EVENTFUL VOYAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1929, Page 8

EVENTFUL VOYAGE

COFFIN ON BOARD SHIP. CREW WALK OFF. SYDNEY, December 5. It is an old superstition of sailors that when a parson boards a ship he brings bad luck. Blit when a dead parson is carried on board it is said that he brings more than bad luck—he creates a hoodoo. That is what the crew of the Commonwealth and Dominion liner Port Nicholson,: which arrived in Sydney this week, consider at any rate. On the trip from Sydney they had a sequence of bad luck that can only be regarded as extremely unusual. They don’t say that the dead parson that was carried in; a coffin had anything t odo with it, but as one of the men put it: “I did not know what somethin’ was going to ’appen next. Why I didn’t breathe safe until that corfin was put orf the bloomin ship.” The first Unusual event occurred

when the Port Nicholson was ten days

out from London on her way to Australia. The weather had been hot in the Mediterranean, but not unusually so, according to hardened travellers. Anyhow, one of the firemen, maddened by the oppresiveness, ended his life by leaping overboard. The ship was stopped, blit no trace could be found of the unfortunate man. It was stated that many sharks had been seen cruising around the ship, and one seaman declared that he had been torn to pieces by hungry sharks. “What could you expect ” he said. “Look at our cargo!”

Then engine trouble set in and the vessel was delayed for some time at Port Said, much to the disgust of the crew, who, it seems, dislike Port Said more than any other port in the world. With that trouble fixed the Port Nicholson proceeded once more on her way, and no sooner had she put to sea than a fire developed in her bunkers. Luckily the vessel was not far from Perim, and she immediately put into that port, when it was seen that the fire was serious. She was there for three days discharging the affected coal and taking on new coal.. Her usual stay in that port was three hours, quite enough, too, for any member of the crew.

But the sequence of bad luck had

not ceased. While unloading cargo from No. 1 hold in Sydney one of the men was badly injured and had to be taken to hospital. Throughout the voyage murmurs of discontent had been heard from the crew, and when the ship reached Townsville they all walked off and refused to go hack. However, after two days and a- night in gaol, they reboarded the vessel and brought it to Sydney, fearing all the time, as they say, that the Port Nicholson would be piled up somewhere on the Queensland coast. Enquiries are being held into the action of the crew. It seems that most of the trouble among the crew was due to the superstition.