Meandering With

Nautical Interludes Ii.:

The "Threesis"

By “Amel"

OUR neighbour, Matai Fong, is a very friendly, obliging little chap, and whenever his launch goes to Savu Savu he always inquires beforehand whether we would like to take a “tlip.”

Sometimes we do. That is how we came to be rolling home across the bay in Matai’s launch one sunny afternoon.

The engine chugged and wheezed, and occasionally stopped, but a brave wisp of a sail kept us on the move. We had not far to gOi and the afternoon was young.

But the sun was in our eyes, and there were reefs in the path. The tide was low, and Matai, who had paid a lengthy

visit to the Hot Springs Hotel, insisted on steering.

Not that he was drunk. Never have we seen Matai in that condition. Like most Chinese, he holds his liquor like a gentle man. But he was nicely wound up, and talkative. His mind was full of the war in his native land. Passionately, he spoke of the bitter battles that had been fought.

Eloquently, his hands gestured. . . . The fact that they should have been grasp ing the steering wheel meant nothing to Matai. The bow of the launch was aimed first at Wailevu and then at Kukulau, as if it were one of the big guns he was describing. One of the crew yelled “Bosso!” and Matai calmly re-adjusted the course.

“Tleesis all li’”, he murmured drowsily.

“Tleesis good boat.”

Tom remarked on the queer name.

“There’s quite a story attached to it,” I said. “Let me tell you. ...”

“H n CE there lived in Savu Savu a man named George Driver, with his wife and a family, which included three girls. He bought this launch and then tried to think of a suitable name for it.

Each of his daughters wanted her name to be given to the launch and George, a peace-loving man, did not see how he was to avoid jealousy and domestic dis cord. Then ... he had an inspiration.

He would not favour any one daughter.

He would give the launch a name that none of them could object to. So he did.

He called it the ‘Threesisters,’ which quickly became ‘Threesis.' “Several years later, George bought the ‘Rogovoka,’ and he and his wife perished with her when she was wrecked while travelling to Suva. But their daughters —the three sisters—had stayed at home, and were spared from such a tragic fate.”

Matai blinked, and said he could see the beacons near Dogo Dogo Island, and in half an hour we were home.