FROM PUGET SOUND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11594, 12 January 1916, Page 5

FROM PUGET SOUND.

AMERICAN VESSEL AT NEW . , PLYMOUTH. Sixty-four days out from Puget Sound'with a cargo of timber, the American schooner C. S. Holmes, 3ib tons, "picked up" Mount Egmont at sunrise on Saturday morning, and reached New Plvmouth that evening. The vessel is in charge of Captain John Backland (who is also the owner), and he is accompanied by his wife, his son and his daughter. In the past year or two, pays the "Taranaki Daily News," several sailing ships have arrived at New 1 lymouth from Puget Sound, and the C. S. Holmes, in making the passage m sixty-four d-avs. has beaten her rivals for "sneed. The Erie took .seventy-four days.'and the H. D. Bcndixsen, on two trips, took eighty-eight days and ninety days. ..It is twenty years since the O. S. Holmes was launched, and the greater part of her career has been spent in the Pacific coast trade. In the last few years, however, the schooner and her captain have been engaged in venturesome journeys to the extreme north of Alaska. "I have had nothing but ice and Eskimos on my voyages for the last year or two, so I thought I would take on this stunt down here to see if the sun was still shining in the south," remarked Captain Backland. The schooner took supplies for the Eskimos and various stations in the north, and exchanged her cargo for furs, whalebone, ivory, etc.