5-Tons Schooner

Around World In

Three Americans Cruising In Yacht “Cimba”

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, May 14.

THE tiny American schooner-yacht “Cimba” arrived in Papeete harbour recently, and after a few weeks in port left again in continuation of her adventurous voyage around the world.

The “Cimba,” of only 5-tons burden, is manned by three Americans, Messrs.

Richard Maury, Russell Dickenson, and George Taggart. She is the smallest vessel at present engaged on such an ambitious cruise.

During the greater part of two years

since leaving their home port, the three young men who pooled their resources for the cruise, have met with all the adventures they could desire. They are now hardened seamen imbued with a well rooted confidence in the ability of the “Cimba” to withstand any sort of weather they are likely to experience.

Twice —in the Atlantic —they were given up for lost, and the vessel turned completely over in a Gulf stream gale during the winter of 1933. While in this condition the overturned stove caused a fire, which, however, was successfully fought, and the schooner was righted again by a huge sea. Finally, she reached Bermuda, after running before the gale for 18 hours under bare poles.

After entering the Pacific, via the Panama Canal, the “Cimba” sailed for some time in the company of the French yacht “La Korrigane.” She called in at the Marquesas Islands, and made the voyage from Nukuhiva to Papeete in seven days. During her entire voyage the “Cimba” was hove to for over 170 hours, and outlived four other vessels. She was treated to a badly needed overhaul in Papeete.

The yacht, a staunch Nova Scotia built craft, is a miniature of the famous bank fisherman “Blue Nose,” and was designed and built by Vernon Langille, of Indian Point, Nova Scotia. She carries an anti-

quated one-cycle single-cylinder engine, which is used in emergencies.

When they left Papeete the voyagers intended to put in at the islands of the Leeward Group and then proceed to Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies, and thence across the Indian Ocean to the African coast. A stay of about a month will probably be made in Fiji.

The adventurers are writing a record of the voyage and their articles appear in each number of the American yachting publication “Rudder,” under the title of “The Saga of Cimba.”

Mrs. W. P. A. Lapthorne, of Belltunga, Toorak, South Australia, returned to Sydney by the Mariposa on May 20, after a holiday visit to America, Mrs. Lapthorne has spent a great deal of time on the New Guinea goldfields, her husband being one of the original directors of Guinea Gold, N.L., and Guinea Airways Ltd. It had been most interesting, she said, to watch the development of the goldfields and to see accomplished so many things which people had said it was impossible to do.

The “Cimba” undergoing repairs in Papeete Harbour