John Pratt Sails

Again

Memories of the Lost "Vagus"

Rarotonga, Sept. 2.

AFTER a long spell in an office chair, Mr. John Pratt, the English yachts man, is trying the feel of a moving deck beneath his feet once again. He left Rarotonga at the end of August as a passenger on the schooner “Tiare Taporo,” on an extended visit to the northern Cook Islands.

John Pratt sailed from England some time before the war in the 40 ft. “Vagus.”

Crossing the Atlantic, he wandered through the isles of the Caribbean, even tually reaching Panama, where he fitted out for the South Seas cruise. Lone handed, he made a non-stop 90 days’ passage-from Panama to Rarotonga.

His arrival here shortly after the Pearl Harbour attack caused quite a sensation.

His little ship was the first “foreign” vessel to be sighted after the outbreak of the Pacific war, and it appeared to be suspected that he might be a second von Luckner on the prowl. Accompanied by the local pilot, the defence force manned the harbour launch fully armed, and put to sea, prepared to fight it out.

The mild-mannered yachtsman was somewhat astounded at his reception, and assured the grim-looking reception party that he was not a lone raider. He was then ordered by the pilot to heave-to, and receive that gentleman aboard for pilotage into port. But the “Vagus” had been sailing for so long, with all canvas set, that the gear was jammed, and it was not possible to reduce sail at that time; so Pratt sailed right on. and brought up neatly in the little reef har bour—greatly to the annoyance of the pilot. Later, the lone-sailor was required to pay the pilot’s fee. and reminded that “you can’t do that there ’ere” in Raro tonga.

It was generally agreed that the “Vagus” was the finest little ship ever seen in these waters. She was a double ended of the Colin Archer North Sea type. For many years John Pratt had spent all his earnings, and all his spare time, in putting onto and into her all the best that money could buy in the way of rigging, fittings and cruising instruments and equipment.

AFTER a short stay in Rarotonga, Pratt sailed to Palmerston atoll to pick up his former English friend and shipmate, Ronald Powell. After sail ing adventures in small ships on many seas, Powell had settled on Palmerston with the populous Marsters family, mar ried a girl of the island, and was direct ing the Islanders in an export fishing industry. (He now has a small business in Rarotonga, turning his talent as a master craftsman in wood to the making of works of art in native timbers and pearl-shell.) The two then set forth on a cruise through the northern Cook Islands. The first call was at Suvarrow; but the evil spirit of the “haunted atoll” was wait ing to strike down this fine little ship that had carried her owner safely across thousands of miles of deep water.

They had barely time to make the ship as secure as possible before a terrific hur ricane swept the low-lying atoll, and Pratt and Powell, together with the other occu pants of the island at that time (com prising the American author, Robert Dean Frisbie, and his four children, and a Government official and several native assistants) narrowly escaped with their lives, in a long ordeal, lashed in the branches of the few strong trees left standing on sea-swept Anchorage Islet.

When, at last, it was over, John Pratt's dream-ship was no more.

AFTER sharing a further ordeal with the other castaways, literally scratching for a living in the sand of the devastated atoll, the two adven turers were rescued by a small sailing vessel, which returned Powell to Pal merston and brought Pratt to Rarotonga.

Pratt found employment on the staff of the Cook Islands Administration, and has completed three years’ service. Now he has straightened his six-foot-three from his office chair, and set sail northwards, once again, with the jovial Captain Andy Thomson.

He plans to live for a number of months on Manihiki atoll. One of his greatest disappointments was the loss of

his manuscripts and a large collection of photographs and negatives. During his sojourn in Manihikl he will re-write the story of his voyage, and of the Suvarrow hurricane—the latter having already been told in somewhat fictional form by R. D. Frisbie.

Mr. Pratt, who formerly was a com mercial artist for a well-known firm of engineering publishers, has taken artist’s materials with him, and will do sketches of atoll life and memory sketches of his voyage. His plans are not known; but it may be guessed that his thoughts are with another little dream-ship to continue his ocean wanderings.

Miss Dorothy Copland has returned to NZ after spending three months with her uncle, Mr. H. C. Collins, of Niue Island,