WOMAN MARINER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 111, 10 April 1934, Page 8

WOMAN MARINER.

COMMAND OF LIFEBOAT. UNUSUAL QUALIFICATION. AUCKLAND, April 9. Qualified to command a ship’s lifeboat in an emergency at sea, Mrs H. May, of Plymouth, Devonshire, arrived at Auckland by the Akaroa on Saturday. Airs Alav, who is a stewardess on the Akaroa, possesses a Board of Trade certificate testifying to her nautical prowess. With a comprehensive knowledge of seamanship, she is able to use nautical terms with a rare facility. In defining the procedure when going alongside a steamer at sea she was able to say without hesitation: “Make for the lee side down sails and mast, pull alongside and then unship all rowlocks or thole pins.” Although given to understand that only two women in England had qualified for a certificate such as she holds, she modestly expressed the opinion that, among the great number of stewardesses on British ships, there must be others who had qualified. She stated further that she was by no means anxious to find herself in a predicament when her knowledge might have to be put to uso. Airs Alay, who has been to sea for four years,' mainly in the' England-Aus-tralia service, obtained her lifeboat certificate after only two years’ experience of life afloat. She said she was coached by the third officer of the Jervis Bay, when she was serving in that vessel. With a number of men from the same ship she was examined in London. The candidates, with an examiner, were taken out in a lifeboat in the Royal Albert Dock and each in turn was given command of the boat. A thorough knowledge of boat equipment, names of sails, veering and tacking and how to navigate was demanded of each aspirant. “My answers were all correct,” said Mrs Alay, “but I was told bv the examiner that I should have to shout louder in a case of emergency.” Airs Alay’s certificate takes no account of tfie sex of the holder, apart from the personal particulars recorded on it.