PACIFIC CRUISE PLANNED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20003, 31 July 1939, Page 16

PACIFIC CRUISE PLANNED

THE SUTHERLANDS VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND LONDON, June 19. Two interesting visitors to Auckland during December will be the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. In the course of a Pacific cruise in their 820-ton yacht, Sans Peur, they expect to sight New Zealand a. few days before Christmas. They will make a short stay in the city before continuing to the Bay of Islands, which they will make their headquarters for deep seai fishing before leaving towards the middle of February. Yachting is the favourite pastime of .he Duke and Duchess. They will eave England during the middle of July for Vancouver, where they will board the Spns Peur. They plan to visit Samoa and Rarotonga before reaching New Zealand. The Sans Peur Jias been in Vancouver for some weeks after undergoing a thorough overhaul, following its accident last February, when it "uek a submerged rock off Santa Island, 480 miles south of gan Diego. ..e Duchess of Sutherland was in■red slightly, but the Duke and her gues s were unharmed. Petting a Jaguar Had the Duchess not been petting 4 jaguar she had picked up in Nicaragua for presentation to the London Zoo, she would also have escaped injury. But the cub was frightened by the shock, and scratched her severely before it could be secured and tied up. The Duke Is 51. He is a commander in the R.N.R., and commanded the motor boat flotillas in Egypt and the Adriatic during the war. After the war he represented the colonies in the House of Lords, and was Parliamentary Undersecretary for Air in 1922-23. From 1925 to 1928 he was PaymasterGeneral, and from 1928-29, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War. He has been president of the Mr League of the British Empire since 1922. and he is chairman of the Royal Aero Club, vice-president of St. Dunstan’s Institute, and president of the Sutherland Territorial Army Association. The Duke and Duchess have been on yachting cruises together in many parts of the world, and the present Sans Peur is the second vessel to which they have given the name. She is fitted with Diesel engines and her speed is 16 knots. She carries a crew of 35, mostly men from Southampton. Her commander is Captain. F. Thomas, formerly skipper to the late Sir Thomas Lipton’s yacht Erin.