ROUND THE WORLD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13654, 24 July 1908, Page 7

ROUND THE WORLD.

NEW ZEALAND CAPTAIN'S UNIQUE " J RECORD.

GOING FOR HIS "CENTURY."

Is modestv the fault or Hie virtue of the modern" navigator? Certainly ho does remarkable things, and nobody ever hears of them, says the London " Daily Telegraph "of June 9th last. Schoolboys still feast on the doings of Captain Cook, but the other day there came into the port of London, unhonoured and unsung, ;c -merchant captain who had just completed his seventy-first round-the-world voyage. This is Captain Herbert Edward Greenstreet, commander of the New Zealand Shipping Company's twin-screw passenger ship Rimutaka. What is more, Captain Greenstreet starts off this week on his seventy-second globe encircling voyage, in Hie confident expectation that, before he comes ashore for good, he will have reeled off a century of such trips. As he is still in the prime of life, really for many another tussle with the elements, there seems no reason why the aim he lias set before him should not be realised. There is no need i o say a word of disrespect concerning either Columbus or Captain Cook. They had not the help of the screw propeller. They Eailed unknown seas, and discovered unknown people. Their adventures were, therefoie, var.ous and exciting, as befits pioneers. Captain Greenstreet lays no naim to originality. He has just gone wh.iv others have gone before, and with advaiuages which the earlier sea rovers did not possess. This is, perhaps, why this veteran seaman's career lias been largely devoid of excitement. He lias never been shipwrecked. He has run no risk of being cooked in a cannibal stew-pot, or of being compelled to walk the plank at the instance, of a pirate captain. He has reaped, indeed, where others have sown, and gonß about his globe-trotting . without let or hindrance, or crushing misfortune.v Partly, of course, this may be set down to luck. Partly it proves that Captain Greenstreet must be a careful navigator to have's, been able to cover 1,800,000 miles at sea without disaster. But his career must in a special degree be set down as showing that the modern steamship offers no.more risk, if as much, as the modern railway 'train. Sea lile, judged by the experience of Captain Greenstreet, has been robbed of some of its rough picturesqueness, but has ac-/ quired the added quality of safety.

SHIP SURGERY. At all events this weather-tried sailor has little to say about hair-breadth 'scapes, and thrilling incidents in his career are relatively few and far between. Captain Greensrreet began life on the water as a " Worcester" boy in 1866. Two years he spent in this floating nautical college, moored off Gieenhithe, and then Jia went to sea. Sailing-ships held sway in those days, and the young sailor voyaged to Australia, China, Japan, and across the North Atlantic. Then he passed as second mate, and went away in that capacity on the Galatea, a Liverpool-owned' ship. His stayspn the Galatea was not without untoward event. At Melbourne the captain of the ship made great friends with a doctor ashore, and as the vessel was leaving the wharf for Newcastle, N.S.W., there to load for i San Francisco, the medical man came down to say goodbye to the skipper. As the Galatea was leaving the wharf the doctor threw the captain a little book on surgery, with the remark, " Here, captain, is a little memento of your visit." Little did the young second mate think how valuable that book would prove. A few days after the Galatea had loaded her cargo at Newcastle, and had put to sea for San Francisco, young Greenstreec had the misfortune to break his leg—a compound fracture above the knee, caused by the anchor stock falling on him. Out. came the surgery-book, and the captain and the blacksmith—truly a strange combination—undertook to set the broken limb. Following the book's instructions they made such an.excellent job of it that when the vessel reached San' Francisco the doctor who came on board said, " You don' want me here. This is one of the finest jobs I have ever seen." During practically the whole of that voyage Greenstreet had lain in his bunk while the bones knitted together. He was on his back lor sixty-three days. Three round voyages were made in the Galatea, and then—as far back as the year 1876—Mr Greenstreet passed into the em--ployment of the New Zealand Shipping Company, in . whose vessels—first sailing ships, and then steamships—ho has been going about the world ever since. Needless to say, he has seen great changes,' alike in the passenger and in the cargocarrying trade. He has seen sail displaced by steam, and always with the knowledge that the sail-trained men were the very best that the steamer could get. He had passed through the period of the singlescrew steamer, with square yards, which could set almost as much canvas, when the wind was propitious, as a full-rigged .ship. He has seen the single-screw steamer in turn give place to the modern pole-masted, twin-screw leviathans now regularly employed in the passenger and cargo trade with New Zealand. And he has seen the frozen meat trade grow from very small beginnings to its present prodigious proportions. The Mataura, of which he was made captain, was a little ■ iron barque, whose fate it was to be the lirst of the New Zealand Shipping Company's fleet' to . bring frozen mutton to England, . THE COOLING CHAMBER,

