Magazine Section
pp. 85-86 · Read in the full issue
Pacific Islands Monthly
The Coral Sea rooster and other (unlikely) stories...
Old hand LANCE WILKINSON, in Milne Bay, does some remembering.
We’re sitting down, firmly anchored in the lee of Nuatutu Plantation on Goodenough Island, waiting impatiently for wind, sea and rain to abate. It’s been rough weather now for 10 days and we’re feeding 16 recruits. They have already eaten the profit away, and are now eating their way well into the loss. We are completely out of grog, so that even with the rain our hides are cracking.
is nothing else for us to • do but sit and yarn. So we sit d think about the old times and men in small ships who were in )rse predicaments than us. We rn about 'HE BLOKE who had just come through the Hornbill Passage on st Cape. He was a bit rattly when landed, and had to hold his glass both hands. He wasn’t suffering )m a hangover, though what is causing the trouble was that he’d it missed a watery grave and his rves were a little on edge.
He’d been in the thick of it in i Passage. Waves were 20 ft high. 5t as he was congratulating him f on having two engines and having come through without a atch a real beauty of a wave Re along. The bow of his boat >e to the occasion and the wheel Re off in his hand. The key fell wn, and only the quick substitu n of a screwdriver saved him m destruction.
He still managed to spill quite a lot of his double rums for hours after he landed Four landlubbers who left Misima for Samarai in a 32 ft launch with four dozen of beer for breakfast didn’t have a navigator, so they had to navigate themselves.
Just on daylight, after a gruelling all-night run, they heard a rooster crow. This threw the amateur navi gators out they weren’t supposed to be near land. They altered course.
A little later the rooster crowed again, and again the navigators altered course.
That darn rooster was worrying them. They decided that it must be on a reef in the area and they kept a wary look-out, and reduced speed.
They kept up this vigilance until one of the men, who had gone to the stern, heard the rooster crow immed iately beneath him. And there it was lashed to the bottom of a dinghy!
It was a good job that the men had a little humour left, otherwise the crewman who had souvenired the
rooster at Misima might have gone to his watery grave. . . .
THE LUGGER skipper who sailed into Sewa Bay one night after a hard trip from Mambare way had just about had it, and so had his crew. The order to drop anchor was obeyed with alacrity. Sewa Bay is one of the best anchorages in Papua. It is almost landlocked, with an entrance a mere 200 yards wide. Ten fathoms of chain was let go in three fathoms of water.
After the traditional one under the yardarm, the skipper and his crew took to their cots and slept the sleep of the just.
When the skipper woke next morn ing he couldn]t see land. He thought at first that his eyes must be deceiv ing him, or that Whitton Bros.’ rum had finally caught up with him, but his crewmen confirmed that there was no land in sight.
After a lot of blasphemy it was discovered that the anchor was firmly caught in the bobstay with the anchor chain trailing to no purpose
Samarai, focal point of Milne Bay, and guardian of the China Straits. On August 1, district headquarters was moved from Samarai to Alotau.
in the water. But for native goss: this story may never have been r ported. ...
THEN there were the four blob who left Woodlark Island f( Samarai. This was a long time ag They took with them a plentiful su; ply of victuals from Gus Nelsor pub.
Towards midnight, when slumb was beginning to overtake high spiri and revelry, a terrific jolt was fe on the troll line. While hauling it ; —and wondering what sort of mo: ster was on the end of it the noticed that one of their numb was missing. Naturally, he turne out to be the oversize fish tl hook was firmly embedded in h calf.
After getting him aboard, pumpii him out and administering a powe ful dose of Gus Nelson’s anaethetic a little rough surgery was perform* —with a sheath knife. The victt suffered no serious after effects, e: cept that he never took another drit at sea. . , .
A WELL - KNOWN prospech chartered a launch from Bun Philp in Moresby to take some su] plies to Vilirupa, about 60 miles u in Marshall Lagoon. As it was long weekend, he took with hii three friends, intending to retui within three days.
To lighten the charter fee, Bun Philp gave him some cargo to drc on the way.
Shortly after clearing Basilisk Pa sage, it was discovered (by a moi observant passenger) that what m supposed to be a keg of cement fc a mission station was, in fact, a fivi gallon keg of BP OP rum. (Th was a particularly powerful bre and was often broken down wit plonk to make it drinkable.) Of course the launch didn’t mak it to Vilirupa, or anywhere else i the Marshall Lagoon. It made i way (giddily) out to sea. As far £ the people in Moresby were coi cerned it was lost.
Burns Philp was in the process c claiming insurance when the launc steamed back into Moresby o what locals described as a deliriui tremens course. BP was so glad t see the vessel that it forget to charg the man ...
That’s how that yarn goes, anywa]