THE JOSEPH CONRAD LINK WITH SAILING ERA HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 18

THE JOSEPH CONRAD

LINK WITH SAILING ERA

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Home for Christmas; the first time in five years.

That's why the crew of the Port Gisborne were so happy when the ship left Table Bay recently. Down to her marks with a cargo of wool for Continental ports,- Hull, and London, the liner made a beautiful picture as she sailed between the pier-heads. The sunlight glinted on the spotless white paintwork on her upper works. But throughout the ship men smiled, laughed, and repeated to each other: "Home for Christmas."

Last Christmas morning she sailed from Melbourne.

The three previous Christmasses were celebrated on the high seas. On December 18, 1936—De0 Volente—the fast wool ship Port Gisborne will tie up in the Albert Dock, on London Hiver.

Firemen, sailors,- stewards, and cooks will make their way home. Possibly the fare in some of the homes will not be as good as that served on board the Port Gisborne on a Christmas Day at sea. But to the British sailor, Christmas at home, even amid the squalor of dockland and the waterfront or in the humblest surroundings is "more to be desired than gold."

The telegraph shouted its message to the engine-room.

The motors started their song, and the revolving, glistening' propeller shaft, from Table Bay to Dunkirk, sings the song "Home for Christmas."

On board the Port Gisborne there was an American journalist—Mr. Stephen Christie, of New York.

In Melbourne, he and the doctor of the ship, Dr. Phillips, made a wager not to shave before the ship reaches London. Already both of them had splendid beards.

On the wharf a "Cape Times" reporter met a former chief engineer of a Port ship. He said that these ships had places on board specially strengthened for guns, and they were built for service in the event of war. Quite a few British freighters of recent build have the same feature.

FULL-RIGGER SOLD

"I do not think a voyage like that of the Joseph Conrad will be done again," says Alan Villiers, the captain, in a message from New York.

He has sold the vessel to Hunting, ton Hartford, son, of the founder of the Atlantic and pacific Tea Company.

The buyer, aged 23, was attracted, says Mr. Villiers, by the beauty of the ship, and will convert it into a yacht with more power. He is fixing it now for a cruise in the West Indies.

Captain Villiers adds: "Jim Evans, of Sydney, and three New Zealanders, are staying by the ship; so are 'Chips,' the > Finn carpenter, and the Danish second mate. Stormalong stays for a while with my friends, the Hansens, in Brooklyn." My brother, Frank, ships in a whaler that Amos Carver owns.

"I should like to keep the ship, but how could I? I was amazingly fortunate to sail her once round the world, but it is too expensive. Taking passengers is out of the question.

"I don't walk much on shore here. I avoid the rocks on which we struck at the outset of the voyage. lam writing a book, and then will lecture in the United /'States. After that I think I will go to Polynesia for a while, but I shall be quite content to sail in other people's vessels."

A link with the sailing-ship era was broken by, the recent death at his home in St. John's Road, Remuera,' of Mr. George Edward Cluett. The son of a dockyard official, Mr. Cluett was born at Portsmouth and received hi? early education at the historic grammar school there. He began to study for the profession of a naval architect, but before long decided to go to sea.. As a boy he sailed in the Zealandia, one of the five clipper-built iron ships which the Shaw-Savill Company maintained for many years in the New Zealand trade, and he was on board her on a Homeward voyage in 1872 when a huge sea off Cape Horn descended upon the poop and washed overboard the master, Captain James White, and several others. Mr. Cluett continued in several vessels of. the same line, but after obtaining his second officer's ticket he left the sea and made his home in New Zealand, following a number of occupations in

the AucVland and Taranaki districts. He resided in Auckland for many years prior to his death, and was well known as the inventor and patentee of a system of clips for securing concrete reinforcing bars. As a young man he took a keen interest in boating and swimming, and at the age of 16 was awarded the Royal Humane Society's medal for saving a man from drowning at the launching of a ship at Portsmouth.