SOUTH SEA ADVENTURERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 863, 6 January 1930, Page 1

SOUTH SEA ADVENTURERS

Yacht Valkyrie Returns days of heat and hurricane HER varnish work whitened by heavy seas as though sandpapered, sails, greyed from long exposure to tropic winds, and all external signs of newness gone, the schooneryacht Valkyrie returned to Auckland last evening after an absence of nearly seven months.

The vessel's voyage to the Fiji stands occupied live weeks of hardship and almost privation for those <>n board. Her owner. Captain E. Hilling, for whom the Valkyrie had been built two months earlier, had vlth him a number of tourists, inclining several women. The party intended to make a protracted trip through most of the South Sea slands. but after tasting the dangers of Pacific storms they quitted the ship. If the company wanted adventure, they got it. Adverse winds, which liter came down with hurricane force, drove the little ship miles from her course. Life on board was no picnic or those unaccustomed to the sea-

faring life. The days dragged on, and still there was no sight of Sura. Then the captain found it necessary lo ration the water, and this, in the scorching heat of equatorial latitudes, added to the discomfort. It was on May 20 that sail was made from the Waitemata Harbour, and Suva was not made until June 23. Having had enough, the trippers with one consent booked their pass-

ages back to Auckland by steamer. But the Valkyrie’s troubles were only just beginning. Captain Gilling found it necessary to haul the vessel on the hard and have her hull below the waterline completely resheathed with copper—which cost money. Followed an exasperating wait for another party of tourists who failed to join the boat. The Valkyrie lay in Suva Harbour for five and a-half months, and the captain went on waiting. GLAD TO TURN BACK

In December he decided to make for New Zealand, having abandoned his intention to voyage through the Samoas and other groups. He signed on a crew of two boys, and left port in the face of heavy winds on a Saturday, but was compelled to return next afternoon. Two more hands were engaged and the Valkyrie again put to sea on Thursday, December 5. The glass was falling and the horizon cloudy. The mercury went alarmingly low and Captain Gilling realised he was in for a dilsting. He continued on in half a gale, his command rolling and screwing so that his crew of four went down with seasickness for the first two days. Fortunately the ship escaped the full fury of the hurricane which at that time swept the Fijis and wrecked the schooner Tui Cakau with the loss of all hands Dut one. Twice, for periods of five and six hours, the Valkyrie was hove to under bare poles. She was driven far from her course and at one stage was sighted to be not a great way from New Caledonia. "We shipped very little water below,” said a member of the crew this morning. “Sure, she’s a good boat in a seaway, but tosses about like a cork. One minute you’d be in a hole, and next as high as that” —indicating the top of the mainmast. “To •tell you how dry she is, we never had to fasten down the lee skylights —pretty fair, eh?” After 19 days the Valkyrie made Russell for fresh provisions, and to give the captain a rest —he had on one occasion stood at the wheel for 39 hours. Leisurely time was made down the coast, a stop at Whangamumu for water, a call at Kawau, Cowes Bay, and Rocky Bay, a quiet' run to her long-deserted moorings in Mechanics’ Bay. and finis was written to as adventurous a voyage as a little ship could be called upon to endure. “Had enough?” The Sun man asked one of the boys, who sat in his bunk twanging a guitar. The plaintive notes rose in a sweet crescendo. . . . “The captain is talking of going to Tahiti in March," he said. “and I guess we’ll be going, too.”