TRAWLER FROM HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 305, 26 December 1928, Page 5

TRAWLER FROM HOME.

EVENTFUL VOYAGE TO SYDNEY

FOOD SHORTAGES, STRANDING

AND SICKNESS.

CREW NUMBERED THIRTEEN

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 31

Illness, hardships, shortage of food and a stranding were some of the experiences of the crew of the little trawler ; .Durraween which reached Sydney this week after a voyage of 92 days from England. The crew numbered 13, regarded as an omen of ill-luck by the crew when they arrived in Sydney. Trouble began at Gibraltar, where the cook was put ashore in a serious condition owing to having received an injury in the galley during rough eeas in the Bay of Biscay. His substitute engaged at Gibraltar was not proficient, and the lack of an ice box on the boatt caused the food to contaminate easily. To add to their troubles, the crew found that the accommodation, while suitable for. short voyages which had been the practice while the trawler was engaged in the North Sea trade, was not conducive to comfort in the tropics. Most of the crew had to sleep-on deck, and in rough weather when this was impossible they had to herd below in the stifling heat and humid atmosphere. Such conditions were blamed for the fact that four members of the crew took ill after the vessel left Colombo.

As far as Ceylon the Durrawecn, which had previously put into Perim to remedy a defect in the engine-room, had been accompanied by a sister-ship, the Goolgwai. The two trawlers arrived at Colombo together, but 24 hours after leaving that port they became separated in rough weather, and the master of the Durraween, Captain A. B. Powell, made for Cocoa Islands, where he had arranged to meet the Goolgwai in the event of them becoming separated. However, Captain Powell and two others on the ship became seriously ill with pneumonia, and had to seek medical help at the cable station at Direction Island.

In approaching the island on the night of Thursday, November 8, the Durraween became stranded on a coral reef. When she floated off two hours later on p, flood tide it was discovered that two of the four propeller blades hail been stripped. Captain Powell and one of the sick seamen were landed at the cable station and put into hospital. In the meantime native labour was employed to shift everything movable to the forward part of the ship. It was intended to run the ship aground and effect repairs to the propeller, but a suitable beach could not be found, and that scheme failed.

With Captain Powell partly recovered from his illness, and the seaman also pronounced fit to travel, it was decided to make for Batavia for docking repairs. Good progress was made to Batavia, but it was found on approaching land that there were no charts of this part of the world on board, and the speed of the ship was curtailed. The port of Tandjong Priok Avas made safely, however, and there the Durraween was docked and repairs made to the propeller blades. From Batavia they went to Thursday Island. Rough weather was experienced in the Torres Strait for four days without a break, and the crew had a strenuous time keeping the water down in the bilges. Provisions ran short, and the trawler put into Townsville. on the Queensland coast, for assistance. The trawler has been purchased by Red Funnel fisheries, and is the eighth unit of their fishing fleet. It is the intention of the owners to place her in dock for a thorough overhaul after her voyage round the world, after which she will be placed in the trawling industry, which is beginning to establish itself on a firm basis in Xew South Wales. Most of the fleet of the former State Trawling Department are parts of the various fleets of the trawlincr companies, now managed privately. When under State control the venture showed a huge loss, and was abandoned about six years