THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 39, 18 October 1946, Page 6

THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE

. '■'•"• ■■**(s. f. 3gSjf£i§is What ho, what ho, ma hearties. Well, if it isn’t real summer weather we’ve been having, I don’t know what is. I have been spending very pleasant days lately snoozing in my deckchair outside my cave in the warm sun dreaming of summer, and Christmas, and doing everything in fact except weeding my garden (a job which is long overdue). Butch and I have been working very hard on the plans for my new lugger lately, and I am pleased to say that they are almost finished. I hope to have the lugger ready early next year, and then the pets and I will be able to enjoy a spot of cruising before the winter comes upon us. I have been having a constant argument ever since we started with regard to the colour. I would like it blue, but Butch wants it yellow and pink, with little black men in orange trousers round the side. No doubt he will probably get his way in the end; he always seems to. Well sailors, my deckchair still looks very inviting, so I think I will finish the column and enjoy forty winks. Cheerio for this week, P.T.W.

LAST WEEK’S COMPETITION Ho-ho, I thought I’d trip you up, a‘nd I certainly did. Do you know sailors, that I didn’t receive one totally correct entry to last week’s competition. The three nearest correct are awarded tickets. They are: Marie Magee Patricia Wells Sally Herdman. Congratulations sailors, you may collect your tickets from the Beacon Office with my best compliments. The correct answers are printed below:—• 1. As good as gold. 2. As safe as houses. 3. As black as pitch. 4. As sure as eggs. 5. As white as snow. 6. As green as grass. 7. As hungry as a hunter. 8. As pretty as a picture. 9. As straight as a die. 10. As crooked as a dog’s hind leg. NEXT WEEK’S COMPETITION JOKES Now here’s a competition that should keep me amused when I’m judging it. What I want you to do is to sort out the three best jokesyou can find and forward them in to me. The sailors who forward the best shall be awarded tickets, and the senders of other jokes printed later, will be awarded points- Go ahead sailors, and let your funny bone guide you to the best laughmakers. P.T.W. THE ATLANTIC GAP Since before the days of steamships there has been rivalry between the ships of many nations to attain the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. A new record has been set up recently by the American aircraft carrier Lake Champlain, which made the journey from Gibraltar to Norfolk, Virginia, 3360 miles, in 4 days, 8 hours, and 51 minutes. This should cause a stir among the crews of our two ocean queens, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. We know nothing official about the best paces of the Queen Elizabeth as yet, but we do know of the majestic performances of her sister ship. The Queen Mary, succeeded the glorious old Mauretania. Her best times for the crossing were 3 days 21-2 hours for the 2907 hours from Bishop’s Piock to Auburn Light, and 3 days 20| hours for the return voyage. Her distance was 433. miles less than that covered by the Lake Champlain, whose average speed was just over 32 knots against the Queen Mary’s record of 31.67 knots.

These speeds, however, are small when we consider the aeroplane, for a Mosquito of R.A.F. Coastal Command has flown the Atlantic in 5 hours 10 minutes! Yet the feats of the ships, like the speed of the plane, would have been beyond the belief of pioneer navigators of the Atlantic. Columbus, with his three little ships with crews comprising but 120 men all told, took 70 days in finding his wondering way from Spain to America. That was the beginning of a traffic that brought bigger and bigger ships. For more than three centuries sailing ships held

FOR YOUNG READERS ONLY

Msoard for the Goodwill Cruise

PETER THE WHALER 6/WHALE ISLAND

sway, their line reaching final glory in the beautiful and fast clippers, which made astonishing voyages at speeds that seem incredible for vessels propelled only by wind. It was the mission of the clippers to make the long voyage to Australia, and to China, at the highest possible speed. America had -noble clippers, but the palm finally remained with us. The most exciting of their performances was the yearly race to bring the new season's tea from China to London. On one occasion the clipper, Sir Lancelot, which carried nearly an acre of canvas, sailed from Foo-Chow-foo, China, to London in 90 days, her best day’s progress covering no less than 354 miles, a world’s record for a sailing ship. One of the most famous of the

old tea clippers was the Cutty Sark, heroine of many a book. Built in 1866, she remains with us today, staunch and lovely, in the Thames off Greenhithe.

The Clippers held their own against the early steamships, which had to be helped by sails.

A PLAYMATE FOR 000-GOO Flip-Flap was a seal. When he was just a tiny pup, hunters came and frightened away all the seals. The seals plopped into the water and swam as fast as they CQuld. Because Flip-Flap w-aS' too little to swim very fast, he was left far behind. Soon he felt very lonesome. He was hungry, too. So he whined and barked just like any puppy does when it is lonesome and hungry. An Eskimo, who was paddling his kayak (a canoe) home heard FlipFlap whining and barking. This Eskimo was a kind man, so he paddled his skin kayak close to the big rock where the little seal lay. Flip-Flap wanted his mother and father, but he was so lonesome that he was glad to see the friendly Eskimo. The Eskimo took him home to become a playmate for his son. . The little Eskimo boy whose name was 000-goo, had no sisters or brothers. 000-goo had no playmates, either, because his father was a hunter and never stayed long in one place. 000-goo shared his dinner with Flip-Flap. He even let the seal sleep beside him in the deer-skin tent that was his summer home. When winter came, 000-goo’s father built a regular Eskimo house out, of big blocks of ice and snow. The Eskimo house is called an igloo. 000-goo’s winter igloo was cosy and warm inside. There 000-goo and Flip-Flap played on the carpet of dried moss and kept warm all through the long cold Arctic winter.

In the spring 000-goo and FlipFlap played outdoors. 000-goo learned to paddle his father’s kayak. Flip-Flap had known all about swimming since he was a very tiny pup, so he swam beside the kayak while 000-goo paddled. 000-goo’s father took his spear and hunted for food, because they had eaten all the provisions he had stored in the igloo at the beginning of winter. He hunted on land; he hunted on the water; but not an animal, or a fish, did he catch. 000-goo did not want his friend, Flip-Flap, to be hungry, so one day he said: “You are a good swimmer, Flip-Flap, Seals are good fishermen, too. Leave father and me, and go with the other seals. They will show you a place where there are plenty of fish.” Flip-Flap swam away. 000-goo felt very badly, because he was sorry to lose his only playmate. Several days passed. 000-goo and his father became hungrier and hungrier. Then one day they saw a seal swimming toward their island. Eskimos like to eat seal meat, so Ooogoo’s father grabbed his spear and hurried down to the shore. He was was about to hurl the spear at the swimming seal, when 000-goo cried “Don’t throw your spear, Father! It is our friend, Flip-Flap!” So the hungry hunter put down his spear. The young seal flip-flap-ped up on to the beach. He held a big fat salmon in his mouth. He flopped over to 000-goo and laid the fish down in the sand at his feet. Flip-Flap had brought the fish for 000-goo’s dinner! It was Flip-Flap’s way of saying “thank you,” because his friend had shared their home with him when he was a helpless, lost, little seal pup. Flip-Flap was a gentleman, even if he was a seal!