CAPTAINS ALL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 325, 10 April 1928, Page 16

CAPTAINS ALL

ANCIENT MARINERS AFLOAT ANNUAL SYDNEY OUTING The League of Ancient Mariners lias r foregathered for the 27th time. At i Clifton Gardens 216 cap’ns sat down a to lunch, swapped yarns, drank toasts whose number would frighten land- £ lubbers, and later in the afternoon sang chanties while the steamer lent by the Manly Ferry Company rolled ' in the swell at the Heads. Everybody 1 was cap’n; nobody was captain, une few invited guests included Mr. E. ir. Fleming, Chief Civic Commissioner, s Mr. Geoffrey Fairfax, and a few reporters, says the Sydney “Morning ; Herald.” < Sea History On the voyage down to Clifton Gardens one could wander from group to ‘ group and listen to the Ancients conversations. There was no need to ( eavesdrop. Their voices were loud and ] hearty, and this, their annual day out. , acted like a freshening gale rushing through their minds. They remembered —and they told. “I saw the Sobraon coming through the Heads.” . . . “But that Chinese junk carried a power of canvas. . . - “J’ever come across old Johnson old man on the Royal? Yus, too good to his men —the company gave him the run.” . . . “I’d been 40 years in the Orient Company, and he was the onlyman who didn’t keep his word. . . . “X put the bottle of whisky in front of him, and I’m everlastingly damned if he would touch it—and him, mind ye, sailing up and down the China coast with me for five years.” . . . “Oh, the old barge was A 1 at Lloyd’s, all right, all right, but how in thunder." .... “And then the men broke loose from the seamen’s quarter in Archangel. They knew no warships could come over the ice. The whole harbour frozen, and, think of it —all that bloodshed over three worthless women.” .... “Blue serge? O’ course, it’s never out o’ fashion. And it s dignified and it’s beautiful.” . . . • “I do remember the old Macquarrie but where did she lie? Ho, sir, she did i not. I think it was nearer Farm Cove.’’ ... “Just after that, the Hesperus went to Russia as a training ship. She i ended up in the Black Sea.” ... “I went i down to the shipping office and signed on, and little did I think what was in front of me. Why, the old man was drunk from three bells on.’’ . . . ; “That’s so. In the old Torrens. Angel - was cap’n. Hot old Angel. His son. > ... . “Coming over in the Miowera > from Canada 27 years ago. Dr. ScottSkirving and I talked over this League i of Ancient Mariners. ‘Pearse,’ says t Scott-Skirving, ‘this is a great idea of r yours.’ So when -we reached Sydney I talked it over with Cap’n Green — and here we are.” . . . “Over in the West Indies, Lord Jellieoe’s father was my chief. I showed him what cocktails really were.” Speech! Kobody troubled to keep count of the number of toasts drunk. And the f speeches! For sincerity and jollity 1 their equal is seldom heard at any * gathering. The president (Cap’n Green) talked gently of those who had crossed the “ bar; Cap’n Cayley, of the Australian i Navy, talked of sea-sense, and Drake,

and sea power; Cap’n Macleod roared reminiscences —he had to roar to drown his brother shellbacks’ laughter; Cap’n Marcus Osborne said that Mr. Fleming was making a good job of the Civic Commissionership, and that Mr. Fairfax was making a good job of the best paper in Australia; and Cap’n Storey, S 3 years young, said he was getting younger every day. and that while he had a leg to stand on he was going to travel a thousand miles to and from his Richmond River home to attend the Ancients’ yearly outing. Then everybody re-embarked, and the Cap’n of the steamer made for open sea, and a couple of deck hands grew rather shaky on their pins, and a fat man played divine accompaniments on the piano while exhilarated sea-dogs shouted “Blow, boys, blow,” “Way Down Rio,” “Blow the Man Down,” “Amsterdam,” “Reuben Ranzo,” “Sitting on the Shining Floor,” and a j dozen other chanties whose rollicking rhythms and esoteric verses set ting- | ling the blood of the land-lubbers on iboard.