BYRD'S SHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 18

BYRD'S SHIP.

GOOD FELLOWSHIP ABOARD. TRIP TO DUNEDIN. (By W. A. Mac-donald—Copyright.) NEW YORK, September 14. Bourtd for the Antarctic, the ship The City of New York was quiet; all the visitors were gone. There was a new feeling! the ship belonged to herself, she was on her own beginning a long passage} New York was cut off by a few miles of water which might have been the width of an ocean. The strain went out of the men's voices. Captain Melville., was filled with contentment. He said, "This is what I have always been Used to —the sea. I have never had notoriety before. I like this. I am happy now." Commander Byrd, eeing hie ship shaken down before returning to two months mode of land work and then his own voyage south, said he wanted to get into roughs, and went into his cabin, from which he came out in khaki. The engine of the old Norwegian whaler beat slowly below decks; the wind was not yet right for sail. They would feel the beat qf that engine or the pull of sails for 9000 miles now before they came to Dunedin, in New Zealand. Commander Uyrd tried to decide whether he would go as far as Norfolk or go ashore on the pilot boat from Ambrose: Light. He looked at the sea and the sky and the decks and was a new man. "By jove, I love this," he said.

On j»e side of a lifeboat were pencilled the words, "Don't forget me, your wife and child," and signed with a woman's name. There were still some salutes from passing vessels, which were duly answered, but the minds of the men Were on the ship. Stripped to the waist or in grimy overalls, they worked to square away. Their moving figures were on the deck and on the deck load, and the ratlines. They talked quietly to one another, with a joke now and then. /Byrd went here and there and spoke io, them. The' Afternoon was cloudy and a bit thick. *They were swinging ship slowly to adjust-, the radio compass, and when that waa .done they would calibrate the radio direction finder. There Jwere experts aboard for this who would put off in the pilot boat. They were taking visual sights and checking the constats by those. It was an interesting jpb because the ship has a wooden hull wjth metal in the rigging and smokestack. The Ambrose Light radio beacon was working with them to detect the ertors, which were then mechanically corrected. It began to rain. The decks seemed empty after the crowds of the dock and the early trip down £&> harbour. "Many a good man has walked these planks in forty, yean," said the j Commander. "Look at them. Did you ever see a rudder post like §r thatr^; The man at the wheel was in yellow oilskins and the rain blew down' on him as it Will blow many a day and night before-Jhey come home again. The ship was sailing down. Radio music came up frombelW'-aetbe their work. Ropes that' hadctimbered the deck were coiled and stowed away. The scoppeis were clear for tiui water that fan into them. Stowaways Discovered. Suddenly there was calling. The men bad found a stowaway—the second since leaving the pier. The^i gone ashore on the tug that the city steamer Macom, andwithout giving his name; the secobd said hit name waa Jack Solomon. Xixf-i' He waa a dark, slim boy with tousled hair. They hailed 4 tug for him-and the boy said, *y£aifc till I get my valise." He had a trayelKnrihiag" bigenough to on the rail and' talked got good spirit," i^>te^^e; ; .ii^ed : 'to: an officer, and tooraO "jdMbri!')|n4 offered it. The it. He was trying hard. ry« The Commander told for the 5h ' ~i S? u ] ter k 4Ul(i Bhook The' was - deepening the inen^fiiice^ : ' The high, the radio *ang across was Gapteigu Cunningham .«pf, W nutfcoard, •ending Sk fompHinents toCaptain Melville ofthejCityof New York, bound for the and Captain Melville's compliments in grateful; reply. Of all the .ships that, had sainted them4<fce> s leviathan ploughed toward Etftope/a' bigliijerrolling 'down to Rio, all was ; ;going so far as the City of/tfewlYork,-. Shouts from; forward reported another stowaway, thsi one*negnv the foc'sleh^l^we^^^^ poller blade and the theishtp'when the flashlight of showed that he was therer The crew grinned airomid; him. laughing, reached down a^;shook. his hand. The boy's other hand ddtched ft notebook and half a dozen yellow pencils. "How long have you been there?" someone asked, and he grinned and said, "Three days." He was a good-looking boy of 20. "I wanted to be the first black fellow to get; to the South Pole," he said. r „\ _ ( "When were you coming out?" demanded a man. The grin doubled. "When we were so far at "sea ; the captain wouldn't send me back." •So the ship was enriched by the sence of Robert White messenger and orphan of Jersey City. He walked across the continent in 1925, he said, and he had now been not only three days aboard the ship and through the cyanide gas fumigatiepi, but had hidden for four previous days on "the beam* . beneath thia pier waiting for his chance to stow away. *By Jove," exclaimed the Commander, "I admire that, negro. What am I going to do with a manlike thatt" Robert White Lanier staggered to his feet and fell. 'Tm all righti" he said. "Just a little stiff." Three days without'food and through a cyanide disinfection! The men helped him down to the foc'sle and he was happy. He still 'clutched pencils and notebook. , ' -*"S • "Warship coming by. Commander," sang out a voice, and they manned the rail and the,destroyer's rail Was manned and the grey ship slid by-' the white' whaler in the grey aftetfnoon, those men en the twoships facing :each other rigid ' •eross the rails. B beat of the engine went on.; It '"J** Uk* * bullfrog, spacing his deep JJgnant notes about: a second , apart. Commander Byrd in his khaki clothes w!Tui«Shirtz. o, , d . OTfine * glurteu ©f oil.

