PAMIR ON WAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 3, 5 January 1938, Page 9

PAMIR ON WAY.

BIG FINNISH BARQUE.

EARLY ARRIVAL EXPECTED.

SHOULD BE IN TASMAN SEA.

Somewhere in southern waters is the Pamir, bound for Auckland. A steel four-masted barque, the Pamir is one of the largest and finest sailing craft afloat, and future generations will recall the fact that this brave windjammer called at Auckland in the rear I!>3S. She mav e\en he the last four-master to grace the Waitemata.

The barque, well laden with a cruano cargo, left Astove Island in the Indian Ocean on October 12. sailing direct for this port. To-day she is 85 da vs out. ami if she lias not already entered the J asman should do so very soon. An average passage is about JM) da vs.

Tile arrival of the Pamir cannot be set down definitely for any particular date, as so many contingencies have a hearing on the successful termination of her passage. Leaving Astove Island, which is some distance to the north of Madagascar and to the of Aldabra, a dependency of Mauritius, the Pamir would be in low latitudes, where the winds are variable, although for a brief time she might have been fortunate with the nor'-east trade winds. Being heavily rigged, with a tremendous spread of canvas, she would probably keep under way in the lightest of airs.

In the doldrums, however, she might lie becalmed for days on end. Once well to the southward of the line, the steady sou -east trades would meet her. Centuries of experience have taught the sailor tliat winds blow in welldefined areas in certain directions. Down in the Westerlies. Hence in tlie trades, which extend for a varying distance south of the equator to about 27 degrees south, it is reasonable to assume that Captain Bjorkfelt would sail his charge as close on the wind as possible in order to make longitude and g*et to the higher latitudes of the westerlies without delay. Lying between the trades and the west winds is another belt of calms, known to mariners as the horse latitudes.

After these areas had been negotiated the barque's troubles, for the time being, would be over. Certainly the crew, hardy young Norsemen with tanned skins from weeks of tropic sun, might not agree as it is cold in the higher latitudes even iu mid summer. But the shrieking steady westerlies of the "Koafing Forties'' have their compensations. They send green seas aboard, life lines often are rigged for the safety of the crew, but for "all that the winds are constant.

•Sails may blow out, the barque may he badly buffeted, but she romps along. Crossing the Great Australian Bight, notorious area of vicious seas and terrible storms, the Pamir would keep well to the southward. On a chart her course might appear to the landsman as ,- a long way round," but in reality it would be a rough approximation of a Great Circle route, which, paradoxically, is the shortest way of getting between places on the globe. South of Tasmania the Pamir would brace her yards and stand up into the I asmaii lea. It is probable she is in the Tasman now, and she may be spoken by intercolonial shipping any day. This Year's Grain "Race."

The Pamir is a good sailer. Her passage, under reasonable conditions, should not occupy much more than 00 days, which means that there is a good prospect of her being in port within the coming week. She has a large guano cargo for discharge, an operation which should occupy about two weeks, when she will heave up for South Australia to load wheat for Europe.

Another unit of the Gustaf Erikson fleet, the Penang, also is expected at Auckland this year and should make port some five weeks after the. Pamir. Both the Pamir and Penang will take part in the grain "race."

Of the 13 sailing vessels taking part this year, the first to load is the Admiral Karpfanger, formerly the L'Avenir, and now a training vessel of the Hamburg-Amerika Line. She radioed some days ago her expected arrival at .Wallaroo early in January. Besides being the first of the fleet, the Admiral Karpfanger has obtained the highest freight for a failing vessel at 4.'5/<» a ton.

The other ships'with wheat charters are the Passat and Pominern, which dead-lieated in last year's race with averages of !)4 days, the Olivebank, Lawhill, Viking, Winterhude, Archibald Russell, Abraham Rvdberg, Killorau and Moshuhi. The Moshulu, following the custom Captain Erikson has always observed, will soon be given her original name of Kurt. Captain Erikson owns all but two of the 13 sailers.