ADVENTURES AT SEA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17249, 3 May 1930, Page 15

ADVENTURES AT SEA

GISBORNE BOY’S CAREER A.B. ,ON BARQUE OLIVE^AM Taking to the sea U> gain | experience in navigation and to see soihetiiirig of tile world, a young Gisborne Irian, a former pupil of the Gisborne High School and a well-known representative cricketer, has had during the past four years adventures which would make a story worth the telling. To-day he is an A.B. on the Finnish barque Olivebank, bound from Hudksvall, in the Gulf of Bosnia, with a cargo of timber for Melbourne, which was incorrectly reported' this week to be overdue. A cabled message from Melbourne, published this week, stated that the barque was long overdue, having left Sweden nearly six months ago, and having been last reported north of the Equator in December. On December 14. however, on the eve of, th© vessel’s sailing for Australia, the lad wrote to his parents in Gisborne, and to-day, therefore, the vessel is only .132 (a little over four and a. half months) out from her port of departure. Moreover the writer stated that he did not expect the vessel to reach her destination before the end of April or the beginning of May at the earliest, and his parents feel no anxiety for the safety of the ship.

The Olivebank is a. four-masted steel barque of some 2000 tons, one of 20 vessels owned by Gustav Kricksen, whose headquarters are on the little island of Aland', in the Gulf of Bosnia, and whose licet forms a big proportion of the rapidly diminishing list of “windjamihers” which still sail the trade routes. With most of her crew down with beri-beri, from which dread malady one succumbed, the vessel put into Melbourne for fresh provisions in 1928 on a voyage from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean to Auckland, with a load of phosphates, and it was at Auckland, after the Olivebank had undergone survey and repairs, that the Gisborne lad joined the ship.

SEAMAN ON SCOW MAROBO. Considering that life at sea is truly represented aboard a. “windjammer, ’ which gives an experience never afforded on a, steamship, the Gisborne lad first went to sea on the , ill-fated scow Maroro, the remains of which now lie on the beach at Blackhead, on the coast between Napier and Wellington, and his first experience was one which he is-not likely to forget. That was nearly four years ago, and on that occasion the vessel was 55 days out from Gisborne to Sydney on a voyage that ordinarily took her about 14 days, the ship, under bare poles, drifting Over 600 miles out of her course before a westerly gale, and finally reaching Sydney with practically all her provisions exhausted ; fortunately a shower of rain had enabled the water tank to be replenished. For a short time the Gisborne lad was oil tiie auxiliary ketch lluanui, trading ini the East Coast, and for 18 months litter his discharge from her he was a seamen on the auxiliary schooner Piri, owned by the Nobei Explosive Co., and trading across the Tasman Sea. On that vessel he formed a close friendship with a Swedjsh seaman, and possessing a gift for learning languages, he quickly acquired more than a smattering of the Swedish tongue, at the same t time instructing his mate in English. His knowledge of the language stood him in good stead when he joined the Olivehank, for on that vessel, which apart from himself was manned, entirely by Finns, he was the only English-speaking member of the crew, who conversed and received their commands either in Swedish or Finnish, and with his fluency in the one language he quickly acquired a knowledge of the other.

Following his discharge from the Piri, the Gisborne boy spent some considerable time with his parents, until lie learned of the expected arrival at Auckland of the Olivebank. He then went to Auckland, and waited there for the arrival of the vessel for three months in tho hope of being able to join, the crew. In tills respect he experienced considerably difficulty, but ultimately was signed on as an ordinary seamen, and later becaipe an A.B, It was in September, 1928, that lie joined fchp barque, and on completion of discharge At Auckland,she proceeded in ballast to Port Lincoln (South Australia), whence she was despatched, laden with wheat, on March 14, 1929, for the United Kingdom, via Cape Horn. A good passage was experienced round the Horn, though tho ship rail .into a typhoon off the American coast, the sand blowing off the land enveloping her like a yellow cloud. She was not becalmed in tlie doldrums, a light breeze carrying fief through, and the New Zealander \yas entranced with the beauties of The Equatorial nights. “PROHIBITION” IN SWEDEN.

When she reached Queenstown, Ireland, the barque was ordered on to Belfast, and though she had not touched land for four months, the pilot did not even bring out the, . mail which awaited her crew there. After discharging 56,000 bags of wheat at Belfast, the Olivebank proceeded in ballast to Sunsvall, in Sweden, where she commenced to load Baltic pine for Melbourne, and after some weeks, she proceeded thence to lludksvall to complete loading. In his letters to his parents, tlio Gisborne Jad mentions that in Ireland the public houses were licensed to remain open until 10; p.in., wherfeas, Sweden was under prohibition; yet he remarks that in Sweden he noticed much more drinking, than in Belfast.

At the time the last letter was written, the barque had spent almost eight weeks in the Gulf of Bosnia, with the temperatures below zero practically all Hie time, but . strangely enough the Gisborne boy suffered less from the cold thiin did, the natives. ' In the depth of winter the gulf is frozen from shore to shore, and it is possible to skate from Sweden to Finland. The New Zealander’s parents feared that the ship might be ice-hound, and that their son would be compelled to spend the winter in the gulf, hilt if the Olivebank sailed as scheduled oh the day after his letter was written she would have cleared the gulf before it froze, and ho would not have been compelled to face the rigors of the Scandinavian winter.

Upon his return the Gisborne lad will have, circumnavigated the globe, and the Olivebank is making the voyage to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope, with a buoyant cargo of Baltic pine.