CRUISE OF THE TILIKUM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 250, 19 October 1904, Page 9

CRUISE OF THE TILIKUM.

AN ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE. 40.000 MILES IN AN OPEN BOAT. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, September U. ! On Friday night last there sailed into I the mid«t of the miscellaneous collection of small craft iv Margate anchorage a curiously-shaped little boat with three *lim masts, and containing two I men, one a middle-aged mariner, aud JU.e other a young man. The craft was the ex-Alaskan Indian war canoe Lilhkuxu, alias Friend, the elder of the crew j was Captain J. E. of British Columbia, am! the. younger. -Mr < . L. Harrison, who been the captain - - tnate during the latter portion o! his adven- • Lurous voyage round the world. The I fact that' tbe .strange craft wa-s the iTilLiku™ -oon leaked out. and c-"<- thu i Captain had made all -nug aboard prei paratorv to larrdintr. liis boat wa- suri rounded'-by a mob of journalis , ,.* hungry ' for "i.-upy." and a crowd of folk with !no basink-i ou baud save the satiation • of tbeir own curiosity. And when the : Captain and hi- mate landed they had ! to run tbe gauntlet of a big crowd ci 'holiday-makers who desired to coogra,tulate"him on his safe arrival in the Old [Country after hLs hazardous voyage. At. ■a. moderate., estimate Captain V'oss • shook hands with at least fivv hundred j peopie before ho gvi clear of the wel- ' coming crowd, aiui hi- mate performed deputy work fur him on a- many more. Of the Captain's voyage i;i his little : tffaft—sbc is but 3S fee', lonp:. with -I I inches draught, and a can vac area oi : 38 gquare yards all toid—you. liave 'already heard something., but it is many days since he paid your colony a visit, so'periseps it will be well to recite the salient features of his trip, which has extended 6\«r 40,000 miles and has oarcfied just fte'ee yeaTs, 3 months, -and

