10
T
HE cargo boat Tre- vesan, Cornish by name, Cornish by
home port-St. Ives-lay on the other side of the world.
She was
ten days out of
Fremantle, Western Aus-
tralia, bound for Antwerp,
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MONDAY,
APRIL 12, 1937.
THE TREVESSA EPIC
Retold by
Guy Ramsey
crossing that desolate reach |=|=|=|=||jo|if|
of the Indian Ocean where there is no land for 3,000 miles: from the western coast of Australasia to the Mauritius group.
kenturm.
Sho had been over-akin of the ship, weighed her down. hauled recently at a cost of £36,000,, Her action was laboured and slow.
ord his cargo of zinc concentrates, mast-head At Port Pric, where he had taken Darkness fell and the lights of the wavered and tossed, whose weight compared with water describing fantastic patterns against was heavy and whose consistency the slate of the Aky was that of half-set cement, minor
Viiso
Through the shifting ranges of the repairs had been carried out. A sen Lowered one peak, set like couple of rivets were "weeping Everest among the quiet hills of letting water through. They had Wales. Sheer black sides like On the bridge stood her master, been patched up with cement that Everest's fee; form topped making his first trip in command of was fully set, her, Captain Cecil Foster, a man of 36, who had held his certificate since 1010 when he was 23; an old em- ployee of the Hala
Steamship
Company, Ltd., controlled by the
P. & O. He had been First 'meer
Everest's
snow;
Algantic, liko Everest's bulk. Everest is mught enough with, awe, but moving, Everest, an Everest rushing at you' In the
darkness with n speed apparent only by the mountain's come growth, nn Everest turned to a
he blessed his now
The wind
ND
care.
thresh of
of the Trevose during the war, End ravening from the south-enst: the fum, perpendicular height
the prevailing
down
her torpedoed under him, been steady pleked up by the Union Cantle Trudes, risen suddenly to ale force into horizontal
er Alnwick Castle, which in turn The about him as though some headlong at
water. oily and
and menacing drive, and striking
But the war was over. His ship, of 5,004 tons, was a good ship. She behaved well in any weather, for all naturalised Briton: she was only a she had been the German Im- Inden In No. 1 Hold, close to the
by
the
wall that
on.
had been torpedoed, and had drifted heave
turning metal for 1 weary days in an open bont kraken were twisting and until he landed, weary, exhausted, in death agony below. Higher ran alone protects you!
the Spanish the waves and higher. The oily but not broken, on
The ship, struck erests began to sprout caps of fonmi. coast.
the rushing The sleek texture of the Indian Ocean thinned beneath the lash of the wind, waterhill, stagger
The Trevessa rode it, but the
ed, shook, shivered soggy mass of her
went £76,000 cargo, and
But her prow rode lower, her stern higher in the sea. Her two port boats were carried away. Across the screaming of the gale, deep, omin- ous, came a boom; low in timbre, fer- rifying in quality,
OUR BRITISH CROSSWORDS
1120
ACROSS
no
1. When poets complain of being this, it's as poets, and not us householders, I'll bet a ha'penny, This bell has no clapper.
9. Gentleman of colour not ad-
mitted to our circle..
11 Answer this!
.12 It was a great Victoria joke to Bay that two of these made a flower.
13 River that causes movement In
our little street.
.7
14 No Hun loses his head in this
sort of thing
17 Fished after tea and got all tied
up in consequence,
10 Arm of the sca.
20 Perfect darlings.
21 Merely an incident."
23 "What hides the helps?" said
24 smart repartee, herself.
26 One of the metals in brass.
29 Polar zene (hyphen 3-4). 30 The Bower that has a rosente alternative (two words, 3, 4).
'31 His isle is Mono's, also.
32 Motion read and amended with-
out heat.
2 Skittle.
DOWN
3 Smooth enough to be put in the
sty for a large number.
4 Blue already and might turn
quite sour.
5 Prescribed portion.
0 More likely to be appreciated
by Brown minor than by the car-driver (two words, 4, 3).
7 Saddle-bags? (two words, 6, 8).
120
114
6. Italian truism I take to make an
ethical theory,
10 A flying member of the Institute.
15 Lax-not locks, though it might
bc.
16 Prairie
in South America, homely-in-the. United States. Commented at length, yet scant, Indeed.
18
20 For some reason or another, this is always high when people go away in it.
22 Great river of great service to
croosword mongers.
25 Where Gaston siceps when
lighted up.
27 Ray
28 Hus tea? Have, really, nowa-
days.
