"A GIPSY OF THE HORN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 4 (Supplement)

"A GIPSY OF THE HORN."

VIVID SEA NARRATIVE.

F«w, indeed, are the square-rigged sailing ships now trading around the globe. For thai; reason, if no other, will u hearty welcome be accorded " A Gipsy i' 4 the Horn," an enthralling story of sailing ship life, from the pen of Mr. Rex Clements, recently published by Heath Cranton, Ltd., Fleet Lane, London. It is a plainly-told narrative of a globeencircling voyage in a British barque, the Arethusa, in the course of which the vessel makos what, not so many y &ts ago, was a very usual round cruise for deep-watcrmen of this type. Loading in London the vessel proceeded to Port Adelaide and thence to Newcastle (New South Wales), where she loaded coal for Callao. Then came a shift to a West Coast guano deposit, where the maladorious cargo was slowly loaded and the Arethusa sailed south to the Horn, homoward bound to Falmouth, for orders.

It is only 20 years or so ago that Mr. Clements, as a young "brass-bounder," first stepped over tho rail. Those Merc the days when the sailor worked hard, lived harder and drew a scant monthly wage. " You'll get vonr whack, you'll get no more," was tho rulfl in regard to food and rigorously was it adhered to. On board the Arethusa the apprentices and the " crowd " in the forecastle knew the spartan regime of the tinus, and they knew, too, tho hardship of f.aving their meagre water allowance cut down and their supply of tobacco give out.

Mr. Clements omits nothing that the most exacting seafarer would expect, from a talc of ocean life in a sailing ship. The men he served under and the sailors and apprentices with whom he worked are described so faithfully that they stand out as actual flesh and blood mariners, deep-sea warriors such as the modern system of steam-boat training can never produce.

Almost lovingly, the sailor-author tells Of the haunting melody of the old sea "Chanty." and his descriptions <; ■' heavy weather when running the east in y down or in the Cape Horn latitudes is vivid and realistic to a degree. In no part of the volume is there any laboured showing at dramatic effect; yet i,\l the atmosphere is there—shrieking gale, tho flee:.ng ship and tho devastating power of mountainous sea. In all, Mr. Clements has written a sea story that will hoar comparison with any nautical volume of recent times and the ordinary reader, tio less than the seafaring man, will lind it an appeal from cover to cover.