ROUND THE WORLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 October 1938, Page 9

ROUND THE WORLD

ADVENTURES IN A SMALL KETCH. AMERICAN’S EXPERIENCE. A tale of rounding the xyorld in four years, instead of 80 days, was the latest Jules Verne adventure story to develop in New York when Dwight Long, whose home is on the Pacific Coast, sailed his 32-foot ketch Idle Hour, into the harbour of Baghdad-on-the-Hud-son which not so long ago welcomed that other, but far swifter, round-the-world voyager, Howard Hughes (says the “Christian Science Monitor”). Mr Long, who hoisted sail on his cruise in Seattle after leaving the University of Washington, . revealed that New York was the first Atlantic port he had touched on his 34,000-mile voyage. But while he may not have seen much of Atlantic ports, he has had plenty of adventure in Spain and the middle of the vast South Pacific, the scenes of his two most harrowing experiences. Arrested in Spain. Mr Long was arrested in Bilbao by Spanish Insurgents and charged *with plotting to assassinate General Francisco Franco. Apparently the word had gone out from England that some such plot was afoot and that the would-be assassins were proceeding to Spain in a small boat. After many hours of questioning, however, Mr Long finally convinced his captors that he had no designs against the leader of the Spanish rebellion. His experience in the Pacific occurred about 1200 miles off the coast of New Zealand, where a hurricane snapped the mast of his little vessel and ripped away the sails. He finally made Auckland, using blankets as make-shift sails. During two years of the Odyssey, Mr Long was accompanied by a Tahitian boy who helped with the navigating. From New York City he will finish his trip by cruising to the Pacific Coast.