Saturday's Solution, SUPERSEDING CAP UNGDRE RAB HOE MTMIC 87EMITAMB #THBAND LEARNS PEPLUMAGE ARGEO A GUE EI SCREEN NEMA SE AND HENRI DUPLEX G-PENCIL
EFERONIMP=R-ON I MORION.A-M÷ADIT
OWANE ACTUANDEY NATADE HT HE 1D BEMI UNEVEN UBERENARN" B-
MK EMBELLISHES
SWEDISH EAST ASIATIC
M.S. "SHANTUNG”
M.S. "CANTON”
CaLtoy
1st May 28th May
HONGKONG to ANTWERP
£54
(Excollont accommodation - still offering for a limited
number of passengers.)
Agcats:
GILMAN & CO. LTD..
Hongkong.
E. KUYGEN,
Canton
the sound
sound of water,
THREE
IN
The Trevessa's boat which was railed across 2,100 miles of ocean in 25 days.
that the gusts of rain that sent drops on to their unshaven, stubbly cheeks and jowls might trickle down Into the cans they slung below their throats. They left their socks lying by their aldes, to squeeze a few rain down their parched
s strove to lower the sall and by the time me they had washed the salt from the
Jeton, Water in it; but
canva
Their
canvas tho shower had
and stopped. foot, unsocked, dabbled in the at the bottom of the boat, The salt scorched them, · The salt caked on their checks and burned like fire. Their strength ebbed with every passing hour. They could not esu- mate how near they were, how far they were.
WEEKS AN
OPEN BOAT
but pent like a r, not rushing free,
WOS
(15
a padding beast grow-
ing angrily for its prey. The boom broken by a slipping, a grating: if woodwork were allont and scraping against the ship.
The keen ear of the officer on the
watch caught the sound. Soundings were taken. There was water in No. I hold and it could not get away. That shattering impact had torn a hole in the plates, forcing metal from metal, rending nsunder the metal rivets that held them together.
And the water could not be forced through the cargo into the bilge where the pumps could get at it I remained, locked in the for'ard hold, ever adding to the weight of
the cargo the weight of a constantly
being the story of the origin of the bi-annual Trevessa Trophy event for ships' life-boats, held in Hongkong, The trophy was won last week by the Indo China Steam Navigation Com- pany's Mausang, whose two lifeboats gained first and second places.
increasing bulk of water forcing was not the time to wait.
upwards, Another wireless
the
Wha
ON the other bont their
rations were two table- spoonfuls of water and half a biscuit per man per day. Once, trying to lower the sail to catch water, ono man fell overboard. He sunk like a plummet before the boat could even be turned round.. Once a pilot. fish. awam at the bows, a shark at the stern of the boat: sure sign of death by seaman's superstition. The omen was fulfilled; one man died of ex- Hosure that night.
u
Smith pored over the "Epitome
boat was one-third of Navigation" which he had snatch- ed up from his cabin when he went of a cigarette tin
to get his coat. By seaman's trad!- of water per motion, knives were stuck in the mast per day; one lidful
to avaid disaster. Their feet, blla- of a un of con- tered, their faces seared, their bodies densed milk twice wasted, they yet held on: raising a a day
one biscuit per day. As the raising a cheer, hearing the First the song to echo over the trackless waste, stores of cigarettes
dwindled and the Officer spy: "In a month you'll bo tins emptied, each telling this story and getting beer
was given his for the telling."
man
"mug" to be pass- Men died: of exposure, of strain, ed up to the Cap- of losing all control and swilling tain to be given brine to allay for an instant the his ration.
agonising thirst that ravaged their throats to burn with a more For the first five furious heat the instant the actual days the biscuits wetness had gone and only the salt could not be caten: remained. they were
they
hard;
were
Two men in Foster's boat: eight that in Smith's. The crews shifted them And no one was going to waste single mouthful of nectar to wash over the side us the officers read the down biscult, and get it absorbed in burial service. They wavered from the cloying maes of flour. That was their, course, ran too far north, too to be rolled on the tongue as Lucul- for south, fought their way back lus never rolled his choicest Fates through dirty nights and days so nlan; to be savoured na.no epicure calm that their only progress was by
to-day lingers over a thimbleful of oar on June 20, a cracked voice
Napoleon Brandy.
The compass-a spirit compass in Foster's bont shouted "An'.... was of no use: the boat moved to
to 'An'!"
port or starboard, her nose waver- No need to be an interpreter: that ing from side to side like the head croak was "LAND!" The sharp- of a drunkard, too quickly. Ono eyed man was given the promised day, a seaman, mad with the thirst reward: one tin of water. They beat that devoured him, smashed it and towards the land from noon until drained the bubble of alcohol-burn- dusit. The coast was fringed with
contained.
but the providence that had
Ing spirit that scared his throat sustained them did not desert them:
THE
11
boat, quarantined for plague, lay Gretry, off the coast. Constable "aboard"une"Secunder, saw them, ROVE
the alarm.
