FATHER AND SON

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1934, Page 3

FATHER AND SON

FIVE PRECIOUS HOURS. UNEXPECTED MEETING AT SEA. The seas are never too wide for human fellowship. They intensify it. Two ships met by chance in the middle of the In-, dian Ocean recently, and while they steamed on abreast, their voyages uninterrupted, a father and son were reunited for five precious hours.

The father was the commander of the Hamburg-Amerika liner Kurmark, and the son was a “seekadeft,” or midshipman, in the German cruiser Karlsruhe, homeward bound after visiting Australian waters.

The Kurmark, which was bound for Java, by way of Ceylon, was overtaken by the Karlsruhe. Captain Baron von Enderndorf, the officer commanding the cruiser, knew the commander of the Kurmark, whose son was under his own command. He sent a wireless message to the liner announcing that he was putting off a sea boat, and then ordered the boy to parade in shore dress. The ships .steamed on. The boy, wondering, paraded before his captain and was told to enter the boat, which was swung outboard ready for orders. And then he knew. The captain and the gods of the weather were kind; he was to be put off to his father’s ship. Beneath the formality and respect of his salute, when he boarded the Kurmark there was scarcely-concealed joy. For five hours the . boy remained on board the Kurmark with his father, and then the seaboat returned from the cruiser. The time had come to part. The boy saluted his father. His salute was returned, and the boat made its way back again. .

Varying courses and varying speeds increased the physical distance between father and son, but no such differences, no rolling seas, could separate their spirits. This simple story was told to a friend by Captain Lebrecht Schafer, commander of the Hamburg-Amerika liner Dortmund, when his ship subsequently reached Australia. Captain Schaefer had it from his friend and contemporary, the [commander of the Kurmark.