Cruiser's Inland Voyage

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXV, Issue 4355, 9 June 1909, Page 4

Cruiser's Inland Voyage

2300 MILES UP THE AMAZON. THE PELORUS ARRIVES AT PLYMOUTH. LONDON, April 6. By the recent arrival at Plymouth of the British cruiser Pelorus, a vessel of 2130 lone, a memorable voyage was brought to a close. The vessel has lately steamed 2300 miles up the Amazon, to Iquitos, in the middle of the South American continent, and less than 500 miles from the Pacific A CORDIAL WELCOME. The visit of the cruiser is expected to have a beneficial effect upon British trade, which has recently suffered from German competition. The native papers published special supplements m English offering a most cordial welcome, and Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, Pernambuco, Para, Manaos, and Iquitos made the visit an occasion for public hospitality. Birds of almost endless variety have been brought back as souvenirs, and also a young tiger, which is to be offered to the Zoo. During a cruise of two and a half years the Pelorus has steamed 56,000 miles, including 17,000 miles since last October. The ship’s company engaged in football and cricket wherever possible, and describe the cruise as one long picnic. The vessel has arrived without a single man on the sick list. DIFFICULTIES OF NAVIGATION. At Para the Amazon is nearly a mile wide, but the river gradually narrows until at Iquitos it is lees than 1000 ft in width, or about three times the ship’s length. No chart of the river exists, and the only assistance the officers had in navigation was the local knowledge of a few natives they embarked at various points along the river.

Great care and caution had consequently to bo exercised by Captain Craig and his officers in traversing the ever-narrowing channel of the great river, and all the “way up the precaution was taken of anchoring at night. Beyond, however, the uncertainty and element of risk incidental to the navigation of unchartered waters, no difficulty was encountered. . Only twice before, it is said, has the Amazon been navigated by warships., once by an American and many yeans ago by an Italian. But both these vessels wore small river boats. No warship approaching the size f the Pelorus has ever before been so far up the river, and the enthusiasm of the natives at the sight of the vessel was boundless.