SMALL SCHOONER ARRIVES AT AUCKLAND FROM HONOLULU

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 August 1950, Page 8

SMALL SCHOONER ARRIVES AT AUCKLAND FROM HONOLULU

The trim two-masted schooner Ornant, under the command of her owner, Captain E. J. Thomas, a retired master mariner of the United States Merchant Marine, arrived at Auckland The captain is accompanied by his wife and . their daughter, Miss Norma Thomas, aged 21. They and another American, Michael Markiewicz, and two Rarotongans, who signed on to work their passage to New Zealand, comprised the ship’s company. Captain Thomas sailed to Ornant from Honolulu, where Se has been living for the past few years, via Rarotonga, completing the last stage of the trip in 18 days. "You can imagine how shorthanded I have been,’’ he said. “Five people make a pretty small crew for a 35-ton schooner, especially when two of them are women and two more are natives, understanding only a few words of English and with no previous seagoing experience." This is the second time Captain Thomas has sailed to New Zealand from the islands in a comparatively small and lightly - manned sailing craft. His previous experience was in 1938, when he made the trip in the Seaspray, a 48-ton ketch He named his schooner after the small rural village or Omona, South Wales, where he was born. Remarking on the weather on tne trip Captain Thomas said: “We had the ’foresail and the lower jib up for most of the way and were making fairly good headway, until we struck a spot near the Kemadec Islands which was devoid of any sign of wi nd. We used the auxiliary engine, a 100horse power Diesel, for four days before striking another patch of wind and then we got more than we wanted. For some days it blew with ga >e force and we were more than fully occunied in handling the sails and steering.” Captain Thomas and his familv nect to spend a few weeks in New Zealand.