With Silent Cheers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 424, 4 August 1928, Page 1

With Silent Cheers

JAPANESE SHIPS LEAVE FOR SUVA

Mishap With Gangway

ANXIOUS to get down to the open sea again, the Idzumo swung out before she was meant to this morning, and the gangway crashed overboard, marooning a number of Auckland visitors.

The “singling out” of the hawsers to the wharf was completed about 8.40 and immediately the stern was caught in the tide. The gangway creaked ominously and was drawn over the side of the wharf, despite the desperate efforts of Harbour Board officials to hold it back. One Japanese sailor was on it and lie scampered aboard the ship just in time. The “brow.” as it is known to the Navy, dangled m the water from the Idzumo’s side and defied all efforts to heave it up again for a quarter of an hour. Finally the wharf crane -was commissioned and just as it came gliding along, the swarm of sailors, calling the Japanese equivalent of “Yo, heavo ho!” swung the gangway up to the wharf. The ship was still restless, so the visitors, including the honorary Consul. Mr. A. B. Roberton, the deputy-chair-man of the Harbour Board, Mr. M. H. Wynyard, and half a dozen ladies, came ashore. The Yakumo backed out first and turned up stream, waiting off the end of Prince’s Wharf for the flagship to come out. THE SILENT NAVY As the Idzumo gathered in the last hawsers every officer and man of the crew took off their hats and revolved them slowly above their heads, smiling, but saying nothing . Courteous people on the wharf raised their hats in tribute to the silent Japanese Navy. The band on the quarter deck struck up “Auld Lang Syne,” and the silent cheering went on in stately motion as the ship slipped out. There were no streamers, but on the bridge one officer held up two little flags, the “Rising Sun” of Japan and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy, taking great care to keep them crossed. The crowd had been kept out by barricades, but these were lowered be-

for© the ship got clear and several hundred people burst on to the wharf, raising a small cheer and waving. “Auld Lang Syne” was still being played and the caps were still revolving as the tug Te Awhina took on a bow line and swung the Idzumo’s bow toward the open sea. DIGNIFIED EXIT A naval cutter with the Japanese flag on the stern rowed about while the ships were getting clear, filling everyone with admiration for the clockwork style of the crew. The Idzumo, with the harbourmaster, Captain H. PI. Sergeant, piloting her, dropped the tow-line and stood down harbour, the sunshine catching the “Rising Sun” at her stern and the Vice-Admiral’s flag at her fore. Dignified she looked, in spite of her obsolete design, as she dropped down the stream. Her sister the German-built Yakumo having allowed the Idzumo a ceremonious start, followed with a wrinkle of white about her bluntish bow, the assistant-harbourmaster, Captain G. H. Lacy, being the pilot. Aucklanders waited on the end of Queen’s Wharf to see the ships turn North Head, outward bound for Suva.