The British Ship Adoption Society

The "Clan Stewart's" Voyage 9, the beginning of which on 31st October from Birkenhead was reported in the last issue of "The Peterite", finished in Britain on 9th February, when she docked at Avonmouth.

The outward passage, with the usual mixed cargo of British exports, was to Dakar (for oil), Lobito, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Port Louis in Mauritius. This passage was uneventful except for a severe westerly gale the first two days out, making it necessary to reduce speed and alter course to reduce the very heavy rolling.

A few tons of tea and tobacco were loaded at Mauritius, and then the ship called at two small ports in Madagascar—unusual places for a ship of this type, and ones which none of our adopted ships had visited before. Capt. Graham's account of these places is given below. Loading continued at Beira, Lourenco, Marques, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town, and then, with a call at Dakar for bunkers, the ship returned home. An interesting event on this passage was an encounter with a sand-storm, an account of which is given below.

The homeward cargo was typical of our imports from the Rhodesias and S. Africa : casks of wine, cartons of canned goods, bags of wattle extract, slabs of copper, bales of gunnies; maize meal, asbestos, ferro-manganese, chrome ore, vermiculite and monozite ore —the last under all sorts of restrictions and regulations as a previous shipment had proved radio-active. There were also less familiar items—bags of hominy chop, seaweed, shell grit. The cargo loaded at Madagascar was mainly beans and cotton seed.

We are much indebted to Capt. Graham for a detailed account of the voyage, a chart, echometer readings, drawings of various ports, brochures, specimens and a cargo stowage plan. These have made an interesting exhibit in the Geography Room.

The statistics for Voyage 9 are : Total time on voyage : 119 days 7 hours 2 minutes. Total time in port : 70 days 0 hours 16 minutes. Passage time : 49 days 6 hours 46 minutes. Passage distance : 18,386 miles. Average speed : 16.06 knots. TULEAR AND MOROMBE IN MADAGASCAR. "Tulear is a well-protected port and has a small jetty. Although strong winds can blow, the reefs break down the seas, so that one usually finds it choppy instead of rough. The cargo, usually butter beans, is loaded into lighters which are towed out to the ship, but I was asked to go alongside to expedite loading. The jetty is 200 feet long and on our side we had 25 feet of water. On the other side it was completely dry at low water—rather disconcerting. It is necessary

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