YOU CAN'T CHEAT HEREDITY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 225, 15 October 1943, Page 6

YOU CAN'T CHEAT HEREDITY

* [% 1832, Edward John Eyre, aged 17, left London with £400 to try his fortunes in Australia, Thirtythree years later, he returned to England to answer a charge of undue severity in suppressing a rebellion in Jamaica, his accusers including John Stuart Mill, T. H. Huxley and Herbert Spencer, his defenders Ruskin, Tennyson and Carlyle. In the meantime, he had lett his name in two or three places on the map of Australia, and in at least one place on the map of New Zealand. He had missed the fortune, but had established a lasting reputation as a daring explorer and reckless Empire-builder, and when the charges egainst him had all been answered, Parliament paid the expenses he had incurred in defending himself, and gave him a life pension. That was in 1874. Sixty-eight years later (in 1942), John Eyre Baron (right) grand-nephew of that colourful figure, and as old as his grand-uncle was in 1832, lett New Zealand as a deck-hand on a merchant-ship bound for London, and

ran into the patch of trouble he describes in this letter to his father, Captain F. W. Baron, of Wellington. So it would appear that heredity is the divinity that shapes our ends. *

*¢N the last letter I gave you my experiences here, but lots. of things could not be told at that time-now, some months having passed, I can enlighten you. One afternoon about 3.30, being close in shore, the sirens suddenly blew and loud-speakers began roaring. Our wireless was switched on, and we listened. All the radio stations were on the air. ‘Open all windowsopen all doors-get off the streets, take shelter at once. Get all cars off the streets. This kept on repeating for 20 minutes.to half an hour-we accordingly took cover below decks. Then some halfdozen whistling tugs steamed past, rushed up to a large vessel, shackled on and pulled her out into the river, where she dropped her anchor about 200 yards from us, took the crews off-and then what a sight! I don’t want to see many more like it--flames hundreds of feet high from both ends of her, then two loud bangs, then no more ship. I think half of her must have dropped on us, as it took hours to clear the mess. Well, you can guess what had happened. In Convoy "Finally, we joined another convoy for U.K.-I can’t tell you how many ships, unless you allow one for every birthday you have seen-off we went, heading well north into fog, ice and snow. By the way, we never take our clothes off since the Canal, just in case. Well, two days out, heavy fog, ice and snow, rain and hail, all at once. Decks have about a foot of ice all over; hands cold, feet cold. We are employed with hammers splitting the ice so that we can walk about the ship. Then 3.10 o'clock one morning one loud crash, ship listed over heavily and rolled. I was shot out of my bunk and landed on decknothing left of my bunk and the bow plates all ripped off. Alarm bells went

all over’ the ship, but that was hardly necessary as anyone who could sleep through that is a marvel. "An astonishing thing about all this is the great coolness that prevails-one is apt to imagine all hands would be running about scared stiff and yelling, but nothing of the sort. These men are tough from the captain down. He was on the bridge giving orders as cool as a cucumber. No, time to dream here-the situation was grasped in a moment. Until a survey could be made, nobody knew exactly what had happened. What a joy it was: snowing, raining, hailing, all at one time-pitch dark and you could not see your hand in front of you. Still, nobody was worried. These men take it all in a day’s werk. Don’t moan, just a few swear words, and on with the job. If you stop on top, all right-if you go down, well, just the same. These officers and men are just wonderful. Of course, I being a new-comer, could not grasp all that was going on, but one man said: ‘Follow me, boy, and stick close to me-lI will see you through.’ Tough is no name for these fellows-they just don’t know what fear is. ; U-Boats Attack "Well, a survey was made, and as we were badly knocked about, the captain decided to return to America again. We duly arrived, and it took 14 days to repair us-day and night work, and being the middle of winter, it is cold. You have no idea what it is like-just gets you. In due course, we joined another convoy, which appeared to stretch all over the Atlantic. We were second ship in the second row. It is astonishing how these ships go at night when it is impossible to see one in front or behind or on your sides, and there is only 440 yards each way. Still, you plod on through snow and ice and heavy seas. It is really all astonishing how it is done, (Continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) but these captains and officers know their job backwards, or else you would soon get in an awful ss-all in a day’s work with these maéf. "Six-thirty a.m. A pack of U-boats, six of them, right ahead. All hands at guns; destroyers and frigates rushing round like fiends. Bang! a depth-charge -column of water about 100 to 150 feet high. It seemed to lift our ship out of the water. Depth-charges_ galore. Everyone tuned up, looking for the subs-gun-layers with hands on triggers, everyone holding shells, and looking out at the same time. There is no sentiment here for the U-boat-everybody is anxious to slaughter it at the first opportunity. We look astern; one ship has got it-up in flames, two explosions, disappears in about three minutes. A couple of frigates stand by her to save the crew. Everyone else goes on as if nothing had happened; no panic with these men, they have iron nerves. When danger is passed, we converge again, get into position, go merrily on. It was reported we got three of them. What a convoy this was-twice as big as the last one and only one Ship lost."