TWELVE MONTHS AT SEA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 2

TWELVE MONTHS AT SEA

WELLPARK’S MAIDEN VOYAGE

EXPERIENCES OF CAPTAIN’S - WIFE It is not always an ill omen when a ship sets sail with the skipper’s wife aboard; in fact, Mrs W. Walker, wife of the captain of the Wellpark, which is now visiting New Zealand, says after 12 months at sea that she has brought good luck to the vessel on its maiden voyage. For instance, the crew picked up a salvage ship off the coast of Portugal and towed her back to Lisbon, and the weather was glorious most of the way. Mrs Walked -loves life at sea. She finds it a complete relaxation after six years of housekeeping under trying war conditions in Penarth. After the war years with nights of broken sleep and long daytime hours of standing in queues, the chance of a long sea voyage in her husband’s ship was just what she needed. “I had six years’ sleep to catch up, and when my energy came back I revelled in reading, knitting, and sewing like a woman of leisure,” she said. As the weeks lengthened into months she took a hand at wood work. An undertaker from South Australia taught her a few tricks' of the carpentering trade while the ship was in port, then with the help of the Wellpark’s “chippy” she really got down to it. Now in her husband’s stateroom stands a saucy-looking nigger boy holding an ashtray, which she carved and painted. The turning that was done to the "tray and the base of the stand she had done on the ship’s lathe. A trim little box which holds her jewellery she made from oak and mahogany. Hermenn Goering, complete with curves, Nazi ensigns and bemedalled chest, stands in replica on the captain’s deck. He was created by Mrs walker with her paints and an old liqueur bottle. The second engineer completed the picture by making a small red tin cheesecutter cap.