12 days. In that time Captain V/oss j has had no less than fourteen '"mates."" one being drowned, and all the rest, save Harrison, getting so tired ot tne lonely life on board that they cleared oat of it at the first port oi call. Captain Yoss began his journey from Victoria. British Columbia, oa May 21, 1901, having as bis *ole companion Mr Lnxon, a son of tae former proprietor of thr "" Winnipeg Fret- Pres?."' By those who witnessed, the start fears wore naturally expressed lor the safety of tho craft, which 3:cr skipper "and dove his best to make seaworthy by adding a , kaden keel of 3ewt.. and constructing j « cabin as a protection from i winds. The Tillikinn was built liy a j Xorlh American Indian, and the skull j of the dead builder was carried on j board throughout the voyage. Mr Luxon j left the canoe at one of tJc intermediate j calling place.-., and Captain Voss engaged another mate, who unfortunately fell I overboard twelve hundred miles from i.Sydney, carrying with him the only compass of -which the canoe could boast. According to the captain's narrative, after leaving British Columbia he round- ; ed thr coast of Vancouver, thence enter- j ing the Xortb. Pacific, and steering south j crossed the equator about. 122 west I longitude. lie established friendly re- ! Unions with the natives of the Penrhyn Islands, and oven the cannibals of adjsjwn" group , ? in the South I'aeiflc nianiI felted no ho-Uile feeling during a >t;iy 'of day-. From Fiji to Sydney was v run o° eighteen hundred miles, and ir was on i!)i=; part of the trip that the mate, one Regent, was washed overboard during a "southerly buster" and drowned. At Melbourne the frail craft was damaged by the negligent use of a crane, and Captain VosS brought an notion for damages, which he won. From Melbourne ho "".vent wp to Ballarat. [■where ho look par', in a. regatta, er.nvoyinc th n nr.no for this purpose to an ] altitude of fourteen hundred fwt above i sea level. From Melbourne the course [was to Adelaide, thence to Hobart. ana ito the most southerly pciiit 'if Xow I Zealand. While eoastinff here thp iopJ ttin was all bul deprived uf his new 'mate who was washed overboard, hut manJiged with Captain's aid io rrgnin the Tiliikum. Vhi't in New Zealand he was couiI mi.-..-ioncd by an old lady living at soil i>i take :•> fruit cake she hcil made jto her Mm. who employed at 1 h<» i-i.b'.e station in the Cooo.s. hut udver-e winds and lurrrnt.s took him far out of his course, and h.ivine only a gallon of v.-atT !'fi to serve himself and mat" he made for the New Hebrid* and took in provisions ;;nd watM. lie then sft sail toward* Torres Sf.» Hs, and. bping j ill. put in at Thursday Island, hoping !to iind a medical man there. In this ] hope he was disappointed, for there v>.i- ---! not, so far as he could ascertain, a liv- '■ ins: soul on the island. So be <=<.vrPfl a i course f< »r Rodriguez Island. 2000 miles m-roci' the Indian Ocean, where h" reI provisioned his little craft and obtained I medical comforts suitable to hiss need--. I Krcni Rodriguez the captain steered for South Africa, landed at Durlian. and visiteu the principal centres in the late iheatre of war. From the Cape lie sailed for St. Helena, and three years from | the dsitf! of hi- departure from British Columbia reached Pernambneo. En rtillli" to the Azores Captain Voss was I ppiMii vi ry ii , . l.nT with !inr> weather, for j fjv , iii: , .! r:;n to thr Ciiannel he i j'ii-ki'd iip woTiderfully, and on arriral at I locked mine tin , worse for his i experiences at ;,ea. Xnr did his boaJ, I v.liic'a, I uurlTstand, will presently be j exhibited in London. Captain Yoss in- ' ten.!-, \\p hear, to give the world a usn - ativr ni his \oyago in book form. Lie line!, i: seems, plenty of adventure?, j pi>--.i.;:-ni nnd orherwisc. pspeeially , i»;»onj the inhabitants of the Soutli Sci I Islands, hut the los? of his mate. BeL"!:'i. w;is ihi , worst experience of all. i "Whrn t!iat poor fellow wm swept r.ver- \ board." «aid Captain \'oss, -it was halfI par-r olevni at night. I hove-to aI ({iiickiy as possibk-, and rsiioiiterl until ' ilrw'.i. but 1 never saw nor heard of j Bf'jrcnt ngain. Moreover, lie had ear-: ricd the c-ompus-s overboard with him. A ( j few days before we lost our anchor,! j which iouled on a coral roe:. So here j 1 \\;is. minus mate, compass and anchor, J lover a thousand miles from Sydney. It : was iho firsr time I hud been rguilo lest, j I I thought all was over, and did not J cure much. Beiufr alone. I worried ii ! <;r.?at deal. 1 could- not eat, and. of j i-iKirse, sleep was out of the question. J (Jn the fifth day another -udden gale carried away the foremast. I recovered iii :ind spliced it. The boat was pitch- ', inp badly, and 1 had only two fept of I slippery deck to stand on. 1 wr.s just I nianaginjr to put in the repaired mast when a big sea caught it, and over the whole went again. Once more I recovered the mast, and this time succeeded in rabing it. That morning , I had my first breakfast for live days. In the excitement ot the toughest job I have ever experienced. I had forgotten ! tiie fate of poor Begent." At Humphrey Island the crew of the Tilikum had, it appears, a great reception. The King of Manahiki entertained them to :i banquet, '"his majesty" , and the household sitting at a little distance watching them.eat. Although there were only two, enoujrh food was -upplied for ."500. In the cenrre of the table was a roasted pig that weighed about 1505b. Native girls came in two by two and placed gaudily decorated straw hats on rbeir Xo sooner had ons girl thus crowned them than another came in. until there were between thirty and forty hats on the iloor. The mate jokingly declared that he would embrace the next girl who Thu- decorated him. The Ring requested that the mate's Words should be interpreted, whereupon he laughed uproariously, and whispered to au attendant. Much to the- mate's chagrin, and the general atmrserrteni, a very old wizened woman hobbled in with his I next hat, and the King commanded him to carry out his promise. The mate. i however, declined. The King carried his i hospitality ti> extremes. He even ofI fered two of his daughters in marriage \to the voyagers. But Captain Voss re- : spectrally explained that he was already ' ! married, and the mate swore he would jbo true to his Australian sweetheart, iv i spile of every temptation the King ; might hold out. J While at Penrhyn. inhabitants I 1 hare a predilection for "Lung Pig'," Cap- '■ I tain Voss was astonished at .seeing a \ j younir native man and woman walking L ' hand in hand through the village, and ''all the other men, women and children I pelting them with old tin cans, eccoa- ] nut shells snd stone?. He ascertained ' • that they had been seen out togethfrt t ; tho previous night after ten o'clock, and "' a ruic that everyone must be in bed I, at thiit hour is strictly enforced, ac- ■ I cording to the captain. 1 j L'pon a smail uninhabited island on I ■ thfl eastern fide of the Fiji Group. Capt tain Voss found a human skeleton, neai - which lay an old gun. There were mdi r cations that t\° man had fallen a-vietirn , to cannibals; but the captain asserts i that the vrorst of cannibals will not ; now inflict that terribte fate upon white i people. He has in his possession tht I 1 skull of th* uniortrma*& taexaway.