HARD TRAINING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19628, 24 October 1933, Page 12

HARD TRAINING

TRIALS OF SHIP LIFE . ! LITTLE FOOD: BAD WATER The trials of training ship life are vividly brought home to the landsman in a letter received from a member of the complement of the Mansumen, the Danish training ship, which visited New Zealand recently. The Mansumen is a sailing vessel without auxiliary power, and for three months she sailed the oceans without so much as sighting a solitary sail. The crew were 142 days at sea, without wireless, and part of the time becalmed. Mr Auge Neilsen, the writer of the letter, tells a tale of short supplies, contaminated sharks and unavailing S.O.S. signals, but the spirit'of the Dane is apparently unchanged since the days of his Viking ancestors. •'We landed with the Mansumen.” states Mr Neilsen, "on June 11. hi Copenhagen, and what a reception! Dozens of beautiful yachts of the Royal Danish Yacht Squadron came out to meet us with all the flags filing. They came over one by one to welcome us, cheering and making a great noise. Several brought beer. wine, cigars and the latest newspapers, things we appreciated very much. The last two months had not been very wonderful, because we ran short of nearly everything. Rice and Dry Bread. "For the last six weeks we had no butter, no fat, no sugar, and no potatoes. no milk and rib coffee. We subsisted on rice and dry bread, with a little marmalade and just a little tea. The water had long been past drinking: still, it was ah we had, and it is a wonder to me we didn't turn sick. It was dark brown in colour, and thick with rust and cement. We had to strain it before we could use it, but I must say we were lucky. We suffered not a day’s sickness, nor even a sore finger of'cut of any kind. We were lucky indeed, because we had no wireless to call help, no engine, no windno nothing. Completely isolated from the rest of the world, for the first three months we didn’t see a ship or anything. ‘‘l had the job of dipping the flag, and had to hoist it up and down all the time, so that by the time we reached harbour there was not much rope left. Just after we left Dover we met a Danish fishing boat on its way to Yiungden, in Holland, with a load of fish. We called him over and asked him for some, and he gave us about 20 or 301 b of plaice. We stood around the , cook, and as soon as he fried them they ' were eaten. I have never enjoyed a meal so much. After two solid hours of fresh fish, even the dogs couldn’t look a plaice in the face without turning away. “One day, while we were in the North Sea, I went for a dip in the briny, and a good swim around the ship. I had just got on board again, and was warming myself in the sun, when a I huge shark came alongside. It swam lazily round a couple of times, and vou should have seen its eyes when it looked up at me. I Wouldn’t have been worth a half-penny now if I had stayed longer in the water. I did not bathe any more in the North Sea that day, nor have I since. It was the nearest I have yet been to providing a shark with a meal. Wonderful Calm in North Sea. “When we landed there were reporters and photographers swarming on board, so we were interviewed and taken in all possible and impossible ways. For two days after we got ashore we had to stay indoors with bare feet, unable to get shoes on or to walk. We were Tiot accustomed to walking on hard pavements and with leather shoes on. All the crews were in the same condition; it was awful. We had been 142 days at sea without touching land. For the last three weeks, from Dover to Copenhagen, we experienced the most wonderful weather I have ever seen in the North Sea. Every day the sea was just like a mill pond, with little wind. We could have made the distance in less than a week, but instead it took three. We would all have enjoyed it very much if we had had some decent food and had not been so long at sea.” . Mr Neilsen found that work was just as difficult to find in Denmark as it had been in New Zealand when he left, and he writes of having joined the crew of a fishing trawler. In this boat he travelled to the Shetlands and the Orkneys, and along the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. He says he has decided to return to New Zealand or the Islands. j j 1 ! ’ , i | j * | < . j | i |