HAZARDOUS JOB

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 November 1942, Page 2

HAZARDOUS JOB

THREE MUSKETEERS OF THE SEA THRILLS AMONG THE ISLANDS Somewhere in New Guinea, Oct. 17. New Guinea is proving a strong magnet to-day for adventurers from all over the English-speaking world. This week, reports a Melbourne “Argus” war correspondent, I travelled down the Papuan coast in a 26-ton fishing smack with three men, who are getting plenty of thrills in the south seas. All comparative youngsters, they were George Ling, from Scotland, who is skipper; Norman Oddy, from Bradford, Yorkshire, engineer; and Norman Burne, of Sydney, who calls himself general rouseabout. They volunteered for service in New Guinea, where they are now taking their little boat in and out of coral reefs and palmfringed harbours to carry fresh fruit, meat, and vegetables to Australian patrols and outposts.

Adventure is not new to them. Ling fished for years in Scottish trawlers out of St. Kilda to the Faroes and Iceland, and later worked’ in trawlers in the Tasman Sea. Oddy has been wandering round the world for years as a marine engineer. Burne was a member of the Singapore dockyard police, and escaped in a sampan the evening before the city’s surrender. Their present job is the one that appeals to them most of all. “We’re having the time of our lives,” said Oddy, with a broad Yorkshire accent. The most exciting adventure so far for these three cheerful musketeers was when they arrived at Milne Bay with stores and ran smack into the middle of a battle. They were heading toward the anchorage when a R.A.A.F. motorlaunch hailed them. “Go over there if you like,” yelled a voice casually. “The Japs are there and there’s a war on.” The three musketeers saw bombs bursting and Kittyhawks strafing something on the beach. They went to the opposite side of the bay and hid in the mangroves until darkness, when they unloaded their stores. When they had finished they found a Japanese cruiser i and eight destroyers lying in the bay, j the nearest ship only three-quarters of a mile away.

They were trying to run this formidable blockade, when Japanese searchlights picked them up. The little ship shuddered as she drove through the mangroves at her maximum speed of nine knots, zigzagging desperately to avoid the shells coming over from the cruiser. She successfully dodged 36 shells and escaped.