LIFE ON A BARGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 17

LIFE ON A BARGE.

COLONEL AND WIFE. 8500 MILES IN FOUR YEARS. "SHORE LEAVE NOW AND THEN." (Special.—Ey Air Mail.) LONDON", December 31. Colonel and Mrs Sartorius, who crossed the Sahara iu a motor car and trailer in 19.53. have for the last four years lived in a barge. In that "time they have sailed S-500 miles. Colonel Gerald Sartorius returned from the Indian Army in the autumn of 1934, at the ape of 51. and decided that he would live the rest of his life in a boat. So he bought the Aglaia, a Dutch engine-fitted mailing barge, fitted her out with all possible comforts and "with the exception of a bit of «-liore leave now and then" lie and Mrs. Sartorius have made her their home. 'We started out from Wo»?t Mersey." the colonel said. "and made our way through the canals of France, hitting the Mediterranean at Grauduroy. Since then we have been round the Mediterranean, and nearly all round the French coast. '"In that way we have touched 182 seaports, and if you count stopping places on rivers and canals, you must inultiplv that by three or four. It is a jrrand life, a comparatively cheap life. Running costs, apart from repairs and the wages of "the one-man crew, work out at about fivepence a mile."