PAMIR'S VOYAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 37, 12 August 1941, Page 9

PAMIR'S VOYAGE

A FAST PASSAGE

NEW ZEALANDERS IN CREW

"ENOUGH HARD TACK"

The Finnish barque Pamir, which was last week seized as a prize, had in her crew when she arrived seven New Zealanders who joined her in New Plymouth at the beginning of this year and made a voyage to the Seychelles Islands, where she loaded 4400 tons of guano for New Zealand. The Pamir, which is the first large sailing vessel to enter Wellington Heads for 17 years, had made a smart passage of 57 days. She is a steel ship of 2799 tons, built by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, in 1905. She had been in New Zealand waters several times, but this is her first visit to Wellington. She was in Auckland in 1938, and again at the beginning of this year, when she also visited New Plymouth. The last large sailing ship to visit Wellington was the barquentine Hesperian, 1100 tons, in February, 1924. Her cargo will take some time to discharge, as it has to be bagged for unloading, and then she is to be docked for a much-needed overhaul and survey. She has not been docked since she was in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the outbreak of war. CAPTAIN INTERVIEWED. Captain BjorkfeLt, in an interview, said the Pamir's voyage from New Plymouth to the Seychelles and back had been without incident. They had their share of different kinds of weather, but they were used to that. He described the New Zealanders in his crew as willing young men, but said he thought they had probably had enough for life before the mast on a sailing ship. This view was later confirmed by the New Zealanders themselves. The 29 in her crew consist of the captain, two mates, and 26 seamen; besides the seven New Zealanders, there are seven Danes, an Englishman, a man from Mahe in the Seychelles, the rest being Finns. The captain said he and his fellowcountrymen were from Mariehamn in the Aland Islands. Though the islands were Finnish possessions and the Pamir flew the Finnish flag, the Aland Islanders regarded themselves as neutrals. Their islands were unfortified and if the inhabitants had their wish they would be under Swedish rather than Finnish rule. Captain Bjorkfelt recalled that when he was last at home the Russo-Finnish war was on and on one occasion a flight of 52 Russian bombers roared over the city. The ship did not go to Mariehamn on that occasion, her terminal port being Gothenburg in Sweden. On the outward voyage from that place the ship skirted round the minefields in the Kattegat and the Skagerrak and then sailed into far northern latitudes, near Iceland and the Faroes, though that did not take them clear of the vigilant British blockade. That was nearly two years ago and the Pamir had not been in the Northern Hemisphere since. SIGNING OFF HERE. •Of the seven New Zealanders aboard, four have been to sea before as seamen in Union Company and other steamers, but the other three were on deep water for the first time. Two of these were farm workers and the other was a dairy factory hand. All are signing off in Wellington, having had enough of hard tack and the long watches that are kept on a sailing vessel. They are glad to have had the experience, but they are glad their sailing days are over, and most of them are now seeking berths in steamers. Apart from that they had little to say. They had seen some "pretty bad" hail storms, some ordinary storms, and once they had an almost continuous 22-hour battle aloft with the canvas.