77-DAY VOYAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 554, 5 January 1929, Page 1

77-DAY VOYAGE

TRAWLER ARRIVES FROM ENGLAND STORM DAMAGES WATER TANKS Tossed like a cork in gales in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay, and caught in the tail-end of a typhoon at the southern end of the Red Sea, the trawler Humphrey arrived at Auckland late last evening, looking none the worse for her 77-day voyage from Hull, England. The Humphrey is the latest addition to the trawling fleet of Sanford, Ltd., and was purchased by the company to replace the trawler Thomas Bryan, which was wrecked near Cape Colville last June.

She is a steel vessel of 2QG tons, and was built at Queensferry in 1913, her former name being the Thomas Faircloth. Before leaving England she was specially fitted for fishing m New Zeaiand. waters.

She sailed from Hull on October IS, bad weather lengthening her c’ownChannel run to Falmouth to four days. After leaving the latter port a stiff westerly gale in the Bay of Biscay for two days made things unpleasant lor the crew.

The run from there to Algiers and on to Port Said and the canal was calm, but the tail-end of a lyphooi struck the vessel at the southern end of the Red Sea, washing away the windlass, breakwater and spoiling the drinking water owing to the caps coming off the tanks in the gale. For 10 days on the run to Colombo the crew had to live on salty water, the heat of the tropics adding to their discomfort.

From Colombo the vessel passed through the Java Sea to Sourabaya, and from there down through Torres Strait, Blyth Passage and the Coral Sea to Auckland.

The crew were greatly interested in the sea-snakes to be seen on the Great Barrier Reef, and were very surprised that snakes should inhabit the sea. The vesesl is under command of Captain J. MacDonald, and with him are Messrs. G. H. Horn (first officer), V. G. Boivin (chief engineer), and R. E. Hunter (second engineer).

“People on the wharf when we left Falmouth said we must be going to commit suicide,” said Captain MacDonald. “The Humphrey has shown herself to be an excellent little seaboat, however.”