MILLIONAIRES IN THE PACIFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 5

MILLIONAIRES IN THE PACIFIC.

PANAMA TO FIJI RACES

CAPTAIN A. COE-SMITH. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 12. An interesting personality is at present in London—Captain A. Coe-Smith, late Commander R.N.. who is well known :n Sew Zealand, and has relations in the Dominion. He has just come to London after a year's cruise in the Pacific, and is helping to organise a somewhat extraordinary fixture —a race between Panama and Fiji, which is to take place nest year. A number of Americans and Canadians are trying to arrange this 6000-mile race between big sailing schooners, and such a sporting event would be more at the hazard of changing weather conditions than even the historic event with which Sir Thomas Lipton's name is so widely associated, for the venue of the proposed race is subject to dead calms and treacherous south-east trade winds.

Capt. A. Coe-Smith has had nearly a scoer of rears' experience in the Pacific, and the cruise on which he has just returned was undertaken for Mr. W. Wallace Near, a wealthy Canadian, a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, who in business is connected with the Page-Hersey Tubes Corporation oi Toronto. Captain Coe-Smith commanded for Mr. Near the 450 ton three-master with 250 h.p. auxiliary Diesel engine, the Kallisto. Mr. Near bought the vessel at Kiel, which it left under the Panama fiag. and it was afterwards fitted out in England. In this country the Kallisto was suspected at the time of being intended for rum running, as she carried two fast motor launches. However, in the end the Kallisto pot away and has since done the 6000 miles run from Panama to F/iji in 25 days. Her route was through Torres Straits to Singapore, through Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean to the West Indies, and thence to Ma hone Bay, Nova Scotia, where Mr. Wallace Near and his party disembarked after a year's thrilling cruise. From Southampton, Capt. CoeSmith covered 35,000 miles.

Those interested in sea travels are looking forward to seeing the cinema films in colour -which were taken for Mr. Xear. They have been exhibited in his own house in Canada, and are shortly to be seen in London.