END OF A LONG VOYAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2122, 1 May 1920, Page 4

END OF A LONG VOYAGE.

LAUREL WHALEN REACHES VANCOUVER. AFTER .TWO YEARS OF TROUBLE. It will,be interesting to read the Vancouver papers’' description of the five-masted schooner Laurel Whalen, which, according to a cable message, “staggered into the Canadian port.” The name of this vessel is synonymous with bad fortune in these waters, and when one reads her record it is not to bo wondered She made her first appearance in Auckland on January 3rd, 1919, when she was forced to put in here to have her broken crank shafts repaired. She then lay in the stream for more than six months. It was reported that she had sailed for Vancouver in April, 1918, with more than a million feet of timber for Adelaide. Outward bound, even, she had proved unfortunate, for she was reported at Sydney on July 101 h, being forced to enter that port for repairs. Finally, on July Ifilh, 1919, she sailed from this port, with much shaking of heads among the'shipping authorities, and reached Papeete on August 25th. The Mora, which arrived in that, port on the following day, brought back a vivm story of the sorry picture that she made in the_ harbour, with her sails in shreds and her deck littered with tallow barrels that had come adrift. To add to the vessel’s unhappiness, her captain had broken his ankle, and she was brought to port under the guidanee of the second officer. While in Papeete she underwent survey, and it was found that her pumps, cylinders and canvas needed replacing. Her cargo was in the worst condition —weevila having done their worst upon her wheat; while her hull was decorated with muSsls and weeds more than six inches in length. As evidence of her sailing capacity, she is said lo have done only ninety miles in twentyfour hours, before a strong gale. I Subsequent lurid reports of her deterioration were brought haek from Papeete, and it was not thought likely that she would ever leave the island port. However, she made the attempt, and has reached her original port of .sailing, alter an absence id. luo years—from April, .1918, to April, 1920.