I defer to your expertise here haven't looked at these in eons, and don't remember either way, but it's possible that you and Fietsbob are looking at different hubs.

Here's a drawing of an old 333 hub (the ones I vaguely remember) and if you look closely, it seems that the 1st gear on the lever is the tight cable position as with SA of that era, so the hub is a default high, and you'd need to push the rod in as Fietsbob says to shift to low.