ROMANCE OF A LINER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 336, 11 March 1910, Page 5

ROMANCE OF A LINER.

VoVAG THE AMAZON. Ulysses in an his wanderings never had a more fantastical journey than iad the ante oi the little Booth liner Napo, which arrived in New York rectmtly, after a journey of 4200 miles up and down the Amazon river. Robert Koskell iti the mate's name, and as he sat iu his cabin on the Napo he gave olio reporter.' the impression that he know what he was talking about. Homer told of strange scenes on Calypso's island, but l.'e never recorded such things us Idue-iaceil monkeys jumping through rings of entwined serpents, such as were seen by Mr. Roskell as the Napo steamed slowly through the narrow, muddy, and continually shifting channels of the Amazon. The mate explained that one must take the "Odyssey" as well as certain more recent tales with a grain of salt, and a large grain at that, but his Bar r.itive, he said, could be verified without artificial horizon, sextant, or stellar observations, if one would only endure the mosquitoes of the Amazon and follow the course of the Napo.

There were about fifteen hundred tons of rubber to be had cheap up afc Iquitos, Peru, if a ship chose to go up for it, and the Napo took the contract. This little Peruvian town is about 2100 miles westward across Brazil trom Para, and not much more than 475 miles from the waters of the Pacific. If theTe had been the slightest chance in the world of getting the Napo across the Andes mountains the mate thought Captain Barnett would have "tackled" it, and shown the world that the Panama C'lnnl was an extravagance. The taking of a steamer inland across the widest part of South America was no easy task, but it paid well. The rubher cargo would make it worth while, an t also t"i?re were some wealthy merchants and traders on the eastern slopes of the Andes who wanted to got down to civilisation on the east coast, of Brazil. PASSENGER RATES HIGH. When a steamer sails once every five or six months from Iquitos to Para there are plenty of persons willing to pay hiy'.i toll for passage. Passenger* •and rubber, then, repaid the owners ci the Napo tor the journey through hissing serpejits, chattering birds and monkeys, .drifting islands, and enormous alligators. The little freighter, whose Amazonian .passengers always sleep on deck in hammocks had her own troubles on the way up to Iquitos. She left Para on 12th Otober, and arrived at Manaos on the 17th ; where she stopped for two days, and finally got to her inland destination ou 4th November. The rubber waS put aboard in six days, and she sailed foi; the Atlantic, with twenty-six passengers, m 10th November. According to Mr. Roskell, it was one great trip—something that must be endured to be appreciated. Mosquitoes as large as spiders, armed with saws that could out through wire screening, made life miserable at night. Little mosquitoes that could work their way through the finest meshes joined in the nightly reoast upon everyone aboard. The Napo anchored every night in a temperature of about 112 degrees Fall., and as the passengers drowsed for the mosquitoes' feast fieree armies of monkeys attached flocks of birds in the jungle a 'tew yards away. Occasionally a turtle with a four-foot beam wonld bump up against the steel plates of the Napo and disturb the watch. At daylight an island that had been direeth ahead the night before had disappeared. The passengers thought the ship had turned around, but Jose Noronha and Antonio Zanetti, the native f.ilot? from Para, with their repeated "No. senors." assured them that this covld not be. PASSED FLOATING ISLANDS.

Occasionally, a small island, rieli in vegetation and populnM with marooned "monk?." wuli' drift past through the sluggish wal v . All \v«nt well with the Napa on the run up the ;rivor until 7 a.m. on 31st Octobev, v,Vn h<hc rammed liev bow into a sand bar and stuck fast. .Tose Xoronlm. the Por-tuguese-Brazilian-Malavsian pilot taken on at Para was responsible, and the skipper was a nary. Captain Barnett had the entire chart of tjie Ama/on in forty sections in tin-wheel-house. Tt had been -irepared with peat care by the Brazilian Government and the British Board of Trade, but '•Yo. senor, that map she no mean nothing" to Senor Pilot Xoronha and Senor Pilot Zanetti. When he cleared Para with (hose two wise river navigators, Captain Barnett brought out his charts. The pilots looked at them and then laughed. They explained that they were no {rood, as the river channel had neither lights nor buoys. The two dusky men on the Napo's bridge did well without, them, however, as they were able to piek their way by instinct. • When the little 'freighter ground the skipper reversed his screw, and soon found fhat he was held in the bank aft as well as forward. An examination showed that the rudder was bent 70 degrees from the quadrant, and it took twelve hours to rig a jury steering gear. This was done r ov pressing the hedge anchor into service, attaching it to tho rudder-post and using it for a tiller. The mate said that everyone on hoard lived well while they were on the Amazon. Turtle and fowl meat obtained bv the aid of rifle and net were plentiful, and occasionally some good fruit was gleaned from the jungle.