Perth, W.A.

N.G. Airman’s Dash to Perth, W.A.

FOR two days at the end of March, the B.P. liner Neptuna en route to Sydney from New Guinea, was hove to in the open sea off North Queensland while cyclones lashed her in the worst battering northern shipping has ever experienced.

Those two days’ delay meant a race against the clock for Mr. E. J. Stephens, who operates an air line on the N.G. gold fields. Radio messages to the ship from Major N. Brierley, of Western Australia, had emphasised the urgency of Mr.

Stephens being in Perth before March 30.

When the Neptuna entered Sydney Har bour on March 27, the Vacuum Oil Co.’s speed boat raced alongside to take off Mr.

Stephens to catch a Melbourne-bound ’plane. As the launch steadied to the Neptuna’s 10 knots, the helmsman shouted to the airman to jump, but he clung with one hand to the ship and with the other to the launch. Tugged in opposite direc tions, he had a narrow escape from being thrown into the rough water, as a wave drenched him.

The launch sped across to Watson’s Bay where a fast car was waiting. It was 7.50 a.m. —10 minutes before the ’plane left. At Mascot, Holyman’s air liner had its engines running and the pilots were aboard. It was exactly 8, and the 'plane was about to take off, when Mr.

Stephens, still wet from his harbour bath, scrambled aboard.

In Victoria he caught the express from Melbourne to Adelaide, and then took a ’plane across South and Western Austra lia to Perth, arriving late on Sunday, March 29. In little more than a week Mr.

Stephens had covered 7,000 miles.