmyra home. Nothing before and nothing since has impacted him quite so much as his time on Palmyra.
Each day he woke promptly at 5AM, to the calling of a hundred thousand birds. Nowhere else on the planet do these creatures gather in such numbers. After fixing himself a Palmyra Cocktail (1 part Rum, 1 part Red Wine, 1 part Tang), he called up his radio contacts in Tahiti and Honolulu. A shower on the beach in his makeshift bathing system and he was ready for the day. The bath and latrine systems Roger built are still used today by the current research teams that visit the atoll for brief expeditions.
Roger had a variety of things to keep him busy. Not least of which were his 3 dogs TouTou, Blackie, and Padou. He trained them to hunt sharks, helping to keep the predators population under control. Always near were his 2 cats Tiger and DouDouche, and the 2 birds he raised from hatchlings, lovingly named Felix and Oscar.
Experience made him an excellent fisherman, using only a diving knife, fishing net, and spear gun. This was dangerous work as the reef contained a number of less than friendly creatures. Roger had his share of run-ins with everything from sharks to stingrays, but never suffered any serious injuries.
Singing, playing his guitar, and drumming on an old wheel barrel helped him pass the time and keep the loneliness at bay. Despite his best efforts, Roger still describes experiencing intense feelings of depression and despair. “It (Palmyra) is so secluded, so isolate,” he says.
He did have visitors, and lived up to his duties as caretaker. Over the course of his 8 years, he saved more than 52 boats from crashing on the treacherous reefs, and helped repair numerous others.
Most were thankful for Roger’s presence on the atoll, but others didn’t think so highly of him. “Some resented the fact that there was a "Marshal" in town and some were very rude and down right threatening,” describes an old friend who visited the atoll while Roger was caretaker.
He mentions one occasion, when a yachtie began cutting down immature trees to get at their heart of palm, a delicacy found at the center of certain palm trees. When Roger asked him to stop, the inebriated sailor threatened Roger’s life, and as Roger’s friend puts it, “There is no way to dial 911 on Palmyra,” so Roger had little choice but to push back. He donned his handgun, and forced the man to return to his vessel.
After sleeping off his anger and heavy drinking, the man pleaded with Roger to let him stay. Roger refused, and he again threatened Roger. A second showing of the gun sent the man back to his boat, and after 3 days, he sailed off. Occasions like this made the months without the yachties coming and going a welcome relief.
As the seasons passed, Roger’s psyche swept in and out of sanity, like the tides. For a time he would live like his animals, moving with them as a pack, challenging them for the alpha position. He ran naked over the pristine beaches, and at night spoke to the stars reminding them, “they are not the only one(s) alone.”
Then a new season would come, and he would shave, dress in nice clothes and assume a role within the confines of human social structures. For the most part he lived comfortably, enjoying his personal freedom, wearing little more than a swimsuit, necklace, and diving knife.
Before long, his 8-year stay on Palmyra was over. It was time for Roger to return to a world he had grown away from, a world of traffic lights and exhaust pipes, of corporations and bureaucracy.
Beyond Palmyra
After leaving Palmyra, Roger returned to Honolulu. He sold his boat, and remarried. Rather than letting the days pass blissfully on the beach, he and his wife moved to Laos, Thailand. He spends his days touring the countryside on his motorcycle, photographing the region, in hopes of sharing it’s beauty with the world.
Most of Roger’s life has been spent far from the simple, rural towns of France. He has traveled through 2 oceans and 36 countries in his lifelong pursuit of freedom. He has made his bed amidst the bustling, bourgeois of big cities, and the simple, sea swept sands of silent beaches. In his words, he is just a man who, “find(s) a simple life very attractive…the freedom I felt on (on Palmyra), I will fight for it.”
As for Palmyra, it now rests in the very capable hands of the US Nature Conservatory. They have spent the last five years studying the atolls vast and vivid ecosystems, both on land and in the waters surrounding it. With their help, Palmyra should remain a shining example of creations ability to overcome and exist despite the damaging fingerprints of man.
AFTERWARD
By Cheyenne Morrison
I too, like Jesse, tried to track down Roger for many years, but for a different reason.
In 1999 I was selling my business, and decided to try and fulfil a life-long goal of living for a year on a tropical island. I received permission to reside a year on an island near Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga, but my real goal was Palmyra Atoll. I fell in love with Palmyra because of its beauty, its mystery and its remoteness. I did a massive amount of research and was communicating with the Fullard-Leo family in Hawaii, and the Nature Conservancy prior to their purchase, and considering negotiations for sale were ongoing neither party were willing to give me permission to stay for a year.
