U.S.S.R. FREIGHTER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20632, 13 August 1941, Page 9

U.S.S.R. FREIGHTER

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA CREW INCLUDES WOMEN SYDNEY, Aug. 3. The first ship from Soviet Russia to visit Australia has arrived in an Australian port to pioneer trade between the Soviet and Australia. Other Soviet ships will follow, maintaining a regular trade link with Australia. In her crew of 36 were four women and a doctor. The captain was the only one on board who could speak English. Two of the women were on the engine-room staff, one was a cook, and a fourth a stewardess. The cook was elderly, the stewardess young, good-looking, and dressed in an attractive floral frock, brown wavy hail falling down over her shoulders. One of the engine-room girls was a blonde dressed in a light frock; the other wore a pink frock. > The freighter, of 5000 tons, Britishbuilt in 1917, was spotlessly clean and freshly-painted. Shipping men, looking over the vessel, said that they had seen many British freighters of the same class kept in far worse condition. The steel decks showed no sign of rust, and the winches also were tree from rust, and of grime. There was no sign of the alleged Russian “inefficiency.” The captain was young, dark, of medium height, and pleasant in manner. He wore a plain black monkey jacket over a brown suit with no gold braid. As in all Soviet ships, the crew have a recreation hall the full widrh of the ship, and a Lenin Corner. The corner contains huge black busts of Lenin and Stalin, a piano, wireless, library, lounge seats and tables for chess, and other games. The corner is draped with rich scarlet satin curtains covered with the gold insignia of the hammer and sickle. Male members of the crew, officers, and ship’s doctor were dressed in neat pale grey jackets, black trousers, and Russian long-legged boots. It is hard to pick out the officers, whose sole distinguishing mark is a small blue and white brassard.