Penrbyn
p. 78 · Read in the full issue
On the Road to Penrbyn
By J.P.S.
CAPTAIN ANDY poured himself another generous tot of Johnny Walker and eased his sturdy form back on the cushions behind the cabin table.
“Belay there on the whisky, Mike,” he growled. “That rum’ll take care of an uncultured palate like yours, m’boy!
“Where were we. Coincidences, was it? Now, listen! Here really is an honest-to-gawd case that shows facts are surely stranger than fiction.”
Captain Andy squinted up through the skylight at the easy curve of the Tiare’s mainsail, and resumed.
“When I was 15 I shipped out in the Boston barquentine John Grant Jnr., Pensacola, for Melbourne.
Down in the South Atlantic Trades we overhauled an English barque and sailed in company with her, maybe two cable-lengths apart, the skippers exchanging news.
“Next day, still in company and the wind falling very light, the English skipper invited our Old Man over for dinner. He accepted, “Now here’s the coincidence, so help-me. Our ship’s company in cluded an English boy who had been away from home for several years —and he was allowed to help man the dingy to row the Old Man across.
And, whadd’yaknow, when they pulled alongside the English barque there was this boy’s own brother looking over the rail. And that’s the TRUTH” said Andy, with a heavy pound of the saloon table which finished up with his hand in a stra tegic position in relation to the whisky bottle.
“And that’s not all. This is ab solute gospel. We were still be calmed or in very light airs next day —just drifting together, kinda—so our Old Man invited the English man aboard. That’s just by the way.
We got a breeze that night and separated. They squared away for the nor’ard and we laid a course for the Cape.
“But, here’s the point—she was bound home for Newcastle-upon- Tyne from Adelaide. Two weeks after we arrived at Melbourne she was wrecked on the English coast with the loss of all lives—except our English boy’s brother!
“But, hold it, this yarn’s not clewed up yet. No, sir! Years later
I met that same survivor in an Alabama pub. He’d been in two more wrecks—and now they wouldn’t sign him in an English ship. Said he was a Jonah. Well, whadd’yaknow!
“Mike, lay off that stuff! That’s got to see me to Penrhyn and back, son. Yes, sir! I’ll say he was a Jonah alright. We’ll, here’s to this breeze holding steady, gents!”
Mr. R. B. Carpenter, vice-chair man of Messrs. W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., of Sydney, and Mr. Jack Bailey, general manager of Southern Pacific Insurance Co., Ltd., made an official visit to Fiji in October.
The crushing mills established in Suva by the Fiji branch of the Car penter organisation now handle a large proportion of the Colony’s copra output.
In Suva...
Shortly after Fiji’s new Governor (Sir Ronald Garvey) arrived in Suva in early October, the Fijians welcomed him in traditional manner with Kava drinking and other ceremonial. Ratu George Cakobau is shown here presenting a Tabua or whale’s tooth to the Governor. —Public Relations Office Photo.
—Photo by Hettig.
In Tonga . . .
The new Wesleyan Church at Nukualofa, Tonga, which was opened by Queen Salote on September 27. The opening was followed by a week of feasting and dancing. The Church is probably the largest in the South Pacific Islands and has been several years building. Cost was subscribed by the Tongans. There were numerous Aus tralian and New Zealand visitors at the opening. The Rev. H. G. Secomb, an ex-President- General of the Methodist Church, preached the first sermon.