PAMIR’S CREW BEING PAID OFF

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1948, Page 7

PAMIR’S CREW BEING PAID OFF

WELLINGTON, Oct. 12

To-day will be the last day a New Zealand crew will work aboard the barque Pamir. The crew were notified yesterday that they would bo paying off in 24 hours. They spent the day stowing away, for the last time, the barque’s great *ails. On Wednesday they will receive their final pay, slight sea bags over their shoulders and leave the ship. This morning, as the crew woke to the start of another week's work, they read notices pinned in prominent places in the ship: “All crew are notified that New Zealand articles of agreement will be terminated on Tuesday night, October 12. No renewal of articles is proposed.” From to-morrow, if they wish to continue in the square rigged sailing ships, the crew will have to compete with many seeking .voyages in. the Erikson ships, Passat and Viking—and perhaps the Pamir herself. The crew to-day were employed in sail-making, and to-morrow will complete the stowing of the ship’s gear in readiness for her new crew and owners. DESERTED SHIP Part of her cargo of basic slag is still to be discharged, but, from Wednesday, the Pamir will be a deserted ship. Only the master, Captain H. S. Collier, and the chief ollicer, Mr A S. Keyworth will remain aboard. A representative of the Finnish Sailing Ship Company is already in Wellington, and the ship’s papers and documents are being prepared for the handing over of the 48-year-old vessel to her former owners.

The majority of the crew will be discharged, to go on leave as they have two weeks’ holiday pay owing from 16 months’ service in the Pamir. Some will go to the Navigation School in Auckland to sit for their officers’ certificates. The Pamir’s shark tail, which is at the extreme end of her bowsprit, has pointed the way through Cape Horn gales, and tropic calms. It will be taken from the ship before she is handed over. It will be sent to England to the crown bowsprit of one of the Pamir’s sisters, the four-mast-ed barque Arethusa, which was formerly named the Pekin. The Arethusa is now a training ship for boys wishing to take up the sea as a career. Many of her trainees visited the Pamir while she was in London, and the superintendent of the Arethusa expressed his desire to obtain the shark tail for the Arethusa. He will now get the Pamir’s own trophy, which is, in accordance with sailing ship beliefs, guaranteed to ensure fair winds for the vessel to which it is affixed.