Capt. Cambridge

Will Bring "Tahitienne" Home

From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga, Jan. 31.

(>APTAIN D. Cambridge, owner and J master of the ketch “Taipi,” left Rarotonga on the January “Maui Pomare” on a nautical “busman’s holi day.” He is to be in charge of a second attempt to sail the schooner “Tahitienne” back to the South Seas.

As already reported in the “PIM,” the “Tahitienne” has been purchased by Mr.

D. C. Brown, of Rarotonga, and refitted for trading in the Islands.

The schooner first set sail from Auck land, bound for Rarotonga, on October 30 last year. She carried an amateur crew which included Dr. T. R. A. Davis, the newly-appointed medical officer for Raro tonga, who shipped as mate.

Shortly after leaving Auckland rudder trouble developed and the vessel put back to Kawau for repairs.

Leaving again with a fair wind on November 3, good progress was made as far as the Kermadecs where calms were encountered. The new diesel engine was started, but it was found that the tail shaft was too light for the engine and was giving trouble. It was decided to put about and return to New Zealand where they arrived on November 14, having covered about 1,000 miles.

The “Tahitienne” is a handsome schooner of 94 tons, with a length of 102 feet, beam 20 feet, and draught of 10 ft. 6 in. She was built at Los Angeles in 1923 as a private yacht, but the owner died before the vessel was completed, and she was purchased by S. R. Maxwell & Co., who fitted her as a trading schooner.

She traded in the Eastern Pacific for a number of years.

Diminishing trade caused the schooner to be laid up in Papeete, and from that port she was later taken to Auckland, where she was purchased by Mr. A.

Donald who used her as a pleasure cruiser.

The “Tahitienne” has once more been overhauled and is now ready for sea again. In Auckland, Captain Cambridge will recruit a crew of experienced Cook Islands sailors for the voyage.

CAPTAIN Cambridge ahd his tubby little “Taipi” are real Cook Island “characters.” In his early days the imperturbable little skipper was in the NZ coastal trade. Later he sailed schooners to the Islands, and at one period was master of the mission ship “Southern Cross.” His first acquaintance with the Cook Islands was as captain of the “Tiare Taporo,” and he later sailed the “Tagua” to Suva.

In Suva he fulfilled a lifelong ambition by purchasing a small cutter that had been abandoned there by two yachtsmen after crossing the Pacific from America, and becoming an independent sea rover.

Stripping the hold for cargo space, he rigged the hull as a ketch, rechristened her with the romantic name of “Taipi,” and sailed her to Rarotonga. From there, with a crew of three Palmerston Is landers, he has traded among the Cook Islands throughout the war years, set ting out with flour, sugar, meat, soap and other essential supplies, retm* ig with salted fish, mats, hats, curie iruit and anything that the Islands have to offer.

Sometimes when the wind is kind the “Taipi” makes a fast passage; but other times she drifts for weeks waiting for a favourable slant to bring her home. But no matter how long or hard the passage,

the old man of the sea always turns up smiling—and makes preparations to be off again.

During the hurricane season the “Taipi” is laid up in Ngatangiia harbour, and, unable to live a conventional life after his sea-gypsying, Captain Cam bridge then plays at Robinson Crusoe. In Muri lagoon there are four picturesque islets; three of them are simply formed of banks of coral debris, but the fourth, Taa Koka, is a rugged pile of black vol canic rocks intermingled with patches of congealed larva and studded with fire baked stones. It looks as though the mass was thrown from a fiery furnace but recently. But with its coconut palms and other trees the pile presents a romantic picture and because they think it was flung from the top of a neighbouring mountain, the natives have enhanced the “motu” with colourful legends.

Captain Cambridge rents Taa Koka and makes his summer residence there. A white sand path ascends from the little beach to a tiny bird-cage hou£e with reed walls and coconut-frond thatch built on a stone “marae” or platform. The whole set-up looks like a little pagan temple.

Here, with a dog and a cat for com panions, a small outrigger canoe for fish ing and communication with the “main land,” the captain lives a contented Crusoe life—truly “monarch of all he surveys ”