RARE FISH PRESENTED TO DOMINION MUSEUM

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27895, 17 February 1956, Page 5

RARE FISH PRESENTED TO DOMINION MUSEUM

“The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, February 16. An American family of four, three Japanese friends, two stumpy-tailed cats and a rare tropical fish slipped into Wellington this week in a 30-ton yacht, the Phoenix. Quickly on the scene were Wellington yachtsmen, for the visiting skipper was Dr. Earle Reynolds who has sailed this 50ft double-ended Japanese craft round the South Pacific. But even more interested in the arrival of the Phoenix may be Dr. R. A. Falla, Director of the Dominion Museum. For Dr. Reynolds, a professor of anthropology in the United States, will present to him the rare tropical fish.

This is a gempylus, a snake-like mackerel, which the party caught by accident on a turbulent 47-day passage from Japan to the South Pacific. In correspondence they have learned from Dr. Falla that the Dominion Museum has no specimen. With Dr. Reynolds, who is on a four-year cruise, are his wife Barbara, 17-year-old son Ted and 11-year-old daughter Jessica. The Japanese are college boys from Hiroshima, where Dr. Reynolds has been working. For the United States Atomic Energy

Commission, Dr. Reynolds went to Japan to study the effects of atomic radiation. He took his family with him, and while there had the Phoenix built. He explains the name: “The idea of rising out of the ashes ... of Hiroshima. And in the Orient the phoenix is a bird of good omen.” They came to Wellington via Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji and Auckland. After a fortnight’s stay they will go on to the South Island or straight to Australia.

None of the Reynolds family had experience more than small-boating, but they have quickly settled down. One of the Japanese boys was second in the all-Japan amateur yachting championship, and his companions, too, are experienced. How they are able to afford a fouryear break? Under the guidance of mother, a trained journalist, all are writing their experiences, and recouping much of the overhead. Even Jessica, with her daily journal, has scored in South Seas and American publications. The Japanese boys, too, are riding out the worst weather with pen in hand, and mailing pages of Japanese script back home.