LAST FULL-RIGGER

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 33, 2 November 1929, Page 29

LAST FULL-RIGGER

GRACE HARWAR’S PASSAGE DEATH OF A-JOURNALIST man overboard rescued One of the last of . the sailing vessels in the grain race from Australia, the Finnish full-rigged ship Grace Harwar, arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, on September 3, after a passage of 138 days from Wallaroo, South Australia, by way of Cape- Horn. The vessel was harassed by heavy weather and unfavourable winds throughout the passage to Cape Horn, which occupied two months instead of the usual, four to five weeks. Almost from the time seh left Wallaroo she met with southerly and south-easterly gales, and, being unable to weather the south of New Zealand, diverted her course by about 500 miles, in order to run -through Cook Strait —and she signalled her passing Wellington Heads on the night of May 8. The Grave Harwar left Wallaroo, with a full cargo of wheat on April 17, .but it was not until 57 days later that she weathered Cape Horn. On May <-o, an days out, Ronald Gregory Walker, an Australian journalist and photographer, aged 22, was killed. Walker, who had signed on as an ordinary seaman, was sent aloft to loose the fore upper topgallant sail a little after four o clock in the morning, and while the yard was being hoisted, it became necesary to get out on the lower topgallant yard to clear a fouled gasket. While he was on the lower yard the upper yard carried away with the ship’s heavy working and fell upon him, killing him instantly and jamming him between the two yards. Bringing the Body Down. The ship was rolling heavily at the time and it was-with great. difficulty that Walker’s body was brought down the rigging by his watchmates,- who-did not know that he had been killed. He was thought merely to be injured, the. bitter cold of those high southern latitudes, coupled with their concentration on the immediate problem of getting him to the deck, making it impossible for the crew to determine the extent of his injuries while -he was aloft.' The body was unmarked and the head . uninjured, but it was thought that his back was broken. He was buried from the-poop on the following day, Sunday, May 26.. with a service in Swedish and in English. There was neither an English nor an Australian ensign in the ship and he went .to his rest with the white and blue ensign of Finland - around him. . Walker was a grandson of a former Chief Justice of New South Wales and was an old boy of the King’s School, Parramatta, New South Wales,, and the Hutchins School, Hobart, where his father is . a master. He was formerly a journalist on the staff of. the '‘Mercury,”- Hobart, and had shipped in the Grace Harwar' with the idea of making a motion picture descriptive of a Cape Horn voyage— a feat which had not previously been attempted. ' A Man Overboard. . Shortly before getting to Cape Horn, the Grace Harwar was heavily beset by a series of gales, which did much damage on her decks; at one stage it was necessary to put oil on the seas to,break their force. While big seas still swept the decks,, one of the Finnish members of the crew went overboard from, the mainbraces. He was seen and a lifebuoy thrown, which he secured. At the time the lifeboats were lashed down for security , in order that they might not be washed away; no falls were rove in the davits, and it was dangerous , to bring the ship to the wind before which she was running heavily under a big press of sail. The-ship wak brought into the wind without hesitation, however; the lifeboat lashings were cut with an axe, falls rove off rapidly, the lee boat was swung out, and volunteers were called for. It was late in the afternoon then, in the depth of winter, and there was) a threat of renewed gale in the sky. Without hesitation the whole of the crew responded. Six were chosen —four Swedish Finns, a Frenchman and an Australian—and the boat put off. No one then knew where ; the missing man had gone. He could not be seen from the ship, and iu the boat the seas were so big-that, falling into their troughs, it was impossible to see beyond one of them, and even on the crests for the greater time the horizon was bounded by the third sea. Rescue of the Sailor. ■ Darkness- was coming down; no one knew in ■ which direction to steer. The. mate tried to. steer a course against the wind, remembering that the ship had been, running before it, but its direction changer}. He tried -in desperation to follow some circling albatrosses, in the hope that they were circling over the floating-figure.' They’’came and. circled over the boat. He tried to .follow back what was left of the* ship’s Wake, but that Was hopeless. •' A sailing ship, l even running .heavily, > leaves little wake. Darkness was Setting in - quickly,-.and the threat of storm had grown to certainty ; in the last moment of light-, when' everybody had, given tip hope; the lifebuoy -was seen and the man was found. He .was unconscious , then" and suffered badly from exposure, but after, some' weeks .was able' to; return to ' duty' as if nothing had happened; • '■ . ' ’ ' ' ,' ? . f,- ' ■ Shortage of Provisions. The Grace ■ Harwar , was over three months at- tea*.; when; she crossed the equator on,July.2o, and provisions were running shoyt. AH' the .sugar had. gone-: the salt meat went bad; and a pig which had been carried for fresh meat proved to be diseased ■when it was killed. As-the weeks passed . the, ship’s stores steadily declined until there were only potatoes and rice and the grain' in the hold left, and the crew wasfaced with starvation.. It was not until Sunday, August 18, when tKe ship wits 123. days at sea, that help wqs secured.; On that night the. British steamer.-Orangeleaf, bound .from Invergordon-to Trinidad, came into sight, and was.-immediately, told by. Morse of the. sailors’ plight. From the-Orange-leaf nn ample' supply of fresh food was secured, . arid : for the first time since leaving Wallaroo the Finnish crew received some news of the world.