SHIPS AND THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue CXXIII, 10 April 1937, Page 24

SHIPS AND THE SEA

The annual grain race,- in recent times the longest and most hazardous sailing-ship contest,: is now under way. The entrants have squared away for the run of 14,000 nautical miles from South Australia to England. ■ They will carry every inch of ; canvas they are rigged for, or that their masters dare to set, for the long course before the whistling gales that ceaselessly blow from the westward around the bottom of the world, and the even longer struggle up over the globe through the trades, doldrums; and variable "winds of the South and North Atlantic.

At about the middle of May the winner will arrive off: England. The seaweary, slowest vessel may not get into Plymouth before two hundred days after the start. One ship of the ten will probably never complete the voyage; she will represent the average annual casualty list of the race. The chances are that there will be no report to the world on the progress of the contest until the leading competitor gets close to Europe, because the square-riggers carry no wireless outfits, and their track runs over lonely waters where there is small hope of speaking a steamship. . ■

No trophy is offered in'this race. There is no money prize awaiting the winner. In fact, it does not make any material difference when any one of

the ships reaches her destination, because charters.in the sailing-ship world have no time clauses: But there were no stakes up for the races of the tea clippers either, except what wagers were laid by masters and owners: Men in sailing ..vessels, whether yachtsmen or shellbacks, always begin to race • their ■ hesLds^off--:the ■■ .'moment 'their course- parallels "that:of ''any-thing "else that shows.canvas;. >. "- '•'. • : '.". v\; "a'Vanishing fleet. ■• ":: : •' v This grain, ; fleet .'comprises tfie. very last of -.the'vactive' windjammers, and their yearly trip froni the Antipodes to Europe is the final sea trade by which they can make a living. Within > few years the,few remaining big'commercial sailing "ships' .will', "be .'wrecked, junked, or cut down into", barges, and the chapter, wiil be ended. ■ ; . '. How do these grain vessels compare with the old clippers?. ,'iThey are'clippers in that their.lines are fine, masts rakish, and they offer. a beautiful spectacle under full'sail. .It is difficult to compare their speed; and voyage records with the/radirig square-riggers o.l: the Eighteen' Fifties, because the grain ships are operated under different.conditions.. . They are/bigger than the old clippers and built to .'carry about twice the weight of cargo. And they are burdened down by every ton of cargo they can hold. A mere few inches of freeboard makes a vast difference in time over a long voyage. Time was money in the days of the gold .rush and the time of the transatlantic glovy of the clipper, so loading was light. But the grain carriers, get only one. trip a year anyway and it pays to pack in all the cargo possible.

Another factor is that the grain fleet barques are built, rigged, and sparred with steel. It was all right to "crack on" and snap wooden yards aboard the clippers, but when steel gear and construction rips apart it is expensive, and owners nowadays do not smile indulgently at; repair lists offset by a few hours clipped from the passage time as the clipper house moguls did.

Even under-these. disadvantages the grain ships make very creditable time. The all-time record for the passage between Australia and England under sail is about sixty-four days. The victor in the grain fleet last year made the run in eighty-six days. She was the Herzogin Cecilie, wrecked on the Devon coast at the end of her run. In 1933 the big Parma, with Alan J. Villiers, the sailor-auihor, aboard, made the record run of this century, eightythree days. No clipper would have been ashamed ■" of those runs, and the grain barks could better them if they were allowed clipper-day cargoes.

Every ship in the grain fleet was bought at scrap-metal prices. All were purchased by Finns except, one Swedish barque, the C. B. Pedersen, which is in this year's race. They all sail with' no insurance, because they are valued so low and their risk is so great that protection costs about as much as the ship is worth. The oldest ship corning from Australia this year was built in 1891, and the newest is twenty-six years old. One problem that troubled the sleek and dainty clipper ship presents no difficulty at all to the rusty vessels of the grain trade, and that is how to recruit a crew. It is not necessary now to hire crimps and runners to.shanghai a gang of men. On the contrary, the mates have to stand a constant watch in port to keep stowaways off. Boys of every, maritime : nation ~ vie for. this last chance.to round "Cape Stiff" oh a real square-rigger. A typical crew, according to the "New York Times," about thirty all told, fore and aft, will comprise Finns, .Germans, Swedes, Britons, and Ameiicans. Some of them will be apprentices who have paid for; the'privilene of signing on for no wages. One may be a college boy from the United States. With the exception of the master, the mates, one or two A.B.s, and

CARGOES OF GOLDEN GRAIN

LOFTY VESSELS SPEEDING HOME

perhaps an old-timer as cook or carpenter, the whole ship's company are boys in their 'teens. The wages are so low that only a pure spirit of adventure draws these youngsters into the toughest and longest of all sea trips. One might almost say that this race is sailed by amateurs.

The grain ships left.Finland for Australia last autumn, making their way out by the Cape of Good Hope to avoid beating around tne Horn. Each ship is under charter to some man or firm who is taking a chance on what will happen to the price cf wheat during the three or four month voyage to Europe. ' When they arrive in England they will get orders to discharge there, cr perhaps to proceed to some other country to unload. Competition for grain is keen this year, with every nation stocking up for a possible war. Having discharged,' the barques will go home to the Baltic to relit and wait for 1938 —or oblivion.