STUDENTS ARREST A SHIP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 428, 20 November 1930, Page 10

STUDENTS ARREST A SHIP

HOLIDAY TRIP GOES WRONG BY CAPTOWN TO CALIFORNIA CAPE TOWN, Sept. -I. Four A 1 erican students succeeded today in arresting the 5000-ton Norwegian steamer Litiopa. In other words, they were granted by the Supreme Court here to-day an order for attachment against the vessel to operate until they have received £3OO to pay their fares back to California. This, of course, means that the ship cannot leave harbour. The action is the outcome of a holiday plant that went wrong. The students, who are members of a California universitv decided that they would like

to spend their holidays on a visit to the Orient and signed on as deck hands in the Litiopa. The trip for which they eontractel was to occupy three months, touching at ports in China, Japan, and Borneo. At Borneo, however, the destination was changed, and instead of returning to San Fracisco, the ship was ordered to Capetown by the owners.

The students, who are already due back at their university, contended in court to-day that this change of course constituted a breach of their contract, and demanded the payment of the cost of their journey home. It was stated that the captain of the Litiopa had agreed to this, hut he was without funds to make the payment. The students explained that they feared that, in spite of his promise, they would be left stranded here if the ship sailed before, the money was forthcoming. and the court promptly placed the vessel under arrest.

Apart from their unwilling journey to Capetown the students’ adventure does not seem to have been the joyous affair they had anticipated. They declare that the food was bad and the conditions on board appalling, and that they were only allowed ashore for two hours in Borneo.

One member of the «rew broke his leg two days after the voyage began. Another was laid out in a fight with the first mate, and was unable to do any work for weeks, and a third died from Spanish influenza. Altogether the

amateur sailormen consider that a life on the ocean wave is a long way from being what it is cracked up to be.