High Adventure on Seven Seas

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 10

High Adventure on Seven Seas

LIFE ON A TRAMP CAPT. SALVESEN’S CAREER During the last 18 momhs ( anr. Tliorval Salveseu, master of -he p, bryn, has taken his ship to p rr ,s*f' every continent. 3 His life has been adventurous w. ting a mail who was born at tea V the least of his adventures was V* rush to aid tile sinking Tahiti in «,?? ocean before coming on to AucklaU 1 " Kighteeu mouths ago Captain Salsen took over command of the "p er !‘ bryn which, although belonging Norwegian shipping rumpaar, h a * ■Welsh name, meauing "The Ten of Hill.” He scarcely knows his next port nr call, and is not particularly anxiousT' "I like to be on the move,” he aajJiuuj morning. “visiting all the parts of the w orld.” Captain Salveseu has braved trim., seas round the coast of Norway in i torpedo boat. ' “ 1 He has carried cargoes of cedj-. wood and mahogany from uncharted ports in the Gulf of Darien to ports the United States. He served in the Norwegian N»rr during the war and received £l*;. j month for his services. He was the first Norwegian i ff, to become a wireless operator. And he was sitting in an hot* 1 u Westport when the big earthquake x. curred last year. ROUND FIVE CONTINENTS Eighteen months ago Captain Sait., sen set out on a trip which took to many strange corners of tho wor;He sailed from London for Melbouriand the voyage took 64 days. Airdischarging there, he came on to We. port to fill his bunkers with coal in time to experience the earthqnat From there he went to Maks-., where he took on a cargo of pheiphates and returned to Adelaide; theon to some small ports in Japan mi down to Calcutta; then Rangoon; aii after that Durban, where lie was -j take on a consignment of wild aninix" for the zoo at Buenos Ayres. HoveTe other arrangements had been maoHe was sent to ports on the Sent American coast, from there to NortelU.S.A,, and then to Cuba, where t took on a consignment of 7,300 tons ; sugar for Auckland.

His next port of call will be Sydn:and then ... he just shakes his hei: and hopes for a good voyage. Captain Salvesen became master i his vessel after being first mate fconly two months. While crossing thAtlantic the captain of the ship drci ped dead and Captain Salveseu too; command. a position he has sine maintained.

UNCHARTED PORTS In his early days, as master o[; tramp steamer, he has made senstrange voyages. He tells of quee: uncharted ports at the mouths tr. rivers in the Gulf of Darien, on the north coast of South America. Here he loaded giant cedarwood at mahogany for trading firms in ti United States. One firm for whit he carried timber had a contract for making 25,000.000 cigar boxes a yer On two occasions he was the irr. man to take a ship into -these incharted ports, and had to send a smtii boat ahead to take soundings. Ofter the ports consisted of a few huts ana clearings in the tropic forest. One of Captain Salvesen’s mor dangerous voyages was when he toot a cargo of timber from the Baltic Set to England. Much of the timber v«piled on the decks. Heavy rain soake. it through and the extra reetgi: caused the timber to slip. The boa heeled over until the doors of the cabins were almost touching tfc' water. However, he e'eadfastly refused to cut the timber adrift and sv. cessfully got his ship across tte North Sea to England. Captain Salvesen married an Er." lish girl and received the news be fore he left Cuba that she had give: birth to a daughter. Usually Mu Salvesen accompanies her husband o: his voyages, living on the ship viti him. She loves the sea and the rot ing life, and will probably rejoin he husband in Sydney if the baby if strong enough to undertake the voyage from England.