Iu regard to the fitting out of the Mataura for this purpose, Captain Greetetreet recalls what might have been a tragedy. The ecory concerns Sir Adfred Baslam—then plain Mr. Haslam—who haii played so important a part in the development of re!liberating machinery, and hus sat ill the House, of Common,. - I'aptain Greenstreet and Mr. Haskm w«=f« in, the skipper's cabin when Mr. Ba.siam remarked, "I'll go and see how thev are getting Along," Half an hour " later someone came to the cabin, and wanted to see Mr. Haslam. He was told that he was in the forepart of the ship. .As a. matter of fact, they were putting up a freezing chamber there. Into this chamber, jb appeared, Mr Haslam had gone, only to find as it turned out, that lie could not get out again. The temperature was somewhere in the neighbourhood of zero. Happily the prisoner did pot lose his head. During his involuntary incarceration he stamped up and down 'ihe freezing chamber, determined, if passible, to maintain his circulation. But it goes without remark thathe was very glad to be released. The Mataurg, only carried 4,000 frozen sheep. To-day as many as 120,000 carcasses are brought home hi a single steamer. Inevitably Captain Greenstreet drifted into steam. The first steamer he commanded was the Rnapehu, in which he made nine voyages, He was next appointed to the Rimutaka—not the' present steamship of that name, but a single screw vessel—in which he made twentythree voyages. Next he was senr lo Scotland to overlook the building of the Ruahine, which he took out on her maiden trip to New Zealand, and then went back to the old Rimutaka. After that he supervised the construction of the Papanui, and took her out. A couple of voyages in the Paparoa, and Captain Greenstreet/ was back on the Clyde, looking after the,building of ij.he present Bimntaki, the splendid twin-screw Ijnei", -which he' has commanded ever since she was launched. This week the Rimutaka completed hey twentieth ronnd-the world trip. GALLANTRY AT SEA. Free from disaster as lias been the record of this prince of circumnavigators, there are some "startling incidents which

he recalls. When his steamer was outward bound on one occasion a girl passenger in the steerage jumped over-board. Another passenger, who was leaning over the stern-saw her come floating by, and was at once impressed with the idea that the last thing to do was to create a panic. Instead, therefore, of at once raising an alarm, he walked quietly along to the bridge, and waiting until he could catch the officer's eye, said: "There's a woman in the water." All this time the vessel had been ploughing along at fourteen knots. The woman was some miles astern before the ship could be stopped. The vessel was put about in the expectation of finding the girl, and, just as hope was being abandoned she was sighted floating on the water, face upwards. A professionad swimmer, who happened to be on board, went in a'fier her, and a boat being at once launched, both were picked up. The girl had been in the water twenty minutes. She had saved herself by keeping her hands below water. Another incident, which Captain ■Greenstreet recalls is a gallant, rescue effected by Dan I'earce, a. steward in his steamer. A woman went overboard when the vessel was homeward bound. It was north of the Equator, a, region where sharks might be expected to abound. But Dan, on being informed of the fact simply said, "I'm after her." Running aft he leapt over the stern, shouting,' "heave us, a life-buoy." This was done and with it swam along the wake of the ship-fill he came to the woman. Then he got behind her and pulled her underneath the water. As she rose lie clapped the life-buoy over her head. Captain GreenstreeH meantime. had brought his ship round, and had lowered a boat, mid both were picked up. When he came on board Pearce was asked how he knew he would be picked tip. "Captain," replied Pearce, "I knew you w-ould find me. You've done it before." "It was," says Captain Greenstreet, "the finest thing I have ever seen done."

Each voyage from London to New Zealand means 25,000 miles of 'steaming. Then there is from 1,000 to 2,000 miles on the New Zealand coast, eo that each round trip really .means from 26,000 to 27,000 miles. As the Rimutaka mal«s three voyages in thirteen montJts, it will need another ten years or so' of seafaring before Captain Greenstreet completes his hundredth round-the-world trip. But those who know him best have little doubt that he will make his century.