ADVENTURES AT SEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22835, 20 March 1936, Page 16

ADVENTURES AT SEA

YOUTH’S 1500-MILES VOYAGE IDLE HOUR AND MONOWAI MEET (From Odr Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, March 12. A 1500-miles voyage into the Pacific in a 41-foot auxiliary ketch to sell a cargo of books to lonely planters turned! into an adventure for Leslie N. Lock, 19. Lock, who is the son of the Seventh Day Adventist superintendent at Port Moresby, told on his return to Sydney this week of a 10-day battle with a gale and crashes upon reefs. With three other Europeans and six natives, Lock set out on the ketch Diari, built in Sydney, with religious and medical books. Twice the craft touched reefs off Fergusson Island, and was lucky to escape disaster. On the trip to Woodlark Island, on the fringe of the Solomon Islands, their staple food was rice. Fresh food, such as yams and sweet potatoes, was obtained by trading fish with the natives on islands along the route. On the return voyage they reached New Guinea after passing through a severe gale, which lasted 10 days. Then the engine failed and they had to make for the shelter of the island of Suau. The trip occupied five weeks. News has been received here of another small ketch which is making a hazardous voyage. It is the Idle Hour in which Dwight S. Long, an American university student who is cruising the world, was sighted at night almost becalmed and without lights in the Tasman by the liner Monowai. When the Monowai arrived in Sydney, Captain A. H. Davey said that the officer on watch sighted a dark object three-quarters of a mile away on the port side at 10.10 p.m. The officer must have been keeping a particularly sharp lookout, as the object was difficult to pick up. Captain Davey was called to the bridge, and he turned the Monowai toward the object, which took the shape of a ketch, its sails flapping lazily. It was travelling at about three knots. The ketch’s crew asked for their position and the Monowai gave it to them. They reported that all was well, and they did net require food or any other assistance. The Idle Hour was then nine days out from Whangaroa (New Zealand), and was still 740 miles from Sydney. ASHES CAST INTO SEA. The brotherhood of the sea frequently produces an incident such as the meeting of the Monowai and the Idle Hour at sea, but Captain Davey has seldom had a stranger request than one made to him just before he left Auckland. A few hours before sailing, a sad elderly man approached Captain Davey on deck. “ I have an urn of ashes. I would consider it a great favour if you would throw them into the sea on your way to Sydney,” the man said. Captain Davey looked questioningly at the man,, who did not give any further explanation. “ I will be pleased to do it for you,” he replied. ‘‘Just leave them on board.” When the captain went to his cabin after the Monowai cleared Auckland, he aaw a brown paper parcel on the desk. Jt was a porcelain urn containing the ashes. Across the paper was written: “This urn contains the ashes of Mrs H. G Osborn, to be committed to the deep, per favour of Captain Davey ” At 3 pan. last Saturday, when the,liner was approaching mid-Tasman, Captain Davey, with his officers, walked quietly to the end of the bridge and silently threw the urn into the sea.