Captain to Shoot Sharks. Rucker, the cinematograph man, going to the Pole with his four cameras and 150,000 feet of film, was serving as me»« boy. Siple, the Boy Scout, was cleaning up the forecastle sink. Captain Melville was coiling rope. a '' A little tiger cat poked its nose on dcck and looked over the rail, and folded itself up in comfort. A little dog grabbed the broom with which a young man was sweeping water into the scuppers. The second cat, a yellow one, remained below where Robert White Lanier was now eating watermelon after three days of starvation. The ship had a distinct life of its own—New York seemed far away. The old whaler began to rise and fall with the ground swells, slowly. The yards swayed on the tall masts. The captain looked aloft peapefully. On the lifeboat the pencil scrawl still read, "Don't forget me," but parting was over and they were on their long, long way. It was Mulroy who found the stowaway, Solomon, locked in the bathroom. He was going by when he noticed a rag stuffed in the ventilator. "That's funny," he thpught, and tried the door and listened. He heard the stealthy movement of feet. When he got in, the boy was hiding between the bath tub and the wall.

The ship was settling down. Men who had worked for days without much sleep and with only sandwiches to eat were taking it easy. Commander Byrd was all over the ship. He put his hand on men's shbulders, and talked with them, - asking questions, recalling something from the days of the North Pole expedition, praising something they had done. Watching him someone spoke of his gift for men, his aptitude for making men like him. The Commander touched a man's shoulder. "What about your wife and family ?" he said, and they walked away together in the darkness, two low voices. The binnacle light shone on the face and figure of the man at the wheel; the rest of the poop was dusk. From the deckhouse came the compass call and the two voices answered,- "W rk! Mark!" "Steady," said the p%t's voice. "Steady so," from the man at the wheel.

I TSiw was a stir in the- foc'sle. Byrd wants'to see allhands fiSi." They clambered up and went along the darkened deck. The Commander stood a little above them near the wheel, but the binnacle light was not on him; they were' all in shadow together. And he spoke slowly in his clear Virginia voice without formality. Long, low lines of distant golden fire were Coney Island and Far Rockaway. "All of you have wives and mothers dependent on you," began the Commander. "Mrs. Byrd has their addresses, and will keep in touch with them. If there is sickness or trouble she will know about it; if any one has to go to the hospital a, good friend of mine lias arranged to have-, them ' taken care. of. You can depend on it they will want for nothing." ' Out there on the summer water, 12,'000 miles from the ice barrier, and the cold Bay of Whales, arose a great burst of handclapping, strong and heavy hands. Down stepped the slim figure in khaki. The Commander was shaking hands. "Tom, see you in two months. Chips, old fellow " And so, one by one, and a joke here and there until he was through the list. Every man was called by his name, and a personal word for each. They gathered about the ladder forward, as the pilot boat sent over a row boat. The Commander went down the ladder; the little boat shoved off in the choppy sea. From the pilot boat a burst of searchlight lit up the white bow and the log bowsprit of the whaler.

"Three cheers for Commander Byrd," aang out a voice on deck. They cheered him in the night, where the binnacle light glowed on tho face and figure of the man at the wheel.