STANDING BY

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 8

STANDING BY

MODERN ROBINSON CRUSOE. A modern Robinson Crusoe has made his appearance at Brest. He is a Greek sailor named Alompi, and he went to Brest to take charge of the vessel Neidenfels, belonging to the State fleet, which had been sold. The Neidenfels' fell to a Greek shipowner, and Alompi was engaged to watch it, at a salary of 420 f a month. His wages were paid regularly for some time, but then ceased. His resources exhausted, the Greek sailor, who is over sixty years of age, had to depend on public charity. Then he was told that he must either seek work or leave Brest, and he decided that he would not abandon the vessel of which he had charge, and lived on board in complete solitude. He drank rainwater and ate the fish he caught, mussels taken from the rides of the vessel, and bits of bread flung from war vessels. He kept himself warm by burning pieces of wood he found floating on the water. He was not without petrol, but this he kept for the lamps that were lit every evening so as to mark the position of the vessel, and in foggy weather, when the ship was invisible to navigators, he kept the bell swinging on board. The Greek sailor has lived in this way for fourteen months. He has a wife and children in Greece, who are always begging him to return, but he clings to the ship, always hoping tha this employer will again remember him and pay up his arrears of wages, which he has figured out at 6,000 f. The maritime authorities at Brest are becoming concerned over this Greek Robinson Crusoe living in solitude on his little island of steel, and there is a suggestion that they will communicate with his employer. So it is probable that Alompi may be repatriated sooner than he expects.