“LADY OF WINDJAMMER”

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1931, Page 9

“LADY OF WINDJAMMER”

AUSTRALIAN GIRL’S VOYAGE STEWARDESS ON A SAILING SHIP “FITTEST OF THE WHOLE CREW.” By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 11.58 p.m. London, May 26. Wearing slacks and a short reefer jacket, a stewardess from Adelaide named Myrl Ridgway peered from the r'.e of the four-master Ponape when she was anchoring at Queenstown. She looked the fittest of the whole crew and for that reason she was dubbed “the lady of the windjammer.” Miss Ridgway, interviewed by the Australian Press Association, said she enjoyed every moment-of the trip. She received her greatest thrill early in the voyage when a great sea smashed the fore-bridge. She had not mustered the courage to venture aloft. She was never sea-sick, because she was a real sailor and enjoyed the rough but ample food. Once the vessel passed a huge school of 15 feet to 25 feet long sharks of which the crew caught two. She signs off to-day and will go to Glasgow to visit her married sister. She may then return to Australia. The Ponape, which for five days was becalmed in the Irish Sea, was robbed of an excellent chance of winning the windjammers’ race to England. Three Esthonian stowaways appeared a few days out from Adelaide and were made to work their passages.