Finally after about 6 months research I found out that when the Cooper family, the original owners fo the atoll, had sold it to the Fullard-Leos they had retained ownership of the Home Islands. After an exhaustive search I tracked down the eldest member of the Cooper family who gave me written permission to reside on the Home island for a year.
Well, the Nature Conservancy weren’t happy about having interlopers on ‘their’ island, and even before they had purchased it told me that the Home Islands no longer existed! Despite the fact they were denying the islands even still existed they were trying to get the Cooper family to sell, but because of the family and historical relationship the family had to the islands the refused to sell. That was around late 2000, so they may have sold them in the meantime, but I doubt it. Due to a Hard Drive crash I lost most of my communication and research about the island, but I still have the original letter from the Coopers allowing me to reside on the island for a year.
On May 4th, 2000 the Nature Conservancy bought Palmyra Atoll (with the exception of the Home islands) from the Fullard-Leo family for $30 million USD. Once that happened it wasn’t practical for me to get to the island, or even reside there if I did as water supplies and etc were on the main islands, and the Nature Conservancy would have refused me access to them. So sadly I looked elsewhere and ended up living on the beautiful island of Pinagbuyatan, in El Nido, Palawan, the “Last Frontier” of the Philippines, but Palmyra still holds its fascination for me.
Roger Lextrait Today
Picture of Roger at Phuket Island in Thailand
Just like Jesse Roger wrote back… “Yes, you’ve found him. What can I do for you?”
After an exchange of emails, our common love of islands soon established a bond and Roger sent me the account written above by Jesse Leary. Roger sent me the photos of himself in Thailand, and is sending me more details which I will upload later.
FINAL
Roger Lextrait wrote a book about his life and adventures on Palymra Island, if any publishers want a great book to publish contact me and I will put you in contact with him.
PALMYRA LINKS
National Geographic Feature
The Nature Conservancy’s Page
The island Wikipedia Page
Jane Resture’s Palmyra Page
A Palmyra Letter by Idelle S. Meng - 24 June, 1942
Palmyra Postcard and Picture Gallery
World War II Images of Palmyra
Palmyra Picture Gallery
PALMYRA BOOKS
Palmyra is mentioned in the following books.
Bugliosi, Vincent: And The Sea will Tell
This book deals with the murders of Mac & Muff Graham on Palmyra in the 70’s
Patterson, Kevin: The Waters in Between, 2000
He met Roger Lextrait and stayed on Palmyra.
Dewell, Charles: Kowabunga’s south Sea Adventure
He stayed 2 weeks on Palmyra and devotes a whole chapter to the island
9 comments:
awesome story, thanks for sharing it.
Terrific story. I'd buy that book, in case a publisher is listening.
Great narration. Interested to read his whole story.
Nice to hear from Roger again. I met him in the 70s in the states and had lost track of him. I'm back in touch with him. Nice to see that he's had such a great adventure.
Wonderfully written story. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
WOW!! I can't believe I've finally read about Roger! I was a commercial fisherman out of Honolulu from 1995-2000. During my 1998 season, I had the opportunity to be deck hand on the "Miss Aggy N", which we fondly dubbed the "Miss Agony". We found ourselves on the beautiful and reclusive atoll of Palmyra. Captain Miles and his wife, Dawn were in the habit of transporting goods and supplies to the atoll whenever we were heading that way on our quest for tuna (every trip). I have enjoyed each and every comment regarding this tropical and exoctic spot. There was a prolific population of fiddler crab and we had to keep our food well clear of the beach. I was able to witness the bird migration at 8 a.m. during the "winter" and much scuba diving. I wax nostalgic over those months and Roger usually put his clothes on when he knew we were coming to the beach.:)
I met Roger with my French crew in Honolulu after TNC had bought Palmyra. He was living on Cous cous and planning his trip west. In the early 80s he helped my brother in law and his two crew while they were stranded waiting for a sail to arrive.
I spent two weeks on Palmyra in 2006, diving, collecting and filming. Im currently finishing a documentary on the island and the work that is now occurring on Palmyra, and have some pretty amazing photos and experiences on the atoll.
It will be screend in Hawaii next month at a meeting, and polished for broadcast pending funding.
Everyone thought Roger was a nut case but his heart was gold. Besides sleeping on top of a table with each table leg encased in a can of diesel fuel due to rats. Roger was one of the kind, generous to a fault. Un fortunately he did have his run ins with the odd annal yachty.
I spent some time on Palmyra while with the Coast Guard. We took a break from patrolling along the equator and stopped in to see Roger. To this day it is one of my fondest memories. I especially remember snorkeling and coming face to face with a manta ray that was at least 6 foot across. After we ran on water to get away from it. Roger goes oh that was just so and so. He had named it and acted like it was his pet.
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