British Ship Adoption Society

The "Clan Stewart's" Voyage 16 had some unusual features, being a circumnavigation of Africa, with calls at Teneriffe and Barcelona, which none of the School's adopted ships has visited before.

The call at Teneriffe was in the hopes—vain hopes, as it turned out—of loading 1,000 tons of asphalt, but the ship took in oil bunkers there and so omitted the usual call at Dakar. Of Teneriffe, Capt. Graham writes : "The harbour is protected by a large breakwater which stretches in a N. to S. direction. We made fast at this breakwater. The ship is turned round in the harbour and always makes fast starboard side alongside. Oil and water are laid on at convenient places in each berth. There is unlimited fresh water. I was taken for a quick run round by our agent who took special pains to show me how the island is now catering for the tourist trade. Excellent hotels have now been built which cater for all pockets. There is a golf course, good fishing and swimming, and the winter sports enthusiast can get ski-ing in the season. From what I could make out, the melting snow seeps into the mountain-side and there are consequently large reservoirs of water. Galleries are tunnelled into the mountain to get the water, which is then pumped to various parts of the island. I was told there is no danger of water ever becoming scarce. From the sea, Teneriffe does look very bare, but what a wrong impression that is ! Small holdings could be seen everywhere and all the land looked very fertile."

The ports of call on this voyage, with arrival dates, were : Birkenhead (sailed 3rd Sept.), Teneriffe (8th Sept.), Cape Town (20th Sept.), Port Elizabeth (22nd Sept.), East London (26th Sept.), Durban (28th Sept.), Lourenco Marques, Beira (4th Oct.), Mtwara, Dar-es-Salaam (22nd Oct.), Tanga ( ' 28th Oct.), Mombasa (31st Oct.), Aden (11th Nov.), Port Said (17th Nov.), Barcelona, Newcastle (29th Nov.). Apart from a delay of 10 days at Beira, the voyage was remarkably fast. The homeward cargo consisted of a wide variety of goods : maize, maize meal, skins and hides (mainly for Barcelona), tea, coffee, sisal, oil cake, cedar timber and camphor timber.

Voyage 17, which was completed just before end of term, was also, as it happened, a circumnavigation of Africa. There were no less than 18 ports of call, and we hope to include some details in the next "Peterite".