Pioneer Cove At Lyttelton With Stores For Antarctic

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29002, 17 September 1959, Page 22

Pioneer Cove At Lyttelton With Stores For Antarctic

Bringing 1000 tons of stores and equipment for the United States Antarctic expedition, the United States Lines cargo steamship Pioneer Cove arrived at Lyttelton on Tuesday from New Orleans. The vessel had moderate weather on the trip, and a call was ma<Je at Papeete. The Pioneer Cove is to sail from Lyttelton to Brisbane. An ordinary seaman who in 1927 was serving in the topsail schooner Huia in the New Zea-land-Australian trade returned to Lyttelton in command of the Pioneer Cove. He is Captain A. R. Jorgensen, who was born in Arundel, Norway. Since his sailing ship days, Captain Jorgensen lias been in 'many places, in many ships. He returned to Norway in 1931 to sit for his mate’s certificate, and in

1934 he gained his master’s ticket. In recent years he was in Lyttelton in command of the tanker Mocassin Gap. Captain Jorgensen commanded the French steamship Ville >de Liege in 1940 when France capitulated. The Ville de Liege was the last ship to escape from Bordeaux. As she was leaving, she took aboard 200 Czech and Polish refugees. Making her way out of Bordeaux, the Ville de Liege was bombed, and a sistership nearby, the Ville de Namur, was torpedoed and sunk. Captain Jorgensen has in his possession a testimonial from a representative of the refugees in which they say they owe their lives to Captain Jorgensen’s seamanship. The Huia, in which Captain Jorgensen served in the closing days of sail, deserves more than a passing reference. She was one of the loveliest and best-kept ships ever to sail out of a New Zealand port. Her greatest achievement was her famous passage from Sydney to Kaipara, under Captain George McKenzie, in four days and five hours, a record for any type of sailing vessel. The distance is 1100 miles. On another occasion the Huia left Newcastle (New South Wales) and in 48 hours had logged 510 sea miles. On that trip she at times attained speeds of 14 to 16 knots. A wooden vessel of 224 tons, the Huia was built at Aratapu in 1894. Under fair conditions, the Huia carried on her mainmast an ample mainsail and fore-and-aft topsail, and on the foremast, besides two jibs, staysail and foresail, the two square topsails which were a distinctive feature of her type. Repairs To Coaster (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 16 The repairing of the explosionshattered bow of the wooden coaster Kapuni (193 tons) will begin at Auckland soon. Repairs entail a new bow and new apron and forward plankings. A spokesman for the owners. A. G. Frankham, Ltd., said today that the Kapuni was expected to be back in service on the northern run in about two months.