UNWELCOME GUEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21982, 13 December 1934, Page 16

UNWELCOME GUEST

STOWAWAY ON STEAMER PROVIDENTIAL DISCOVERY A stowaway was providentially discovered during the outward voyage of the steamer Port. Fairy, which will reach Auckland from the South today. Two days outward-bound from London, in the Bay of Biscay, some of the crew were engaged in overhauling the rigging for stowage in the holds. Finishing the job, they were just preparing to batten down the hatches when a voice from the hold said: "Don't lock up yet." Had that operation been carried out, the man, who was in a weak condition, would either have starved or been suffocated. When taken before the captain the man was recognised by the fourth officer and another member of the crew as a stowaway detected near Australia and sent back to London on the Port Chalmers, on which the two men had served previous to being transferred to the Port Fairy. That escapade had earned him 21 days' imprisonment and cost tho company £6O to send him back to England. The stowaway's second attempt at a free passage failed more miserably than the first. On arrival of the vessel at Panama Canal the man was locked in the ship's hospital for two days to minimise the risk of his escape, but once at sea again he was put to work ill the galley until the Port Fairy reached Suva, where he was medically examined by a shore doctor and then handed over to the police. The man, says the Dunedin Star, still boasts of his intention to make another attempt to reach Australia, his native country, though not to work there!