PACIFIC WANDERER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18594, 3 January 1935, Page 7

PACIFIC WANDERER

MARINER AND SCIENTIST NEARLY 50 YEARS AT SEA

SYDNEY, Dec. 21. Captain Victor Brisson, a veteran French mariner, is no stranger to Sydney, or for that matter, to many a Fact lie port. For the last 18 months he has been wandering through the Pacific in his 18-ton ketch, the Bissy Girl. He was in Sydney last April, having an additional interest in this city because his sister and his brother-in-law, a barrister, give him a regular holiday on land whenever he comes. But the Bissy Girl is his home. She is a trim craft, whose only crew is Koo, a Tahitian.

When hef retired recently Oaptain Brisson had served for almost 50 years ut sea, and he had spent some. years in command of ships travelling in the Pacific. He is an authority on Polynesian and Melanesian dialects and customs. One day this week the Bissy Girl came leisurely up Sydney Harbor, bringing a breath of the romance of the South Seas. A great tortoiseshell lay on the deck, and the craft was laden with curios gathered in the Pacific. During the nine months in which he had been away from Sydney, Captain Brisson had visited Lord Howe Island, tlie New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. “THIS IS THE LIFE”

“This is the life,” said Captain Brisson. “Wo have solved the problem of the high cost of living. Let mo commend a diet of fish, crab, turtle, and wild pig, and in the New Hebrides, you can buy a steer almost for two shillings. A passer-by can always get a piece of steak, and bo welcome to it. I have done 10,000 miles in the Bissy Girl and the weather never troubles her. Nor does it trouble me. If we have to heave to, I turn in for a sleep, and just take a peep out sometimes to see how things are going.” The captain has spent the last eight months sight-seeing, fishing, gathering shells and curios, and, quite frankly, “loafing.” “I have grown a goatee. My sister won't be pleased at that, and I’ll take it off to-morrow, by ji.ngs!” he chuckled.

The captain said that the many .steamers and trading boats iu the islands these days made it difficult to get curios, but 'ha unwrapped from brown paper four dried heads. The Big Nambus people gave them to him at Malekula, in the New Hebrides, The heads were of Little Nambus people who had met violent deaths. There were still cannibals at Malekula and tribal fighting would continue until roads were built, markets opened, and education became general. A keen naturalist, . Captain Brisson has bottles of shells. He is proud cf his placostylus (bush snails). He says their presence in the north of New Zealand, J.ord Howe Island, and New Caledonia indicated that there (was once land connection between those islands, since they cannot swim or fly. Earthernware pottery at Malekula and Santo, in the New Hebrides, leads him to the conclusion that the art was acquired from de Quiros and his Spanish expedition in 1606. He says he will add the bulk of his curios to his collection at the home of his brother-in-law.