SCHOONER VOYAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 10

SCHOONER VOYAGE

'ROAMING THE WOULD CAP PILAR FOR AUCKLAND ft DEPARTURE FROM SYDNEY WHISTLING FOR A WIND [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, July 2 Two little sailing ships, scornful of Eteamers, proud in the golden past of their kind, sailed from Australia for New Zealand this week. One remains in a world of stfenm because it has successfully resisted steam's own challenge of commercial efficiency. The other 'lingers because, in her, certain young, men found the breath of romance and the dream of adventure. The topsail schooner Huia, which left Melbourne for Wellington, began her career 43 years ago as a crack ocean .flier, She ends it as the last sailing ship trading regularly to Australia. The Cap Pilar, which sailed from Sydney for 'Auckland, was all her life a fishing vessel. To-day she is a yacht bearing adventurous young men to the outposts of the world.

Hands to the Capstan On the decks of the Cap Pilar before ghe left two of her crew stood, and in traditional sea fashion -whistled for a wind. They had religiously carried out the old rite daily for several days. At the,first suggestion of a steady westerly it was "hands to the capstan," as they raised the anchor by the oldest of sea methods.

Then the sails were shaken out and the Cap Pilar —first ship in many years to do so —moved down Sydney Harbour under her own canvas. Soon she was outside the heads and, with all set, was plunging away toward lowering storm clouds on her way to Auckland. She was last seen far down oil tlio horizon in a white-crested sea. Captain Adrian Seligman, owner and master'of the Cap Pilar, said before he sailed that he did not know when he would return to England. After Auckland, he might sail round, the South Seas on trading voyages. Three Australians The Cap Pilar arrived in Sydney about three weeks ago, completing the sixth stage of a round-the-world voyage. She is manned by a crew of 19, of whom only three had had previous sea experience before leaving England, the remainder being young men of various professions who had paid £IOO each to go on the trip. In Sydney her crew received an addition of three —William Marshall, aged 21, a motor salesman, who contributed his share of the cost of the enterprise, and two youths, Jack Riordan, aged 19, and Roy Walker, aged 18. Marshall has;-been an enthusiastic skipper of open boats on the harbour. Riordan's sailing experience has so far been limited to 10ft. canvas racing canoes, and Walker has added two years' training in the Naval Reserve to his experience in the same sport.