Nowadays there seems to be no dearth in the number of adventurers to remote
parts of the earth. The latest ambitious project in the sailing line, says
an Australian paper, is a cruise round the world in a 3000-ton yacht named
the Westward. It is stated that the vessel, which is to be in command of her
owner, Commander C. H. Lightoller, who was second officer of the ill-fated
Titanic, is to leave Southampton this month on the cruise, taking eighty
passengers. The trip is for scientific research purposes. The Wesward is to
call at the West Indies, from which she is to proceed to the South Sea
Islands, via the Panama Canal. After touching at Malpelo, the Westward is to
make for the Galapagos and the Marquesas Islands. The first of these,
composed entirely of extinct volcanic cones, is probably the most weird
group of islands in the world. The Paumotu, or Low Archipelago, famous for
its pearling lagoons, is to be the next port of call, and then the Society
Islands. The Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Loyalty, and New Caledonia
will pass in and then the Society Islands. The vessel is then to thread her
way up the Great Barrier Beef to Thursday Island, the Gulf of Carpentaria,
and through the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, visiting Christmas
Island, Cocos, Keeling, Deigo Gracia, Egmont, and Male. A complete film of
the trip is to be taken. The Navy Department of the United States
Hydrographic Office, it is said, has provided Commander Lightoller with a
set of charts covering the tour, and has asked him to report on it. It is
expected that the trip will take approximately ten months.