ROUND THE HORN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 99, 24 October 1938, Page 8

ROUND THE HORN

LIFE ON A SAILER

AUCKLANDER'S TRIP HOME

THE BARQUE MOSHULU

(By Air Mall, from "The Post's" London Representative.) ":* LONDON, September 22. Life on a sailing ship has no mysteries now for Mr. M. D. Ellingham, of Takapuna, Auckland. He arrived in London after sailing with the Finnish four-masted barque Moshulu from Port Victoria, Australia, to Belfast, Ireland. The voyage lasted 121 days, and Mr. Ellingham, who is 26, and who jsigned on as an apprentice "for adventure," says it is an experience that he will never forget.

His adventures included nearly being knifed by one of the crew who was mentally unbalanced, nearly being flung to the deck from aloft when the same man in a fit of anger knocked a foot'rope away, suffering from beriberi, the "deficiency disease" common among sailors 100 years ago and caused by poor diet; wearing five sweaters and oilskins south of Cape Horn but still feeling cold, and spending lazy days painting the ship's name on life belts and boats in tropical waters.

Mr. Ellingham, who was a member of the crew of the Vamp, the New Zeafand 14ft yacht which won the Australian championship earlier this year, first heard of the Moshulu, the largest square-rigged ship in commission today, with a displacement of 5400 tons, when he was in Sydney. He went to Port Victoria, near Adelaide, and signed on as an apprentice, paying a fee of £25 and thereby becoming entitled to 10s a month pay.

The captain and crew, with the exception of an' American, were all Finnish or Norwegian, working for mates' tickets, and who had signed on with the Moshulu in the course of fulfillinga term of two > years on a sailing ship. Mr.' Ellingham said that they were of a fine type, friendly, and inclined to be excitable in times of emergency. There was one English passenger on board. LEARNING WITHOUT TEACHING. All orders were given in Swedish, and although Mr."Ellingham was not familiar with the language, he was soon able to follow them. His initial difficulty was in learning his duties, since no instructions were given. He was expected tosobey orders and to do his work, learning as he went along. The average day • was 12 hours, in watches, the work consisting of furling or changing sail, taking the wheel, scraping teak, or painting.

Spare time was spent in reading, playing chess, listening to a gramophone, and talking. Including the captain, there were 30 men on board, and Mr. Elljngham shared a small cabin with ten others. Everyone got on remarkably well together, but they had to watch one of the Finns, who was mentally unbalanced. He was inclined to lose his temper quickly. >

One day, when the New Zealander was standing nearby, the Finn swung at him with a knife, luckily missing by a narrow margin. On another occasion the Finn knocked a man from the upper top-gallant sail. A quick grab at a foot rope of the lower topgallant saved his Ijfe. Mr. .Ellingham also found the foot rope knocked put of his reach on one occasion, and thereafter refused to ■go aloft with him. FIVE DAYS AT ANCHOR. The Moshulu was loaded with 4768 tons of wheat, and on Sunday^ April i 24, as Port Victoria dropped out of

sight, all hands looked on land for the last time until Queenstown, Ireland, was reached 121 days later. "We dropped away south immediately," Mr. Ellingham said, "below Tasmania, which we did not see. But before we could get properly under way after leaving Port Victoria, the wind! changed, and we had to anchor for five days, waiting for a favourable "breeze;

"One of my first jobs was to take a turn at the wheel. I had not been told that a wave breaking on the rudder would cause it to spin, and I was unprepared when the wheel suddenly lifted me from one side of the deck to the other, and the ship was nearly taken aback. Another early job was making six trips to the top of the mizzen mast in one day, nearly 200 ft each time. \ .

"We soon settled down to the life, and the wind began to bowl us along. Some days we made 11 knots—our record for the trip was 13 knots—and pther days we would hardly make headway. As we neared .the Horn the decks were constantly awash, and the weather became cold and wet WELL BELOW THE HORN. "We passed the Horn 43 days after leaving Port Victoria, rounding it 30 miles south at midnight on June 9. Up to that time we had had little snow, and the only, signs of life were albatrosses, ' which the boys would catch, photograph, and release, and a few whales, which would swim alongside of the ship. We saw one iceberg, and had two Fridays, May 13. On the second 13th the main upper topgallant sail blew out.

} "At one time it got so cold that I wore five woollen sweaters, flannel trousers, /big rubber sea boots, and oilskins. When turning in for sleep, the oilskins only were removed, and three blankets were added. We struck the coldest weather after rounding the Horn and going up to the Falklands. After that we picked up the trade winds, which carried us across the line. That was on a beautifully sunny day, July 13, and we saw our first vessel for 75 days, a Polish ship called the Polaski. REPORTED FOR BERI-BERI. "The next day I had the first signs of beri-beri, the sailors' deficiency disease. I did not feel unwell, but my ankles were badly swollen, and if I pressed them with a finger the dent j would show for five minutes. I had to report to the captain. He changed my diet and ordered me to rest for to then I had found the food monotonous and uninteresting. For breakfast we would have salt pork and potatoes, good baked bread, and Swedish coffee. Two small tins of -condensed milk had to last 11 men a week, and we had half a litre of sugar a week each. For dinner we had flapjacks, potatoes, and 'salt horse, or salted buffalo from the Argentine, followed by a pudding of potato flour and dried apples. Occasionally there was a change to rice and prunes Tea represented the remains of dinner cooked into meat balls, with any amount of bread and butter. The butter lasted to the Horn, and after that we had margarine. We were el-. ways so hungry that the dullness of the food did not worry us much. "As soon as I began to show signs of beri-beri, I was given eggs, cocoa, condensed milk, rye bread biscuits, and everything of the best from the captain's.larder. This made the, other boys rather envious, and I enjoyed ike food more since I felt really, well!