A Rolling Stone Ashore and Afloat

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

A Rolling Stone Ashore and Afloat

KNOWN to many thousands of Australians and New Zealanders as an obliging and cheery purser way back in the days when the Ophir and Osterley were crack ships of the Orient Line, Commander A. B. Campbell has WTi'tten a book to which he has given the title "With the Corners Off." The title, i* appropriate in so much as the author rcvenla himself us the typical rolling stone and long before h<- sat down to write this book nil his corners must have boon worn away. Intended originally for the navy, young Campbell did not pet through the entrance examination. While he does not say so. it is a reasonable assumption that there was not that application lo studies necessary for success. Similarly, the autlior found himself a square peg in a. round hole as a junior in a hank— the corners nt this time had not even commenced to wear down. Some yearn in Canada followed, nn open-air life in survey camps and trapping in tlie far Northwest. It is here that tho story really begins. Drawing on a remarkable memory the reader is taken

through a series of adventured, sometimes exciting, but more often amusing. During this period Campbell lived for some time with a tribe of Indians, with whom he became on sufficiently intimate terms to be admitted to the brotherhood, a privilege that carried with it attendance at the tribe's secret ceremonies. Recalled to England by his father's final illness, there followed years ae a purser, starting in the old Orient, one of the first steamships to carry mails to Australia. Shipboard Life "Narrowing" Campbell's opinion on the effect of sea life on character is interesting because it differs widely from the generally accepted view. To quote:— "As for life at sea. What I may have to say about it can only be incidental. After many years of it I have come to the conclusion that its effect on the character of those who follow it professionally is quite other than most people seem to imagine. The popular notion is, I fancy, that the traversing of wide stretches of open sea, the encounter with odd corners all over the world, broaden the sailor's mind. But. while admitting that travel hae an educative value, I firmly maintain that shipboard life has a narrowing effect on

the professional sailor. In general, h« is bigoted, self-opinionated and ignorant. Living day in and day out in the pockets, so to speak, of his shipmates, he develops those characteristics in selfprotection. With discipline to maintain among those under him, being, as it were, under the microscope all the time, be must assert some sort of individuality. It needs an uncommonly genuine mind in & sailor to. appear what he actually is, to admit his weaknesses of character, be unafraid of them, but to rise above them without fake. I am far from saying that the average sailor fakes consciously, and still farther from predicting a want of mettle in him. Fake or genuine, the British seaman has too often shown his quality of courage and steadiness in emergency, he has built up too splendid a tradition of initiative dependability, to deserve any sort of scornful finger. I only say that any deep weakness of character in the individual sailor is rather covered over than eradicated by the nature of his daily life." A Pound a Passenger! In the main the writer avoids philosophising and confines Tiimself to stories about passengers. He tells them admirably as the climax of a yarn about a demented passenger evidences: — "While I was playing deck quoits the quarter-master asked if he could ep«ak to me privately. I withdrew with him to the ship's rail. One of the passengers, he said, was behaving 'queer-like.' "'What's the troubleT' • "Well, sir,' eaid the qnarter-maeter, 'ha a manner of speaking, it suite ate all right. Tfiie 'ere passenger, sir, 'e comes up to me early one morning larst week and *e pulls me by the sleeve. "Sailorman," ees 'e, "d'yer see that there big feller «ittin' hi the third chair?" I takes a dekko, sir, and blow me! there aint nobody in the ehair at all. But I thought I'd better humour 'im. "Yu«, sir," I ses, "Wot abahrt *im?"

"That," the passenger whispers solemnlike, "that's me worst enemy. Throw 'im over the ship's side!" ses 'e. " 'Well, sir, it's a queer go, but I slips along an' pretends to pick up the bloke as wasn't there an' slings 'im over into the ditch. My word, sir, but wasn't 'is nibs pleased abahrt it! 'E grins all over 'is face, "Thanks a lot," ses 'e, an' 'e slips is»e a quid.' •"Yes, , I said. 'Anything furtherT* " 'Well, sir, 'e's done it four times again since. Ses I'm 'is bodyguard. As soon as 'e spots an enemy I 'eaves 'im overboard an' gets a quid.' "There was a conference in the captain's cabin that evening, and the passenger was sent home from the next port of call in charge of a male nurse." Ramming of the Otranto Years of war followed in mine sweepers, and later through the tedious business of patrol on an armed cruiser, the Otranto, fruitlessly searching for raiders in the South Atlantic and Pacific. The highlight of the book is fittingly reached in the dramatic recital of the ramming of the Otranto by the Kashmir in a tempestuous etorm off the coast of Islay with the epic rescue by the destroyer Mounsey of COO of those on board. While the Otranto w*e drifting dose to a shore lined, with men anxious to help, nothing could b* done bo save the five hundred left on board. Moetly young American* croeeing the Atlantic bound for France for the great adventure, they were in the main mercifully drowned before their bodies wert battered beyond recognition against the iron-bound perpendicular cliff* against which the Atlantic etorme expend their fury. Commander Campbell to-day is one of the favoured broadcaster* from the 8.8.C and he writes much ae he talks— an «a*y-flowing style. The book -is well worth reading. Harrapa are the publishers.