FERRY FUN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 16

FERRY FUN

The Bachelor And the Baby THE “DEVONPORT SPRING” ‘ WOULD you mind holding: the boat ** for a few minutes, while I ring: a friend up on the telephone?” This is a common request by people who travel across the Waitemata on the ferries. Apparently they do not realise that: the Devonport Steam Ferry Company runs its ferries to schedule time. Amusing episodes occur sometimes among those who go down to the sea in ferries. UNWILLING “DADDY” The Devonport boat was just moving cut from the Auckland ferry wharf one day when a laggard mother dashed through the gates, down the wharf and thrust a baby into the arms of an as*tonished and harmless bachelor who was leaning over the side of the boat. ‘‘Hold the baby!” she panted, trying to scramble aboard herself. But she was too late. The boat had swung out. “I’ll be over on the next boat.’ screamed the mother. Being a man with a high sense of duty, lie decided to do liis best with the infant and blushingly adjourned to the very back seat of the deck compartment. The baby liked him so much that h decided to tear his moustache off. When thwarted in its attempt it yelled fiercely and “bucked” back and forward. The temporary “father” thought up all the nursery songs he knew, poked the baby in the ribs, asked it whose “icky thing” it was and used all the approved methods of quietening children However, his efforts were unavailing. The baby cried brokenheartedly all tlic way to Devonport, and the unfortunate man sat and nursed it there till the next boat arrived with the frantic mother on board. LIKE KANGAROOS How can one pick a Devonport girl? The answer is quite simple. Stand alongside the wharf from which the Devonport ferry leaves. Just as the boat is pulling out, a bunch of girls will fly down the wharf, and without hesitating leap straight on to the moving ferry. “They never miss,” said a man who has watched them for years. “Other people come-.along and ask if they can get on when the boat is just leaving, and of course they miss it. The Devonport girl doesn’t stop to ask. Diving over there makes them as agile as kangaroos.” Absent-minded business men or young couples in love are said to be responsible for the large number of lunches left on the boats. A regular harvest of carefully-packed lunches is gathered from the ferries every day.

The number of umbrellas found is a tribute to the vagaries of Auckland weather. Gatemen at the ferry station are occasionally amused by a breathless passenger who flies through the gate, gazes at a ferry about 100 yards out on its trip to the other shore, and asks in true Hibernian style, “Is that the next ferry that’s just going?” Small sums of money are often found, but one woman who had saved £BO to take a trip to Sydney dropped her purse coming across in the ferry —and never saw it again. Another woman dropped a purse containing £9O alongside the seat*; at the ferry station. It was never seen again. Thousands of people pass through the station in one day. TAKING IT COOLLY The sight of an anxious passenger missing his step and walking into r.he sea is very rare nowadays, but it has been seen. If he is not hurt the victim usually takes the accident with philosophic Auckland calmness when he is pulled on board, and adjourns to the engine room to dry himself out on the trip across. People from the country evidently think Devonport is on the other side of Rangitoto. They walk up to the window and put down four or five shillings for a ticket to Devonport. Every two or three months the odds and ends of clothing found on the various ferries are bundled up and given to Sister Esther, who sees they are distributed to those who are in need. So what is one man’s loss is another man’s gain. There is also the classic instance of the man who rushed down to the wharf, flung his bag aboard the moving Devonport boat, clambered over the rail panting with exertion —and then found the boat was just coming in. What he said is not recorded. And then there was the girl who was in a hurry to get to Devonport. She jumped on board a boat which happened to be going out to the coalhulk for bunkers. The unfortunate young woman was compelled to kick her heels and twiddle her thumbs for two hours while the ferry was coaling.