SEEING THE WORLD

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27795, 21 October 1955, Page 2

SEEING THE WORLD

Four Women In Crew Of Swedish Tanker

The four women members of the crew of the Sewdish tanker. Pacific Clipper, which will leave Lyttelton this morning for Napier, spent their first day ashore in Christchurch yesterday after 60 days at sea. It was a day for browsing around the shops doing personal shopping and also buying presents for Christmas, which will be celebrated “somewhere at sea.” Mrs A. Gader, a Norwegian, who lives in Bremerhaven on the northern coast of Germany, Miss Christi Breyer, also of Bremerhaven, and Mrs W. L. Tait, an Englishwoman, of Brisbane, are stewardesses and Miss Mary Vogt, of Australia, is the laundrymaid. They are making their first visit to New Zealand. Mrs Gader, who has been at sea for 21 years working in passenger liners, and Miss Breyer, who has also worked in passenger liners, are both making their first voyage in a tanker. They joined the tanker at Stockholm. The ship called at Bahrein on its way to New Zealand. In Bahrein no-one was allowed ashore.

An advertisement in a Brisbane newspaper last March caught the eye of Mrs Tait and she joined the tanker, which was then on its way to Bahrein. Miss Vogt also signed on in Brisbane and later worked her way through England and Europe. She rejoined the tanker at Stockholm. “Some people ashore think it is odd for women to work as members of crews of tankers, but I can assure you there is nothing peculiar about it,” said Mrs Tait in an interview yesterday. “A finer bunch of men to work for I’ve yet to meet.” she said. Her husband was a seafaring man. Asked why she joined the tanker, Miss Breyer said there was nothing for women to do in Bremerhaven except housekeeping or work in the fishing industry. “This life is a way of seeing the world and you also get better pay,” she added. The women work their regular hours during the daytime and in the evening spend their leisure reading, doing needlework or listening to the radiogram. They have a sewing machine on board and dre>;making also helps to pass the time .away. “Sometimes we just sit and watch the beautiful sunsets, the double rainbows or the grotesque patterns of forked lightning during a storm.” said Mrs Tait.

Special celebrations are held to mark national holidays in Sweden and members of the crew who have birthdays. For the birthday parties a large cake is made and iced by the chef.

The women all agree that the days and weeks pass very quickly, but each day they look at the chart just to see the distance they have travelled and how far away the next port of call is. Asked when they were likely to return to New Zealand they said: “We never know, we are just here on a trip.”