DISPUTES ON SEETEUFEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23685, 17 December 1938, Page 12

DISPUTES ON SEETEUFEL

MEMBER OF CREW SENT HOME NEW ZEAIJfMDER'S EXPERIENCE (From Our Own Correspondent) i -SYDNEY, Dec. 9. Mr Colin Moore, a New Zealand radio announcer who joined the crew of Count von Luckner's yacht Seeteufel in Auckland, said, when he returned to Sidney this week in the Nieuw Holland, that there had been differences of opinion on board, and that that had been one of his reasons for leaving the vessel. Mr Moore said a dispute had begun a few hours after the Seeteufel left Cairns, when a young stowaway, a photographer, was found in a lifeboat. Apparently, ho had been on board from the time the Seeteufel left Sydney. Count von Luckner put the stowaway ashore at Thursday Island. The dispute continued during the voyage, and on one occasion blows were struck. At Sourabaya an inquiry was held before the German Cbnsul. Later, a number of the crew were sent by the German authorities to Batavia to join a ship bound for Hamburg. Count von Luckner cut short his tour of the Dutch East Indies durthe crisis in September, and, following the ordjer to German shipping to return home, headed the Seeteufel for Europe at full speed. The count was'of the opinion that the affair would blow over, but he obeyed orders to return. Dutch people in the East Indies received the count rather coldly at first, said Mr Moore, but the feeling was warmer; after he had been there for a while.

Count von Luckner's failure to notify Dutch immigration officials that a INfcw Zealand member of his crew landed at Batavia cost Moore a fine of £BO. Moore and a German, Hans Oesterreick. left the yacht at Batavia. Moore worked for the Government radio station at Sourabaya for two months, and it was only when he decided to return to Australia that immigration officials found that he had ianded.