"WE'RE BROKE"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 202, 19 April 1932, Page 7

"WE'RE BROKE"

AMERICAN YACHT ONE PORT AHEAD OF THE BAILIFF. SEEING THE WORLD. SYDNEY, Saturday. ' At last an American round-the-world luxury yacht that is not owned by millionaires has reached Sydney. "We're broke. Just one port ahead of the bailiff," laughingly says Mrs. Hiram Ti Horton, wife of the San Diego owner, skipper, ' and navigator of the Vileehi, which arrived last night" from New Zealand. "We have found that it is cheaper to live at sea than to stay at home," Mrs. Horton explains as the reason for their world cruise that started at San Diego last June and is planned to end two years hence at their home port. With Mr. and Mrs. Horton is their pretty 20-year-old daughter, Lee„ who has broken her college career at the University of Chicago to see the world. Dressed'in a leather lumber jaekfi; and blue sailor pants, Lee says that one thing that she will not have to do in Sydney is go rushing around after Paris winter models. They are bound now for the Barrier Reef.

"Orange Ranch." Mr. Horton was formerly in the steel business in the East, but then he went out to an orange "ranch" at San Diego. "Don't call it an orchard or a plantation," they say. "They are all ranches in California — even goldfish ranches." Living near the Mexican border, the Hortons often go to Agua Caliente, and Mrs. Horton was "just ticlcled" when she heard that Phar Lap had won. The Viheeli has every convenience. The galley, presided over by a polite Filipino, ' has a gas stove that swings with the movements of the boat, and the dining-room table has the same facility. "When the boat is heeling over in the wind the table gets to such an angle that those on one side have to perch up on cushions and those on the other- side sit on the floor," tyLcs. Horton explained. "And we never spill a drop of soup." Electric light, a long-range wireless receiving and transmitting set, and a large library are other comforts. The crew include Captain Donald McCush, first mate; Mr. Leland Fuller, wireless operator; two hands and a canary — "the best sailor on board." From Sydney the Hortons plan to go to Singapore, China and Japan if things are quiet up there, and then through the Suez and back home.