LONG JOURNEY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 139, 15 June 1931, Page 11

LONG JOURNEY

IN OPEN CUTTER

ADVENTUROUS EXPLOIT

(Prom "The Post's" Special Reporter.) . .'■ . . SYDNEY, :O.th' June. An adventurous- exploit_.of two Swedes Hiiccessfnlly concluded; on Friday last, wlieV'Mr. George' Benson, whose liome is in Eexley, a suburb of Sydney, and 'Mr. Johanson, of Gothenburg, Sweden, sailed the ■ open, cutton Gulluiarn • into Lake' Macqiiarie entrance, nca.r Newcastle, New South Wales. The cutter had been sighted earlier in the week by the Union' Steam. ..Ship Co,'s steamer. Katoa QiiLat-S.ca Interviewers, on

boarding the vessel, discovered to their surprise that the owner was a. Sydney man.

Mr. Benson explained that though .he had'lived for more-than, a-quarter of a century in Australia, he was a Swede by birth. It was when ho was on ,v visit .to .his homeland, which began two years ago, that lie.bought the Gullhiarn for the use of-his two sons, who live in Sydney. Talking casually in a restaurant in Gothenburg one evening, he said that "he was thinking of sailing the boatto Australia. -When a bet running into hundreds of pounds'was made that he would not complete the feat, he took it

up. ■"■'•• Enlisting the services of Mr. Johanson as navigator, Mr. Benson loft Gofhenbuvg ton months-ago. After touching Denmark and -Franco, the Gullmarn put into Brixham, England. While ho was there a minor explosion sent Mr. Benson into.. hospital lor more than_ a week, but this was not permitted to iri> terfero with his plans. By way of Lisbon, Madeira, and West Indies the Gullluurn crossed the Atlantic to Colon.

After passing through the Panama Canal the cutter- made for the Sew Hebrides. When she left that'group of islands.a month', ago she met with the wovsl; weather encountered during the voyage. The two adventurers were Jiourly in danger of their- lives, but their, little craft roclc out the storm. Their provisions, however, were by that time iiearly exhausted. A', lucky', meeting, with the Katoa, however, made possible the replenishing of supplies. . Mr. Benson has not tired of adventuring, and ho now talks of. using the cutter for a further voyage to the Far Kast. Mrs. Benson, however, is anxious for him to remain at home for a time after h-is roving, and he will probably accede to.her wishes

Some excitement was caused at tlie7 Tc Aro Post Office shortly after 2 o 'clock this afternoon by an alarm of fire given by a passerby, who saw smoke coming from the private box lobby. It was found that the contents of a waste-paper basket were on fire, and'had ignited a Venetian blind.. Members of the staff and others extinguished the flames and lore down the blind, and the fire was flciill- with without a sail to Hie brigade Jjting jii'Mssary. , _