A STRANGE CRAFT

Evening Star, Issue 21503, 30 August 1933, Page 8

A STRANGE CRAFT

AN AMATEUR BUILDER'S GOSPEL SHIP KEEPS THE BIBLE HANDY WHILE HE WORKS [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, August 30. One of the strangest craft of an amateur boat builder ever planned is nearing completion on the banks ot the Wade River. She is the Gospel ship Ysabel. forty-one feet long, rigged as a barquentine and constructed out of woods obtained in the bush and cut and shaped with an axe, saw, and plane and chisel made out of an old file. The builder, Mr L. Beavis, has measured everything by the span of his fingers. Keeping the Bible handy while he worked Mr Beavis has written, or cut on every timber in the craft, a text from the Gospel, and the figurehead represents an angel holding an open Bible. In rigging the yacht he intends to follow the plan of the original Ysabel, which before she became an Island trader was the Melanesian Mission ship Southern Cross. For auxiliary power he intends to instal hand-propel-ling gear of his own design. He will sail the craft single-handed. He proposes to compete in the trans-Tasman race, and then make his way to Palestine to witness the fulfilment of the Biblical prophecies, which he believes to bq impending.