Margret Wittmer (1904–2000)

Margret Wittmer was one of the earliest settlers on the Island of Floreana in the Galapagos Islands, where she remained until her death at age 96. She arrived in 1932 from Germany with her husband Heinz, a 12 year old stepson Harry, and two Alsatian dogs Hertha and Lump. She also arrived pregnant and gave birth to her own two children on the island. The Wittmers started out in a pirate cave in the highlands of Floreana, moved later to a lava hut with a goat skin roof, and finally to a "Baltra Pine" house on the coast at Black Beach. Her life was an incredible mixture of adventures from her experiences with the Baronessa to the more mundane of raising a family on a desert island. The Wittmers were visited by personalities such as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to Thor Heyerdahl.