VON LUCKNER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22922, 28 December 1937, Page 10

VON LUCKNER

MEETING AT PAPEETE PROGRESS OF CRUISE NEW ZEALAND IN JANUARY [from oub owx correspondent] SYDNEY. Dec. 'J3 The famous German ex-naval officer, Count Felix von Luckner, and his young wife pushed their way through a group of natives and climbed the gangway of the British motor-ship Hauraki, while it was at Papeete, Tahiti. "I have come across for a chat. My yacht is down the bay," he told the officers standing on the deck. "Von Luckner was eager to talk about the sea and was very friendly," an officer said when the Hauraki reached Sydney from Vancouver and island ports this week. He smoked his pipe as he told the officers he was making a point of visiting all of his old haunts on his leisurely cruise. He was on his way to Samoa from Hawaii, and hoped to be in New Zealand by the end of January. He made no mention of visiting Australia. He had a longing, lie said, to return to New Zealand, "that most wonderful country in the world."

''This cruise is a wedding present to my wife. 1 promised it to her before wo were married," he said, and smiled at his little wife, who is fair-haired and charming. Von Luckner had been at Papeete for several days, and had had a hearty reception from the inhabitants. He was keenly interested in the gun from his old wartime ship, the Seeadler, which had been mounted on the foreshore of the harbour facing the reef.

His auxiliary yacht, Secteufel, is a modern vessel, and von Luckner is keen to talk about it. Ho told the officers that it had been a Norwegian fishing schooner, and ho had fitted it with the latest in navigation equipment. She is refrigerated and has electric light. Count voh Luckner was indignant about the report that he was not wanted in New Zealand because ho was thought to be a Nazi agent. He protested that in all his life ho had had nothing to do with politics—he had always been a sailor and a citizen of the sea.