Two French warships which visited Sydneyfrom <strong>Jan</strong>uary 4-8 perpetuate the names<strong>of</strong> French patriots.The vessels were the helicopter-carrierJEANNE D'ARC (pictured), and the destroyerVICTOR SCHOELCHER.JEANNE D'ARC. 12,000 tons displacement,complement 790, and commanded byCaptain A. J. Postec, is the first helicoptercarrier in the French <strong>Navy</strong>. She was commissionedin 1963.JANUARY-FEBRUARY. <strong>1965</strong>FRENCH VISITORSThe VICTOR SCHOELCHER, displacement2,000 tons, commissioned in 1960, isunder the command <strong>of</strong> Captain de Bigaultde Cazanove. The ships left Brest on November5 on a training cruise which willend on <strong>Apr</strong>il 8. Embarked in the ships were138 midshipmen. While in <strong>Australia</strong> theships exercised with the R.A.N.As JEANNE D'ARC berthed some <strong>of</strong>her helicopters flew under Sydney HarbourBridge.
South Africa's Merchant <strong>Navy</strong>About 12,000 to 10,000 B.C.,when Africa was joined to Europeby land bridges across theStraits <strong>of</strong> Gibraltar and throughItaly, Sicily and Malta, therewere great migrations on foot <strong>of</strong>people across these land bridges.To these were added furthertravellers in a later age, both bysea and land to form the complexadmixture <strong>of</strong> peoples whoAnally made up the combinations<strong>of</strong> Bantus, Hamites, Semites, Sudanitesand others speaking morethan 1,000 languages on the AlricanContinent.Ships had been made by theSumerians about 7,000 B.C. andthe first pictorial representation<strong>of</strong> a ship dates from 3,900 B.C.The Phoenecians by 2,000B.C. were already becoming agreat maritime power and grewin strength till in 840 B.C., when>wmv»o»*ooo»o»o*o+»o*vo»****»*ENJOYSHELLEY'SPASSIONFRU1TCarthage, which is Tunis today,had at its zenith a population <strong>of</strong>1,000,000 persons. Herodotus in430 B.C. tells <strong>of</strong> a commissiongiven by the Egyptian Necho toPhoenecian traders about 604B.C. to circumnavigate Africaand that the voyage was completedafter three adventurousyears. A great deal <strong>of</strong> the movementthen, by sea and overlandin North Africa was in quest <strong>of</strong>gold.Before the Christian era, whenNorth Africa was in the hands <strong>of</strong>the Romans. Arabian ships passingdown the Red Sea are saidto have reached as far south asMadagascar. By 25 B.C. the RedSea route to the East was madesafe by Augustus and in 47 A.D.systematic trade with the East bysea was made possible.DELITEHistory tells <strong>of</strong> these adven>»»»»#•»»» >yA REFRESHING NEW SOFT DRINKMADE FROM FRESHSUN-RIPENED PASSIONFRUITJturous souls who took to the seacenturies ago and in the mostimpossible vessels. It is extraordinarythat in those earliertimes so-called ships survived a*all or that people continued tosail in them.History <strong>of</strong> NavigationThe history <strong>of</strong> navigation is, infact, a story <strong>of</strong> martyrdom whichrelates over the years how mandefied the unpropitious gods andsuffered the punishments towhich they were condemned intorture chambers they calledships. Perhaps they were firstcalled vessels from that time becausethe dictionary defines theword "vessel" as a hollow receptacle,and that is about all theywere.This may sound quite contraryto the usual concept <strong>of</strong> Jolly JackTar and a glorious life on theA SAILING SHIP WHICH FOR MANY CENTURIES PROVIDED MAN WITH HIS MAINMEANS OF TRANSPORTATION ACROSSTHE WATERTHE NAVYbounding main, but neverthelessit is true. From the beginning <strong>of</strong>time, man has traversed waterfor one reason or another, on alog, a raft, a coracle, caravel,galleon, junk, kayak and sampan,right up to the present ship,which largely has developed tothis stage from sail to steam, inour own living memories.In those others a sailor's lifewas hell on earth, or, rather, onthe water, because he was subjectedto unending misery anddanger as well as gruelling pain,hunger and thirst. There just hadto be a certain degree <strong>of</strong> heavyindulgence on land in foreigncountries to allow him to bringback those tales <strong>of</strong> wild orgies,women and drink. He probablyembellished his stories becausehe would not have been believedif he said he had sailed voluntarilyin such trying circumstances.It was Samuel Johnson whosaid in 1759: "No man will be asailor who has contrivanceenough to get himself into jail;for being in a ship is being injail, with the chance <strong>of</strong> beingdrowned. A man in jail has moreroom, better food and commonlybetter company."Who can explain why oneman calmly decides from thecomfort <strong>of</strong> an armchair at hometo volunteer an attempt at the icywastes <strong>of</strong> Mount Everest and anotherto face the dangers <strong>of</strong> sailingthe high seas in all weathersin a boat we would call a fishingsmack today?Since the turn <strong>of</strong> this century,there has been a greater advancein ships, speed and the comfortsand security provided for sailorsthan there was in the previousthousand years. It is an interestingthought that the greaser andable-bodied seaman <strong>of</strong> today hasbetter food, greater comforts andis infinitely safer at sea than theEmperors and Kings bound forthe East in the days <strong>of</strong> the Cru-JANUAKY -FEBRUARY. <strong>1965</strong>saders because those wealthy andcolourful gentlemen had none.Yet, there would seem to bedangers at sea today, too. It is amatter <strong>of</strong> statistics that an astonishingnumber <strong>of</strong> ships are sunkat sea every year, proving perhapsthat there still is considerabledanger, even if materialcomfort has been improved.Most <strong>of</strong> them are wrecked, butothers founder, bum, collide orare missing.Slow to StartShipping in South Africa froma national point <strong>of</strong> view wasslow to start and for most <strong>of</strong> thetime since the Cape was firstsettled over 300 years ago thiscountry's shipping needs havebeen served almost exclusivelyby the ships <strong>of</strong> overseas companies.Towards the end <strong>of</strong> last centurythere was quite a prosperouscoastwise shipping industrymainly owned in South Africaand this position still obtains today.Indeed, the fleet is growingand is <strong>of</strong> great importance to thiscountry's coastal trade.There was never any worthwhileattempt to provide transoceantrading ships under SouthAfrican ownership. Sea sense hasbeen strangely lacking in a peopledescended from the maritimeraces nf Britain, Holland, Franceand Germany but this possiblyis because South Africa is acountry <strong>of</strong> great distances inlandand has only a few ports widelyscattered round the 2,000 miles<strong>of</strong> coast. Also the distance <strong>of</strong>South Africa from internationalfields <strong>of</strong> battle and the fact thatour shores until recently wereprotected by the British <strong>Navy</strong>,also affected the position.However, since the SecondWorld War Simonstown revertedto South Africa's care and a tidylittle navy <strong>of</strong> our own is beingbuilt up.Another factor to hinder localenthusiasm may have been thelarge number <strong>of</strong> ships afloat andin competition with each other.Last November for instance, 275ships <strong>of</strong> just over 1,750,000 tonsgross were laid up through lack<strong>of</strong> employment. This, however,represents only 1 per cent, <strong>of</strong>the total world fleet. Also at thattime, just six months ago, therewere under construction at theshipyards <strong>of</strong> the world, no fewerthan 1,363 ships <strong>of</strong> all kinds,totalling 9,173,034 tons gross,thus adding roughly 5 per cent,to the fleet. Japan, by the way,seems to have won the crown forlargest total tonnage being builtwith just over 1,600,000 tons tobuild, against Britain's secondplace with 1,400,000 tons.SafmarineSeveral commercial shippingcompanies were formed in thepost-war boom but only twohave survived, namely, Safmarine,the most important, andS.A. Lines Ltd., which is underGerman control, although registeredin Cape Town. Thestraightforward history <strong>of</strong> Safmarineis by now probably wellknown but if I may be excusedsome repetition, I will tell yousome <strong>of</strong> the things about thecompany not perhaps so widelyknown.Safmarine was formed in 1946and active operations with threesecondhand victory ships CONSTANTS, MORGENSTER andVERGELEGEN, were startedabout a year later.It is an interesting thoughtthat these ships cost just over£1,000,000 for the trio, comparedwith a cost <strong>of</strong> about£1,500,000 to replace each one<strong>of</strong> them today.Safmarine's share capital thenwas £800,000 owned 40 percent by American interests and60 per cent, by South African investors.The first board <strong>of</strong> directorswas <strong>of</strong> a scintillating character,including Dr. H. J. vander Bijl as chairman, Sir Arthur.
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