STRANGE VOYAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 29 August 1923, Page 7

STRANGE VOYAGE

BOUND EOR THE HOLY LAND

SYDNEY, Aug. 10

A weird story of a proposed pilgrimage io Palestine was tokl at the Sydney Police Court this week by three young men who were charged with being idle and disorderly persons, without lawful visble means of support. The accused, James Guston, Davd Rutland, and Harry Jordan, were deserters from an American schooner, according to the police, and had been loitering about Hit' waterfront for several weeks.

Guston. the spokesman of the three, told the Magistrate that they had had a call from the Lord, and they were going to Palestine in a little boat they had got. li was thirty feet long, and eight feet broad. They were going to fit. it up with scraps, put ip two masts and gear, and then they were going to sail. “Y’sce,” Guston explained to the Magistrate, “we’ve got a photographer t.’ take a pitcher o’ the boat, ’n we’re goin’ to get the photos from him tins afternoon. We’re goin’ to sell the pitchers 'n pay him after. Arrli. we’ll do plenty o‘ business all right. “Y’ss, we c’n make the boat seaworthy with scraps, ’n then we’ll start olf towards Cane Yark ’» nil them islands, ’n get all the cocoanuts and fruit an’ tilings we want to eat.

The Magistrate: I think you’ll make a few mistakes before the voyage is ended. The police said that the three men Were religiously inclined. They had secured a boat on a £lO deposit to sail to Palestine. They seemed to be genuine enough, the police prosecutor added. They were different from the general run of eases of this sort. There seemed to be nothing at the hack of it all. On the suggestion of the police the three young men were remanded until September 5. They were told that if they got work or left on their epochmaking cruise they were to tell the police.