THE MERCHANT SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 12

THE MERCHANT SERVICE

♦ TRAINING FUTURE OFFICERS MERITS OF SAJL AM) STEAM ITHE P.IESS Special Service.l AUCKLAND, January 20. When the ¥llllll3ll four-masted barque Pamir, now approaching port, reaches Auckland at the end of a voyage of 100 days from the Seychelles group, in the Indian C v :ean. a striking contrast will be offered in the method:-; of sea training. Although most European countries sti'l believe in tho value of sail training for merchant service officers, Great Britain has discontinued the practice, and one of the three seagoing British merchant training ships, tho Federal motor-ship Durham will be at Auckland at the same time as the Finnish barque. The Durham, with the British-India Company's training ships Nardana and Dovcn, plays an important part in preparing Britain's merchant service offiot;rs. At present the Durham, which is discharging cargo from Liverpool at Queen's wharf, is manned by 40 cadets, who do all the deck work. Among the cadets are four New Zcalandcrs and four Australians. In most cases the boys have first had a training poriod of two years on one ci the British home training ships, the Worcester or the Conway, or at Pangbourne Nautical College. At the end of this stage they undertake a three-year course on board the Durham. Others enter tho Durham immediately and take a four-year course. The results, it is stated, have proved excellent, and there is proof of this in the fact that the chief, second, and third officer, and (ho director of navigational studies on the Durham at present, are men who were trained in this manner Specially-designed Ship Previous ships of the Federal Linp which have carried cadets have been converted merchantmen; but when the Durham was built, more than three years ago. she was specially-designed and fitted as a training ship. A selected staff trains the boys in the various departments of theiv activities. The sailing ships to which the Euro- j pean countries adhere for training are among the most famous in the world. Many Finnish ships now carry entirely native-born crews, and few vessels under the Finnish flag offer a sounder training ground than those of Captain Gustav Erikson's famous fleet, ot which the Pamir is one. The Swedish Board of Trade and the . Swedish naval authorities recently decided to abandon sail training, which means that the famous ship Abraham Rydberg may be sold; but the German authorities have definitely refused to accede to requests that sail training should be abolished. Two ships taking part in this year's grain race from South Australia to the United Kingdom, the Admiral Karpfanger and the Kummcdore John sen, are vessels recently purchased by German shipping comaanies to train future officers