[1] He emigrated to the United States and worked as a sailor for Crawford of San Francisco, sailing between the US and Pacific Islands.

He was shipwrecked off Kosrae in 1883, after which he gave up sailing and moved to Nauru, where he worked as a trader on behalf of Hernsheim & Co.[1] The day after he arrived in February 1884, he was offered three women by Chief Denuwea, choosing a 15-year-old named Ebagon.

[1] At the time of Rasch's arrival, Nauru was experiencing a prolonged period of civil war.

Rasch claims that he sent a message to the German authorities in nearby Jaluit Atoll requesting that they occupy the island (which had been granted to Germany in the 1886 agreement with the United Kingdom) to stop the violence.

[1] Reichskommissar Franz Leopold Sonnenschein appointed Rasch temporarily as the first island-based representative of the German government.