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NZ Truth, Issue 1079, 29 July 1926, Page 5

(From "Truth's". Special Wellington Representative;) : THE beckoning finger bf; Davy Jones has ,i.airea4y ; made history. Drake, Raleigh and a ttiousan d : lesser names have been writ indelibly across the pages of Time. Fiction, too, has weaved romance about the call of the sea.

j^EN have forsaken society, cony ention — eyeiything — when the persistent and perpetual ;bec kbning finger of Davy Jones has wou out against the cares of the world. •

DUT it is from the .grim book of ■ hard fact that Robert Norman Nicholson comes to lead, his quiet, inoffensive, eccentric life alone and silent m Wellington's sheltered harbor. ■■ ' ■■■..' mystery first .came to Wellington and commenced, his life of grand isolation m the peculiarlooking little whaleb'bat affair, sporting, as it does,.; two"- -'little 'masts', and two very dingy-lobkirig sails. ' . But although both the boat and its owner have now become very familiar m the harbor,: no one has extracted the. story, that undoubtedly lies.behind\:fche i man's mind. ;V No daily.; newspaper has attempted to show its enterprise . in' "writing up" the story,- /simply- because' Nicholson speaks little ;to vanyorie-rnever more' than a few/,words,at- v most— and then only when addressed. . ;. v ■. He prefers. 'to remain uncommunicative; secretive. "I trouble no one," is his philosophy, "so let! me be." ". _..'.. The man himself .is of moderate stature and well built. He has a well-kept beard and when he has pulled his craft upon the most sheltered shore (usually Days ..Bay), .for the niglit he wears a collar, iahd -tie. / He cooks his food- (if he, desires cooked food) on thcrbeach. Occasionally he indulges m a cup of tea at the Days Bay- pavilion, but is ever reticent!. ' "'•"<■.' . He has' nothing, to .'say 'once he has mumbled, o.ut his prder:- .• ; - ■;• '[■ SfpHE'UIIVIPLE 'LIFE- ' :-'- --■.,iy/'-' .. ..; . — ,;,■.■-.-- — -~".:- : "' r " "°'C: And ail the 'summer r months liis' familiar ',;boat , jean be -'seen 'floating about the- harbor.- ..:': •> All day" long .he lies m the boat gently,; piloting'! Vher ,; hither '■■■ "and.;. thitherjHlway^md.ing some quiet part "af/tfte^fashjate: as ' night falls,. when^^,cSjr*EtUl|Jier up on the t, ssina\atiti> creep? iftftSt^t tlie .canvas I at obe'>»«ndf ;t'tff; d^mmun^i;;. wjth-, , ; nature j^lone-wjth his thoughts. Sometimes he. chooses Evans Bay, sometimes Lowry Bay or Seatoun, but mostly, nowadays,, he. spends his nights (m summer .'and ."in" winter) — on his little craft m Days Bay. On the eastern foreshore he has become a well-known i.flgur.e.-, ;. /' He is known .as : "Sinbad" to, a hundred schoolboys," while the. adu.lt

population generally . refer to. mm as "Robinson Crusoe." But ' ask any schoolboy or any adult what his real name is and he will tell you f rank T : ly that he "really doesn't know." Stand about his boat while he is tinkering with —or painting — some part of. it, and he will ignore you. Ask him a question and he will mumble something quite inaudible.

How does he live? Well, he lives. His means— ah l There might be a story in that. The man is obviously cultured and a gentleman, and whatever thereason for his strange mode of existence he is prepared to keep his secret and accept the inevitable — bravely, silently, until— "Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. S Glad did. I live arid gladly die, And I laid me down with a will." Not- that Wellington's "Sinbad" does not realize the necessity for a physical exterior. He can be seen every morning at his "jerks" on board and he does the "arms upward stretch," etc., with a gusto good to see. , His ablutions are. of the most thorough nature and his "bath" can be obtained, too, easily enough by a header oyer the side... He is deeply religious and ca'r- ... ries into effect the belief that. "cleanliness is next to godliness." '^ But again, how . does : he live? .'Occasionally I ' -'he wiir do : a little . gardening'at one of the ;bays; sometimes he works for Dr. Shand, yat' :Days: Bay; sometimes for, some • other' well-known ''resident, but he goes under no name; he answers no questions; he asks none — except that he be paid in advance. That. is imperative; OHROUDED IN MYSTERY And that brings us to the question of Nicholson's past life. . One story that has gained currency is that the man graduated at Oxford and followed the practice of the law .until some friend oria person masquerading as his friend swindled him out of the legacy left by his father. • So shattered was his faith in; man- . kind that' he turned his back on-, 'civilization forever. .-'"-'• ;■; ■ He accepted , God as. his^corijadahte and resolved to live by •Jijmseif," ■; u.n- , restrained < as" far. as pdssible^v^man^ ma.de laws, unfettered ;.;by.v.-.socaety or* her hand -maiden— convention I .' '.;'>.", '.'.''" I There is another rumor .to'. the . effect thatt his eccentric resolution' owed.fts birth' *to : sbjme;,de'cision of the Tasmariian Government,. which affected /him personally through' some- property,, l Where he came, from to'^.Wellington is not known, though it is' said' .that his' venue at one time was Lyttelton. •-" "■' " .^~ •••••'. •■ . ...'•■'■■- It would appear that he has d»,,.,_cided V'to make Wellington his "home," because, during the last couple of months He has been replacing his canvas sleeping quarters, with a more weather-proof, boarded exterior. And therold dilapidated sails of . last summer have given place to cleaner•looking (the others were -bleached) if not newer sails. , V \ But he works quietly, troubles no one iand'is left weli J alone. ■

Quite recently a ; legal gentleman who has a summer residence at Days Bay. saw "Robinson Crusoe": endeavoring to get his boat to the water's edge singlehanded. ... He immediately offered to' "give him a hand," but the man of the sea mumbled something- quite unintelligible—presumably indicative of his desire to continue theHvork unaided and alone. This would appear to lend color to the suggestion that he has an inherent distrust of mankind. Neither is he communicative with women-folk. > VQ HOUSING PROBLEMS At the only two -places which he patronises (usually in-- turn) for his occasional cup of morning or afternoon tea, he merely ' asks — quietly, almost gruffly, though m .well-chosen words — for what he wants, and ' remains quietly munching, the edibles. If spoken to, he mumbles out either a direct affirmative or negative, but if there is the slightest suggestion of "pumping" him for information he becomes at once as close as the proverbial oyster. How he got tin over the census business is a problem for the recluse himself and the Goverment statisticians, but r his name is said to be correctly set down-, and there is no reason for believing, that he did not come into this cranky old world with the present cognomenHiof Robert Norman Nichol;spn.^~j; ; ; v;''': Whether he describes his abode as.a "permanent residence," "tern- , •^pora'r'y premises", or as straight- ■ oiitV "y.essel" '.is^ another problem that dbes: not materially affect his Hvpectiifar;Athqugh inexpensive mode ; of eiistence-^the i simple life m the Simplest sense..' • And so, until the secret history of Robert Norman Nicholson is written and the reason f.or, his singular derision comes to be made known, the public must be content to watch his little vessel ply its lazy Avay all over the harbor piloted by its strange skipper. „,■,,. After all, who knows but what he is not getting the most out of life; he who has no friends (?) and no enemies; no cost of living fluctuations to watch; no rent, no lighting and gas [accounts; and little expenditure.

And who knows but this strange man who has responded to the beckoning finger of Davy Jones has not an inward satisfaction in feeling: "Raised over envy, freed from gain; Beyond the storms of chance. Blessed king of my own world I reign, C o nt r o I ling circumstance."