STOWED AWAY AT LYTTELTON

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23845, 14 January 1943, Page 2

STOWED AWAY AT LYTTELTON

NEW ZEALAND GIRL’S ADVENTURE

TRAVELLED TO VANCOUVER

(0.C.) VANCOUVER, December 20. A New Zealand girl was attending a servicemen’s fancy dress party at Lyttelton one night when she had a sudden impulse to go to Canada. A Canadian merchant vessel was in port so, still wearing an Irish folk-dancing costume, she seized a rope dangling over the side, and climbed aboard just before sailing time.

Telling the story of her stowaway adventure, she said that what she remembered most was the look of surprise and alarm on the captain's face when she was shown into his cabin. “He looked as if he had seen a ghost,” she said.

"1 ran alongside the ship at a quarter to midnight,” she said, "There was a policeman by the gangway, so I looked for a rope. I don’t know how I reached the deck without being seen. The policeman shone his torch in my direction several times and two or three members of the crew passed while I was climbing the rope. But I made it.”

The girl hid in the hold until the following midnight, and then called to a sailor and was taken to the captain. By this time she was seasick, but the captain was kind to her and let her lie down in the saloon. A little later she was so sick that dhc was sent to the ship's hospital, where she spent a considerable part of the trip. “I was never so well looked after in all my life,” said the girl. “Breakfast was brought to me by the third engineer, but when I was well enough they allowed me to spend the evenings in the smokeroom with the officers, I entertained them by singing songs and giving imitations of Shirley Temple, Bobby Breen, and a baby crying.” Since arriving in Vancouver the girl has been in the care of the immigration authorities. On the condition that she reports to them- daily they have found her accommodation at the Y.W.C.A. In peace time she might be deported, but at present it is doubtful whether she can be sent home. She does not want to go, and hopes to obtain war work in Vancouver.