The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953)(about) |
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Sunday 3 September 1950
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Halfway Round The
World In
16-Ton "Dream" Boat
From Our Staff Correspondent
LONDON Sept. 2.-The Boleh, 16 tons, a craft which is a cross between a Chinese junk and an Arab dhow, reached Salcombe Harbour, Devon, yesterday after sailing 12,000 miles from Singapore. Malaya shipping men had laughed at her and said she would not
last an hour in bad weather.
"Boleh" is Malay for
"can do".
The Boleh, 38ft long, rode out half a dozen storms during her 194 days at sea.
Her master is Commander Robin Kilroy, R.N., who de-
signed her.
Kilroy, who was boom de- fence officer in Singapore at
the end of the war, decided to build his "dream ship" and sail to his home town of Salcombe. He persuaded three other Royal Navy men to get long leave and join him.
He enlisted a Chinese cook, Chang Hai-kun.
Four Malay workmen built the vessel in a Singapore ship- yard in 16 months. It cost
£3,000.
TINS AND TUNNY
"For weeks we saw nothing but sea, sky, waves, and stars, but we were never bored,"
said the electrician and odd jobs man, Lieutenant-Com- mander J. S. Rusher.
The crew played chess, worked out more than 1,000 crossword puzzles, and kept in touch with news by radio.
They ate 38 different kinds of tinned meat, and Chan« Hai-kun discovered seven ways of cooking tunny.