ACROSS THE OCEAN IN A PENNY STEAMER

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 201, 18 August 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

ACROSS THE OCEAN IN A PENNY STEAMER

REMARKABLE VOYAGES IN EiCKETY CRAFT. When peace allows the curtain to bo lifted, it will be found that our sailors have accomplished even more remarkable feats than thscw'th whici they are already credited. Tiny craft of the cockleshell variety have kept tho seas in all weathers to stop the depredations of submarines, weird vessels have made long, uncomfortable voyages, and steamers designed for river Work only have braved .storms jn order to do good work on the Tigris. Few would Ike to take a voyage half across the world in an unweildy floating dock, a tiny tug, a barge, or a penny Thames steamer, yet in the port of London are many sailormen ready at a moment's notice to nav : gate a huge liner or a launch to any part if the world. They know pretty well all there is to know about the sea and ts moods, but none of them has been ui want of a job n'nce the war started. The pay' is high, but not at all ton high considering the risks run. Few would have cared to have made tl" voyage : n either of the two Thames steamboats sold to Serbia by the L.C.C which, alter 13 days of constant peril, arrived safely at (lalatz, on the Human. ian coast, a distance of :-<>nio 3.00U miles. Each captain received a bonus ol t! ) above Irs salary and expenses, and we 1 : was it earned. Boldes the captain eleven hands were carr.ed, and the vovage was oxjx'ctod to last 2-1 days, but adverse winds and weather made t nearlv twice as long. Storms in the Hnv of Biscay caused the two steamers to put into Cadiz for rcpa'rs and stores and the .Me'd'torranean treated them t; v.n wor.'.e. A PLUCKY FIGHT. There were no cabins, so the officers

slept on setees in the saloon, the men Making the best of things forwardCoals wove stored partly on deck an 1 partly .in the saloon, as hunker accommodation was limited. A chart-house was rigged up ottt.of planks, and on more than one occasion the paddle floats had t be repaired or the steamers go dead slow to prevent injury. After leaving Gibraltar a stormwas encountered, and the coast of Tunis was sought for repairs and to await, better weather, me capta'n was on deck for seventy-two hours, snatching what sleep lie could, the engineers worked up to the nock in water and spray tinkering the paddles, and tho boats rolled so badly that at times one paddle would be buried while the other was out of the water. Once they let. a port tak'ug three hours doing so, and then bad to put back, fourteen hours battling against tne waves. The crews, worn out with work and sea-sickness, swore the steamers were unseaworthv and threatened to mutiny, but tho captains persuaded them to keep on, and so, alternately putting to sea and then into port for repairs, the Dardanelles were readied, the current making the lightly constructed vessels tremble and shake. However. Constantinople was reached safely, am at last the capta : ns thankfully handed over their charges to the new owners at Galatz. TIIF. ADVENTURES OF A THAMKS GAUGE. \ s-iil ; n an ordinary Thames barge to South \merica does not sound invitmr:, but a couple of I'liames skippers saieW negotiated the trip of 1,200 miles *■) Para, on the Amazon, on two barges ol lii) and 120 tons, rgged as ketches for tho vovnto. Each carried a crew ..I captain, mate, and three hands; on one all three had never been beyond the Channel. , , It wan estimated that the voya ;e would last 10 to GO days: one barge did it in o0 the other in '.Hi. having worse lurk. Provisions for 100 days wecarried, which were wanted : n the second case. Minor accidents occurred. and the crew had narrow escapes, but