MIXED SAILORMEN

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 142, 18 July 1929, Page 10

MIXED SAILORMEN

Special to Telegraph.

.CREW OF TRAMP STEAMER. FLOATING TOWER OF BABEL

AUCKLAND, This day. As a floating lower of Babel, the 6teamer King 0 ruffydd,' which arrived at Auckland last week from Antwerp, is oue of tho best examples tho port has ever seen for a liiotley crew. In the ship'g compaoy of 36 'aro reprcsenlatives of tliirteen nationalities. Brazilians, Poi tuguese, Jamacians, Esthonians, Russians, Swedes, Belgians, Germans, Greeks, Spaniards, Turks, Seotch and Engiish aro found in that raixed company. In Antwerp, where tho crew wero signed on, sailor.s gather form all parts of the' world, and tho capacity to speak fluent Engiish is not regarded as an important qualification for those seeking a place. When all arrived on board at tho end of April, just before the steamer's departnr© for Auckland, "it was fo.und that half the national types of Europo were represented. Oldest of all wa-s a Swede of 75, wlio went to sea in sailing sliips back in the early eiglities, and knew evei-y port woi'th mention in anv part of the world. Rangitoto and the sparkling Waitemata were farailiar sights to this h&rdened salt in the war years, and, although he had been away frorn her sir.e© 1919, he recognised nian.v of tho o'.d landmarks when he had liis first lcok at the city yesterday morning. Tlie merry-faced eook is a Belgian "'hose grey hair suggests a long oxperience of th© sea. He was a galley boy 25 years ago, and had been a- chief ccok on steamers of tho Red Star Line. in Antwerp, his home ;town, wa« his n'ife and fainily— threo • hright-eyed hoys and a flaxeu-haired daughter of (ive. He had worked for the Red Cross in Belgiiun and France dnring the war. nnd had been a cook on a captnred Gerjnan vessel that was used as a military and nayal hospital at Antwerp. Thero he cooked for 500 wounded. "I'd lik© to stay at home, sure," he said, with the slightest Araeriean accent, which _ suggested he had been a freqnent visitor to the Rtates; hut he added that positioric ashore were difficult to^ get. The Winter had been a Lying tirne, and he eonsidered himself fortunate in heing out of work for only tl-ree weeks when he was enrolled for the King Gruffydd. His assistant was a galley hoy of 19, adio had been brought un' near Jerusalem and was the 6on of a successfnl Palestine Jew. FOUGHT IN AUSTRIA. A sailor who had fought in Austna during the war ancl is a native of South Russia, was husily painting on oue of those stages they liang over the side of a ship in port. Heavily huilt, and with a dark curling moustache he did not appear to be the usual sailor type. It was only at the end of the war that he went to sea, he said in broken Engiish. Working on tbe same plank was an Esthonian from Reval, the eapital of a Baltio State that obtained its independence as. a resnlt of the war. Six centunes of subiection to German and Russion rule had not suppressed his individuality, and h© .rejoiced that his Iitt]e country had at last gained an offieial language. "Everyorte different country. We know uothing," said this man when asked if he had' stmck np an acquaintance with other members of the crew. A fellow eountryman of his had been on submarines in the Baltic during the war, and had since lost. .contact with his native land. Surprisinglv few of th© crew are married. A South Russian who went to sea wben he was nine, and had been a sailor for 22 y.ears said New York had been his home port for "a while, but he had been out of work at Ant-. werp _ for tbree montbs , before commoncing tbis voyage/ and' was blissfully 'indi$ferent about tbe future. It was nineteen years sinco be left Rnssia and he had no relatives or friends to draw him back. A Brazilian in tbe stoke-hold of tbe .King Gruffydd seemed out of bis element. He was a born worsbipper of nature, revelling iu glorious soenery, fine hai-bours, roaring waterfalls, and primeval ' forests. Lusty pioneers had converted- bis bomeland infco a great plantation, noted' uot only for its coffee but also for its yield of sugar, cotton, maize, tobacco and fruit. A kindness of rnann&r that had not been lost through his contaet with the world, amused. Then there ar© th© Turk. a good worker lik© th© rest, the Portuguese and a Spahiard, roen below the stature of the sailor s. The pic-k as regarcls physical type_ seem to b© the Esths and Russians. Lif© has been a struggle for them and memories of the war that dragged Europe down are a part of their lives. . Engiish is inclisputably tho universal language on hoard. All seem to speak it -a littl© and to understand what is said. Anv deficiencies are helped out hy gestieulation. Conversation is, under the circumstances, .somewhat restrieted, and th© fo'c'sle is a plac© of comparative quiet. To tbe average sailor tbe impression wouhl be one of pleasing harmony.

"They liaven't given me a minute.'s trqubl© tbe whole voyage," said tlie ebief engineer of the firemen. Not a fight or a quarrel had come under bis no-tice.^ and he liad noticed no fluetuat'ion in tbe steam on tbe boilers. ARhough six nationalities were responsibl© for tbe stoking bo could mako no distinction as to which did best. Tb© King Gruffydd. whde on tbe New Zealand coast, will received cabled instructions from London, as to her future movements, and the crew view with satisfaction th© possihility of tramping the seas for several months before their return home.