Through Hurricanes

And Heavy Seas

Adventures of 70-years-old Sailor

From Our Own Correspondent.

Apia, Jan. 17.

TWO years ago two old sailors, in whom the memories of the sea and the love of adventure still pulsed strongly, made up their minds to abandon the hustle of an American city and roam again in search of the colourful and romantic life of the South Sea Islands.

In the 22ft. yawl “Chance,” Captain John Dow, over 70 years old, but still hale and hearty, with his friend Captain John H. Meyers, left New York to sail via the Panama Canal to the Pacific.

The two old adventurers got all the adventures they had longed for. They went through two hurricanes and only by hanging on with their last strength managed to reach Panama. But the glamour of sailing the world in a tiny nutshell had paled considerably to old Captain Meyers. He decided that a month’s experience in the “Chance” was good enough for him, and that he would take his chance on firm soil. So he left the boat at Panama.

Captain Dow, however, was not dis couraged. Unabashed, he set sail from

Panama into the wide Pacific, and so far, in spite of many dangerous adventures, has been fortunate. Leisurely he roamed about, reaching the Galapagos Islands and the Marquesas in the course of his sailings, breaking his voyage wherever it pleased him, staying with newly acquired friends on the hospitable shores of strange islands. The trip from the Mar quesas down to Pago Pago, American Samoa, proved to be very nearly the end of his career. He reached Pago Pago at last, the “Chance” leaking about 25 gal lons an hour, and with only a few bis cuits and very little water left.

He rested a while at Pago Pago, re pairing his boat and gathering strength to continue his trip. On November 12, he reached his next destination, tiny Swain’s Island (or Gente Hermosa) a few hundred miles north of the Samoan Islands. The island, American territory, belongs to Mr. Eli Jennings, and is planted in coconuts. Only Mr. Jennings and another European, with a crowd of native labourers, reside on the island, where the lonely voyager intends to re main for a year or so, before setting out for the Philippine Islands.

Output from the New Guinea goldfields in November amounted to 21,033 ounces, worth £136,401 in Australian currency.