Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Pamir and Passat - the end of an era . . .

The PASSAT shipped a number of her crew members at Port Victoria, among whom were Mr. Rodger and a friend of his from Adelaide. The crew were mainly young Australians who had signed on for the adventure of the trip, but there were also a few Finns and Germans. The captain and mate were both Finns, for at this time the ship was under the Erikson House-Flag, with Marieham in the Aland Islands as her home port.

The PAMIR was also under the Erikson flag; she had only just been handed back for she was interned in New Zealand during the War and indeed had made one voyage to London under the New Zealand flag. PASSAT spent the War under the Finnish flag. She was built in 1911 by Blohm and Voss of Hamburg with a gross tonnage of 3,137. Her name means 'Trade Wind'. The slightly different PAMIR was built in 1905 also by Blohm and Voss.

Mr. Rodger and his fellow Australians settled down pretty quickly to the routine of sailing ship life. The ship pursued an easterly course for the Horn. Although the PASSAT left Port Victoria four days after the PAMIR, owing to docker troubles, the PASSAT sighted and overhauled her rival when the PASSAT was 25 days out.

Rounding the Horn was achieved without much-difficulty, indeed the crew were lucky enough to see Cape Horn, a rare occurrence for sailing ship men. Once round the Horn the PASSAT caught the South East Trades and made excellent progress towards the Equator, managing to avoid the dangerous pamperos or hurricane force squalls which blew up off the Argentine Coast. Over the Line the traditional ceremonies were observed and the PASSAT was caught in the calms of that region, even going backwards one day.

Eventually the North East Trades were found and the PASSAT bowled along in fine style for Europe. Her Captain had intended to make for Falmouth, but it was found expedient to alter course for Queenstown in Ireland, or Cobh as it is now called. Mr. Rodger found Queenstown very welcome after 110 days at sea.

From Queenstown the PASSAT was ordered to Penarth to discharge her grain. Although the captain was offered a tow across the Irish Sea, he decided to sail across, which took eight days, because of adverse winds. A 'Picture Post' photographer shipped at Queenstown for the Irish Sea passage and took some excellent pictures which Mr. Rodger displayed to the Society.