When Sailors Ran

Away

Tahiti's Memories of Bad Old Days

By A. C. Rowland

WAR in the Pacific has deprived Papeete of one of its principal sporting events —the man-hunt after runaway sailors.

In peacetime, the sailor ruled the sea.

Some years ago laws were passed in the United States to ameliorate what was undoubtedly the hard lot of the sailor.

This was followed by other laws, in USA and other countries, which progressively stripped the owners of all authority over their ships and demoted the captain of a vessel to the status of a robot calcu lator of the ship’s course and—if the steamer carried passengers—a male host ess to entertain and direct the deck sports.

Under such conditions, the task of a ship’s agent at a place like Papeete has always been a strenuous labour of Her cules.

The shipping laws required a ship to sail with a full complement of officers and men. If a ship sailed from Papeete without all of its sailors the owners be came liable to a fine, while the agent at Papeete was compelled to feed and lodge the runaway sailor and send him to the home port, whence he came, at the expense of the company. This gave sailors wide-open opportunities to delay the ship and have one or two extra nights ashore—if one or two of them could elude capture before sailing time.

It was, therefore, necessary for the agent to round up all the crew and get the ship away on scheduled time. In this task he had the enthusiastic support of the Papeete police.

Sailors on regular liners never were able to hold up the sailing of their ships more than an hour or so. Our police, knowing every fox-hole, warren, den and by-way, had only to make the rounds, fish them out and drag them, shouting and cursing, to the ship's gangway.

They sometimes retaliated by hurling lumps of coal and other missiles at the police as the ship moved away from the wharf. All this was exciting, but futile.

The runaways had been mopped up and the ship had been despatched at appro ximately her schedule hour.

It was the “Beulah,” of blessed mem ory, and others of her class, that turned agents’ hair grey, caused Consuls to gnash their teeth, and kept our “hounds of the law” in full cry. In addition to

discovering unorthodox hide-outs, the

engineering staff of the “Beulah” became learned in the art of producing mechani cal breakdowns which, curiously enough, a PP no other port than Papeete. discipline of war has changed all that. The captain of a ship is again the master of his craft. The jolly tar has turned into a grim warrior. To gether they face dangers more terrible than the Cyclops, Syclla, Charybdis of ancient saga.

And the ships get through.

The marriage of Lois, daughter of Mr. and Baxendaie, of Norfolk Island, to Mr Thomas Hamilton Low, of the Department of the Interior, was cele brated recently at St. Basils Church, Artarmon, Sydney. Fifty guests were entertained at the home of Captain and Mrs. F. E. Page. The couple will make their home in Queensland,