ADVENTURE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2715, 7 August 1923, Page 7

ADVENTURE.

IX 20-TON YACHT. ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA. News has been received in Sydney of an adventurous voyage from England to Australia, via Panama, in a 26-ton yacht. The voyage is the second attempt on the part of Captain H. J. Symonds to reach Australia in this way. The first attempt was in September last, but the effort nearly ended in disaster, for the craft in which he sailed was swamped during squalls encountered in the English Channel, and Captain Symonds and his wife, with a lad, narrowly escaped being washed overboard_ Before sailing on the second voyage, Captain Symonds expressed his hopes of success this time. The experience of the previous voyage had been turned to account, and storm boards were fitted in the companion way.

The 2G-torn yawl Seaweed left Southampton on June 5, setting her course across the Atlantic. The route mapped out before sailing involved calls at Madeira Island, the Barbardos islands, and Fiji, whence the party proceeds to Brisbane and Melbourne i It is expected that the voyage will be completed by Christmas. Captain Symonds has had long experience at sea, and during the war was in command of the Nassoslot, one of the Standard Oil Company’s boats, on which he fought a German U-boat for nine and a-half hours, and emerged from the encounter with his flag still flying. Ho v/as on seven ships which were torpedoed or mined, and after the war was in command of the British Peer, flagship of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s fleet. He resigned this command to undertake the adventurous voyage to Australia.