MASTERS' HOBBIES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 24

MASTERS' HOBBIES

PETS POPULAR

HUNTINGDON'S AVIARY

People on shoro wonder what thoso on board ship do during long passages. The average man at home during his spare time- has various hobbies —wireless, the making of clocks, and so on.— and this also applies to the seafarer. For instance, the hobby of Captain Field, of tho Huntingdon, is the collecting of raro birds, and as a collector of .birds ho has a widespread reputation. On one- voyage to New Zealand lie, had.a very fine and valuable collection of birds on board. A former wellknown .Union Company master used to have a parrot. Cats are also popular, and there are one or two dogs on Now Zealand coastal vessels. The hobbies of one master are music and photography, and there are numerous other hobbies, sonic of them being the collecting of lsooks on tho sea and other nautical subjects. i .There is an interesting article in the "Cape Times" on the subject of hobbies.. The writer "W.E.S." states that tho captain of tho Royal Mail u&rpo steamer Nictheroy, which was in Cape Town recently on her way to Hobart, is an adept at making nigs. For tho past six months ho has been working on a rug about six feet long by four feet broad, and it • will .be an-

ether six months before it is finished. Light canvas forms the body of it, and the geometrical patterns of Persian design are worked on it in wool by means of a large neecllo with two eyes. Captain Bridges claimed that it was an American idea. WOODWORK AND IVORY CARVING. The captain of a Union Castle vessel is an expert silversmith, and with a Mow-lamp', and a few tools" turns out some remarkably fino caskets, ashtrays, and trinkets for his friends. Cabinetmaking, and woodworking generally, arc favourite pastimes of captains and officers, and many fine pieces of the furniture which adorns their houses were mado in their spare time. When trading to odd corners of the world, some of the very rare woods are picked up, and in. many cases these- are incorporated in inlay work on such pieces as cabinets and draught boards. Ivory carvers are occasionally to be met with at sea. "A captain with whom I sailed," writes "W.E.5.," J'who stood six feet four inches in his socks and had a fist like a leg of mutton, was able to turn out exquisite little animals whose proportions were pronounced to be correct by experts." From a damaged tusk picked iip'at Zanzibar he turned out a full set of chessmen, and the pen-tray and pipe-rack in his cabin were laboriously sawn and cut from a sperm whale's jaw bone.