VOYAGE ROUND WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19349, 9 June 1926, Page 10

VOYAGE ROUND WORLD.

TRIP IN A SAMPAN.

THRILLING ADVENTURES.

Captain Otto Prahl, who started from Shanghai in a sampan months ago on » projected tour of- the world, arrived at Sydney recently, after leaving tho little craft stranded on a. small island in the Torres Straits.

Two men started from Shanghai with Captaigt Prahl, but one of them was complaining by the time they reached Swatow on tho Chinese coast. The next stagb~ef the trip was to Hongkong, and most of the way the sampan was on the fringe of a typhoon. The rigging carried away, and a mast broke, but the vessel eventually made port safely and docked for repairs.

When the boat was 208 miles out on the trip to Manila, the must carried, away again and a course was set for San Fernando, north of the Philippines. It was found impossible to make lomplete repairs there, so the voyage was con-" tinued to Yta, where two of the crew decided thoy had had enough thrills to satisfy them for the rest of their lives. One of ihem was taken back by the native constabulary, but he refused* to go aboard again. Captain Frahl was forced to tackle the stage from Yta to Manila alone in the sampan. He says little about that section of tha journey, but it took 44 iicurs for a distance of 120 miles and during that time he could not leave the tiller. From Manila -ho managed to get a crew to assist him and eventually he reached Darwin, after thrilling adventures with the sea. At Darwin, Mr. Colin Bod, a Scotch Australian, was taken aboard, and ho paid his passage to Thursday Island on the Queensland coast, living on a diet of herrings and pork and beans during the run of twenty-one days. At Thursday! Island an Englishman, Raymond Poynton, joined the sampan, but they had gone only 100 miles when the vessel started to leak' so badly that she bad to Be 'beached. Temporary pairs were affected, but an exceptional tide left the sampan so high and dry that it was found impossible to refloat li£r. Captain Prahl says he is still determined to continue his journey, as soon as he can procure another ' suitable lifeboat. H« has been overwhelmed by offers from men to accompany hiim.