SKELETON'S CREW’S BIG FEAT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 214, 24 August 1922, Page 7

SKELETON'S CREW’S BIG FEAT.

RUSSIANS DESERT BRITISH SHIP. “A feat unprecedented in the history of the mercantile marine,” is how an official of the Seamen’si Union speaks of a voyage from Archangel to London by the steamer Lowlands, which recently berthed at Surrey Docks, London. The vessel, heavily freighted with timber, has made the 2400 miles voyage with not a fireman or trimmer on board, and with a crew which really consisted of the bos’un and the donkeyman.

The Lowlands was nearly destroyed by fire at Archangel in January, and half of her officers and tl|e whole of the crew of 21, with the exception of the bos’un. Charles Hansen, of Port Barry, and the enginee-room donkeyman, T. Richards, of Penarth, were returned to London by another steamer. For five months the remnants of the crew kicked their heels while the vessel underwent repairs in ice-bound Archangel, and on June 10th she sailed with a Russian complement and a huge cargo of timber stacked high oh the decks. Outside the breakwater the Russians presented Captain J. Sim with an ultimatum —“£5O a man (sufficient to make them millionaires in Russia) or no voyage to England!” The captain refused the outrageous demand, and the Russian slid over the side of the steamer into a boat and left the ship. The remainder of the crew held a hasty consultation. It was courting death should bad weather come, but anything was preferable to an indefinite stay in Russia. “We’ll take her across, captain, if you’ll let us,” said the spokesman. The officers consisted of the captain and the chief officer, two engineers, and the captain’s son as second officer. A Norwegian and two Chinese, none of whom could speak English, were picked up at the last moment. Y T et throughout the voyage the six boiler fires were kept going, the ship maintained an average of nine knots an hour, against her usual nine and a-quarter; and London was made in ten days. Dense fogs made the voyage one of deadly peril throughout its entire length. The ship was brought safely to port only by superhuman effort. Officers did their own stewarding, and took foifr hours on and four hours off at the wheel. The bos’un acted as crew and assistant navigator. In the stokehole the chief engineer, his assistant, the donkeyman, and a Chinese toiled for deaNt,. life, two men firing and trimming for six fires in six-hour spells. The eyes, of the solitary look-out strained into the fog unceasingly for long weary hours. Sleep came in brief snatches of an hour or so, when men dropped in utter exhaustion.