The Ebbing of the Tide: South Sea Stories, Australian novel

According to Wikipedia: "George Lewis Becke (or Louis Becke; 18 June 1855 18 February 1913) was an Australian short-story writer and novelist... From about April 1880 Becke was in the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) working with the Liverpool firm of John S. de Wolf and Co.Nanumanga until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. In February 1881 he opened his own store in Nukufetau, where he married Nelea Tikena. The stories that Louis Becke set in the Ellice Islands are: The Fisher Folk Of Nukufetau that describes a fishing expedition, The Rangers of the Tia Kau that describes a shark attack at the Tia Kau reef between Nanumea and Nanumanga, and Kennedy the Boatsteerer that describes an attempt by a trader on Niutao to escape with a woman betrothed to a Niutaon chief, which ends in tragedy. Later in 1881 a shipwreck on Beru Island in the Gilbert Islands on caused him to lose all he had; Becke then worked in New Britain and was in Majuro by November 1882. For the next ten years Becke moved about the Gilbert Islands, Ellice Islands, Caroline Islands and Marshall Islands acquiring a knowledge of the customs and beliefs of the islanders and meeting palagi traders and beachcomers that Becke later used his stories. Becke wrote about Bully Hayes in Neath Austral Skies, The Strange Adventures of James Shervinton and other stories, These stories must be read with caution as the line between fact and fiction-writing is unclear. Becke's experiences in the Pacific provided most of the material for Becke's stories."

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