NAVIGATOR AND OWNER

Southland Times, Issue 23647, 24 October 1938, Page 6

NAVIGATOR AND OWNER

AMERICAN WOMAN’S WORLD CRUISE YACHT VANORA ARRIVES AT AUCKLAND (United. Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 23. Bringing, with the remaining members of her original crew, a recollection of a series of happenings so bizarre that her owner and navigator, Mrs Marion Rice Hart, finds it difficult to believe they really occurred, the 73-foot ketchrigged auxiliary yacht Vanora arrived at Auckland today on a world cruise, which began two years ago. It will finish when Mrs Hart is temporarily tired of her wanderings. Before then, the Vandra will stay at Auckland for probably a month and will then sail for New York by way of Cape Hom. Mrs Hart is an American who is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ‘ She was formerly a research worker for a big American electrical company. She was once arrested during the Great War while on a geological survey of the West Point Military Academy sector and was held as a spy until her identity was established. More recently, she has spent several years as a sculptor. Her ownership of the Vandora dates back to a day more than two years ago when she was at Montfavat, in France. “I was tired of being responsible for so many things and people,” says Mrs Rice Hart “I wanted to lead a carefree, gipsy life and drift about the world, going where I pleased, .with no cares or troubles, and contemplating the works of God.”

She decided to buy the yacht She had never done any small-boat sailing in her life, and knew nothing of practical navigating. Her search for a suitable vessel led her first of all to Cannes, then to. England, on to the United States, and, finally, back again to England, where the Vanora was discovered at Cowes. The yacht had already made one world cruise, under the same name, as the possession of Lieutenant-Com-mander Hollins, R.N. It did not on that occasion visit New Zealand.

Mrs Hart bought the yacht for something more than £7OO and spent several more hundreds on fitting her out. To save money, she, a nephew Paul Perez, who is making the cruise with her, a Greek woman doctor of philosophy, and a young English sculptor and his wife did the work of chipping, scraping, painting and generally getting the Van. ora ready for sea., TROUBLE WITH SKIPPERS

The cruise started from Cowes in August 1936. At this stage, Mrs Rice Hart had no intention of doing her own navigating, but instead, she said, looked forward to the comfortable and lazy life of ownerpassenger. The dismissal of her first licensed captain because he was going to take the yacht to sea with rigging so rotten that it came apart at a pull did not shake her faith in the kind of life she would enjoy on such a cruise. Mrs Rice Hart’s second master mariner set sail for Brest. He was slightly surprised, she said, wheri the port he reached proved to be Binic Baie de St. Brieue. Another captain who was engaged, a Rumanian, could not sail after all because his wife would not let him, and still another was dismissed after it was found that his ship’s log consisted of thermometer readings. Finally, Mrs Hart decided to become her own skipper. She said she had learned navigation from books as she went along, and so far the Vanora had escaped shipwreck. Her crew had changed from time to time, and she had stopped one or two fist fights among some of those who had gone. In addition to herself and her nephew, the other member of the original crew who arrived at Auckland is Mr John Smith, from Bath, who acts as cook. Her engineer is a Greek, Emanuel Papadimitrius. Two New Zealanders who helped to bring the Vandora to Auckland from Noumea, her last port of call, are Mr Leonard Clarke and Mr R. Finlayson, who left Auckland some months ago as members of the crew of the Auckland yacht, Seaward, which has just returned from a Pacific cruise. Mrs Hart did not at first intend to come to New Zealand. After sailing through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal, and calling at Aden, Ceylon, the Netherland Indies, Komodo Island, where the crew hunted giant lizards, New Guinea and New Caledonia, it was intended to avoid the typhoon latitudes and sail back to New York by way of Tahiti and the Panama canal. “We suddenly decided it would be fun to sail through the straits of Magellan,” said Mrs Hart, “and so we came down from Noumea to New Zealand. We have been on the coast trying to get into Auckland for the last five days, after 19 days from Noumea.” The yacht was becalmed off North Cape on October 15, and last Monday it was hove to to escape the fury of a southerly storm. Mrs Hart said they almost went on to the Hen and Chickens islands, and so, on Tuesday morning, they put out seaward in case they were driven on to the Four Kings. The only chart Mrs Hart had was one for the whole of the New Zealand coast, and consequently the navigation to Auckland was done very carefully. The yacht passed Tiri Tiri at 4 a.m. yesterday, and anchored for the night, being towed in this afternoon—assistance for which the owner said she was very grateful.