A the captain ordered out They left none too soon, axia sady pulse of the wind; Creole she man, wn boat feebly the boats and Issued life-belts. The minutes after they had swung down with and defeating-uie steady sailors possess; that sixth, or, seventh that had covered 2,100 miles in 25
"old you see once.
of
on the
the bows down, down until they. The Trevcan broadcast the 5 OS. sent "Afraid further search useless. threatened to lead the ship to the It reached Western Australia and Not much hope at finding Trevessa's
compass was no loss; bottom,
was relayed to Britain. The nows- boats. Gale blowing."
Boats put out, piloted them ashore, papers carried a tiny paragraph Another short paragraph appeared
Foster ahead and Smith on the island of Rodriguez: 1,700 ship chronicling the news. The two star in the London newspapers. There behind steered by the stars as the old miles from the place where the board boats left and hove-to under was a flurry of excitement at Lloyds, mariners steered; by the sun-he had find foundered; covered in 23 days.
Two days later, on June T 1 am. on June 4, 1923, sea-anchors to wait for daylight. There was a clutch of terror at the a sextant by the drift of the sea
slow certainty of death warring above all, by that instinct that true beating its way to Mauritius: a boat discipline was not the iron discipline into the boiling sea, the Trevessa
days: Smith's boat. Once ashore, all sense that guides them aright. compulsion but the resilient steet dipped her nose once more into the hope of life. -And
save one: Cool strove to discipline of perfect confidence and sea, rallied,
They made chutes of cardboard bands recovered regain her
their chins Allchin died on the strand. perfect co-operation. At 2.15 in the balance, tottered, and plunged. Bounty"? Have you read the story and slung them under morning, that icy hour when the The Trevean, the Tregenna, the of the immortal Bligh, the stern, spirit of man
is at its lowest ebb, Moreton Bay steamed over the track ruthless, sadistic, Captain Foster gave the order of sea within the next few days, who was yet so consummale a sea-
chip." Abandon for-a-rescue: the They found fragments of wreckage, man that he brought his company, SOS had gone out earlier in the tragedy-an upturned boat Inbelled no trace of his evil
qualities night, Hiving the position 28.45 S.S.
Trevessa. They found nothing throughout that nightmare journey? South, 85.42 East. It had been re more.
Did
think such epics belonged ceived by the Runic, hundreds of For two days the Trevean zig- to the past, to the days of sali, lo a miles away; by two other ships then zagged about the empty, heaving justier age 7 You were wrong. unknown, later found to be other sea, patrolling, looking, searching Here was no Bligh, tormenting his ships of the same company. The the surface, scanning the horizon for crew, plifering their pay, ordering in Tregenna was 350 miles away and the boats. They saw the illimitable a cold, quarter-deck voice hideous could make but @ knots: the Trevcan waste of water, the tossing, flying penalties to gratify his own sense was 272 miles to the South. There spray, and a boat floating Reel- importance and his own passion for
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Tol. 30291,
you
demon skipper
cruelty. But here was a seaman, two scamen possessed of all his abilities and none of his faults: Cecli Foster and his first officer, Charles James Stewart Smith.
They had loaded the boats, `pro- visioned the boats, launched the bonts: three tasks on such
B
night to tax the most expert.
Now, to sall the boats. No hope of rescue on that deserted vastness of sca And to make land-well, 1,200 miles to the East, in the teeth of the gale,
lay Austraila; 1,750 miles to the west, lny Mauritius and
Rodriguez. Between boats and those. two land masses, one so huge, one so small It seemed impossible to hit
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Forty-four men: seventeen the Captain; the balance with the Arst officer; two open boats; and the sca. The war was on.
ALL night the boats lay-to
together. All next day they lay-to, not daring to move; ball- ing, waiting, waiting, balling. At five in the afternoon they rigged a sail. At six a gust of wind carried It by the board. A tow-line run from Smith's boat to Fosters. They ploughed their slow way westward for an hour, two hours. At ten the British
tow-line was carried away by the ravening sea. Again they lay-to for
a council was
the night,
hehe
following
day
Yes, they would keep toge- The Captain's boat was the faster and led the way, then hove to to permit the other craft to catch up. When the strain of waiting grew too intense, the Captain's boot solte
sailed in circles round the Chief Omeer's.
council was held. It was decided that the boats must part: the Captain's to
make its best speed for Land and send help to the slower heavier-laden craft, As Foster holat- ed another improvised sail, the crew In the other boat raised three cheers, The boats, now rowed, now drift
At or was it eternity?-ones
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