TWO "MIDSHIPMEN."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 109, 11 May 1927, Page 10

TWO "MIDSHIPMEN."

AMERICAN GIRLS' ADVENTURES. THRILLING EXPERIENCE!. MEMBERS OF WINDJAMMER'S CREW. MUTINY AND MURDER. Seven years ago Mies Jean Schoen, a young lady of New York, made the trip from Vancouver to Auckland under the be«t conditions, she being a passenger by the Niagara. To*day the young lady is back with us again, having arrived by the Hinemoa this morning, after a trip providing a direct contrast in conditions and experiences which few young women can claim. Misa Schoen loves ships; she was for a couple of years employed in different shipping offices in New York, West Africa, and San Francisco. She has always wanted to make a trip in a sailing ship—a windjammer—and when the opportunity came it was too much for her to let pass. While at work in her office in August last Miss Sehoen had forwarded to her by a Miss Viola Cooper, a friend, a clipping from a newspaper which stated that the Star of Peru, a barque, I

was about to leave San Francisco under A foreign captain and crew for New Caledonia, where she was to be dismantled and used as a harbour barge. Miss Schoen and Miis Cooper were keen to have a look over one of the few old sailing ships still there, and in going over on the ferry they conceived the idea of trying to make ft trip on her tR any way they possibly could, even, if they had sign on as members of the erew, They found on board one of the Old-time skippers, a Frenchman, Jn twenty minutes had been won trrn to the idea. Aboard a Windjammajr. "I had my wife aboard a sailing ship for five years," said Captain Chateau* vieux, "and I see no reason why you ladies should not make the trip if you want to," Convincing the agent Wβ* not such an easy job, but finally through the head office in Bordeaux they got ptr* mission, and signed on a* midiMpmtji on the windjammer, now renamed the Bougainville, She left for Vancouver to load lumber, and the young ladles joined her there, sailing on September 20 for Suva, the first and ©njy port of call this side of Noumea, "For ten days we saw absolutely no* thing but sea and sky, and occasional guile. On the tenth day, early in the morning, the Matsonia passed us close enough to 'Halloo , from poop to bridge. Two more excited midshipmen you never eaw, continued Miss Sehoen. "Where are you boundi" ealled put the Matsonia, "Suva, yelled one of the 'midshipmen,' and the*captain added, 'please report us and say that the ladje* are well,' and in 15 minutes the Matsonia was well down the horizon. We saw nothing from then till the 36th day out, when we sighted the Island cf Tao, in the Sampap group. Contrary to the general opinion there was no monotony. We taught the crew English, took pur daily exercises up and down the poop, fished for all eorts of fish, including sharks, end took a trick at the wheel, both Miss Cooper and h Our first port was Suva, which we reached two days after sighting Tao. A Rpyal Reception, "I might tell you here, while I think of it, that we wpre ordinary women's clothing and knickers during the cold weather, There was no formality on th§ Bougainville; the captain wore pyjamas in the tropics, and we were guiltless of stockings, and sometimes we got put and had bucket fights with the orew. The crew comprised 23 all told, including Miss Cooper and I, and the two Kanakas. We got to Suva, where we had a royal reception, everybody considering our trip as a sporting proposition, and turned out to give us a good time, We had a dance on board, and it was with great regret we left after pur cargo of lumber had been discharged. Four days later we swung around and dropped anchor in Noumea Harbour, New Caledonia, There the Bougainville was dismantled, and we stayed a few weeks prior to leaving for the New Hebrides. On the eve of our departure an opportunity came to take a small copra schooner round Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. I took the ehanee, while' Viola (Mies Cooper) went on as originally planned. The 50-ton was anything but Comfortable, After the first night out I gave up my bunk to the millionr of epekroaphes, and thereafter stretched myself comfortably, on four kerosene cases on the after-deck with my head

banging up against the wheelbox, and my feet hanging out over the rail. And that was my bunk for the rest of the eleven days. I was the only woman aboard; there were practically no conveniences, 4 white captain and pate, and 23 Kanakas. Tl# trip was a most unusual pne. We went up the west eoast of Caledonia to Surprise Island, and down the east coast over to the Loyaltiae. I have been sicker in my life, but not much. On Lifii somebody loaned me a horse. I couldn't ri£e decently, but anything was better than the fleas and thje cockrpacke* of Loyaute. I rode aeross the island whi|e the ship went round, and I rejoined her SJ to Noiimea, J |oeik the St. Francois for Port Vila, where I was to meet Viola. I went ashore, got my letters, and got back on the shjp just in time, to be quarantined. We were in quarantine for eight days with 5?5 Tonkinese (coolies) on board, and on the morning of the eighth day we had a murder. One of the Tonkinese ladies having been indiscreet, was choked and tossed overboard. That .created a certain amount of excitement. An inquiry was held on board, at the end of which, one of the coolies

asked in amazement: *What are the whitei making auch a row about i After all, what value Iβ a woman? , .. *» J*? W**M«i Viol* bad arrived en. the St. Miehel whieh Captain Chateau. view had been transferred to, and *a soon as quarantine was over I west with my bag and baggage on board the St. Michel, where, aside from .the rate and the fact that 2 had to sleep on the diidqgnoqi table, we were Wth eom» fortafito. We had a nke trip round the northern islands, especially Matekula, whieh It still quite r wild and where eannihftUam U still practised, and the natives eome down to the boach with guns and pinch your arm t© we how fat you are. They didnt worry me any as I had seen too many of them in West Africa. Anyhow f think they prefer missionaries. From Malekulft we made a trip round the inland*, picking up copra and recruiting kanaka labour. Leaving Jfew Hebrides Viola and I parted, she going to Sydney and I to Norfolk Island/where I stayed for two month* and had the holiday of my life. In all my travels I have never struck a place f like so well as Norfolk." •'How did you happen to go to West Africa," Miss Schoen was ae&d. "Well, I don't know, except that I found it one day on the map of Africa and decided I wanted, to go. That was my first real adventure outside the States. I spent six months over there going up and down the coast on ships, and made a short stay in Nigeria, where I picked up the first Job any white woman has ever picked up on the Coaet. I worked as stenographer on black wages, My experiences in Wort Africa included a mutiny in the Congo, In which the captain was forced to Kill two of the black crew with my gun, no other guns on the ship being in working order. On that trip I was the only woman on board a freight ship for two and β-half months and nowhere have I been better chaperoned. For the information of mothers who worry about their wander* ing daughters I might add that I have never had an unpleasant experience and there is no safer place for a woman to be than with the so-called rough element that goes to sea. And yet, the only persou who gave me any encouragement when I first started out on my travels was an old deep-waterman, Captain A. E. Dingle, now writing for American periodicals, to whose yacht I swam in the last desperate effort to get some information. J have since taken a trip with him in hie 50ft schooner-from New York to Halifax, and even that hasn't cured me from going to sea, although I bad to take my trick at the wheel every four hours regardlett of weather or seasicknesa. Mist Sehoen intends to remain in New Zealand for a month or two, but she has made no definite plans as to her future movements.