Skipper of Bible Schooner

The captain of the schooner MorningStar VI is home from sea after two years of travel and adventure in the South and Central Pacific. His name is Price Lewis Jr. 42, but his story has the flavor and restless spirit of Dartmouth's famed John Ledyard who set out in a bark canoe on the Connecticut River to see the world back in the 1770's.

When he heard that the American Board of Foreign Missions of the Congregational Church needed a captain for the "missionary" ship they were sending to the Micronesian Islands, Lewis was a naval officer waiting for his release. He quickly applied, and when the sixth in a fleet of schooners financed by the Congregational and other Christian Churches sailed from New Bedford on July 27, 1947, the Holland Patent, N. Y., mariner was at the helm. Eight Dartmouth students were part of his crew as far as Pearl Harbor.

Although they carried a cargo of Bibles, the expedition was primarily planned to provide a ship for carrying missionaries and supplies among the many islands of the Gilbert and Marshall chains. Down to Puerto Rico, through the Panama Canal, the 62-foot ship struggled through the rough waters of the Pacific to Hawaii. A former navigator of the U.S.S. Spangler, "Doc" Lewis piloted the ship without actual sailing experience.

In February, Morning Star VI docked at the naval base at Kwajalein and took aboard skilled Micronesian and Hawaiian sailors. Then to the Carolines and the home port of the boat, the Island of Kusaie, which which soon became the captain's favorite

From here he sailed out among the Marshalls, Carolines and other parts of Micronesian Islands that spread over five million square miles of Pacific Ocean. His cargo was always missionary passengers going about their work among the highly religious natives who had welcomed their first Morning Star in 1856.

Like John Ledyard, Lewis has considerable respect for the Pacific islanders. Largely of Polynesian blood, the Micronesian peoples are intelligent, industrious and have adapted many western ways. After liberation from the Japanese, the islands came under the U. S. Navy who introduced a new form of government. Instead of a strong protest against the removal of King John, chief of the Marshalls, the Micronesian solution to this was to send their King to school and ordain him a minister.

The old chief and sub-chief rulers for each island have been replaced by "Magistrates," who are elected in a democratic fashion. There is an abundance of fruit, excellent fishing, and a short working day.

Some day Lewis may return to his favorite Island of Kusaie to form a trading partnership with an American who is the only white resident. Or he may ship off to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, lured by the memory of their beauty from his stop there on the MorningStar journey. "The world's last frontier," these islands call to the pioneer who would build his house from trees in the jungle. Galapagos or Kusaie, if there's adventure waiting .... Price Lewis will find it.