THE SHIP CRUSADER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1922, Page 17

THE SHIP CRUSADER.

HER 65-DAY PASSAGE. NOT MADE ON OUTWARD VOYAGE. A MISTAKE CLEARED UP. (■By HENRY BRETT.) XIII. In dealing in a previous article with j the famous ship Crusader, of tiie r-jha-v, !>a\-ill nnd Albion licet, i credited her, on ; tho authority of Basil Lubbock in Ms | book "Colonial Clipper**," with having Ulone the passage from London to Port .', Aialmers in 65 days, which he described us "a performance that has never been . ; equalled." He put the year at 1878, and iurther paid that on the trip Home the 'year befnre she went from Lyttelton to 1 the Lizard in 69 days. His statement I about the fast passage from London to ■ | Tort Chalmers is incorrect. According '■ Lo inquiries, which were made for mc in . i Dunedin and Port Chalmers, the Crusader was not in the 'port in the year j mentioned. She was there in March, . |IS7">. but did not visit that port again iiint.il after 1881, and the Harbour Board ' j officials say thai "if Basil Lubbock be correct the ship must merely have sig- ' j nailed oil' the Taiaroa Heads on her way , ! to some other port." I can, however, ■show that even this hypothesis is unten- . I able. Further inquiries ll had made in , ; Christchurch show that in 1878 the Crusader arrived at Lyttelton on , | October 11, after a passage" of 91 days. . -or 82 from land to land. The key to the puzzle has been sup- ,! plied by Mr. E. F. "Warren, of Remuera, ; Auckland, who writes a most interesting account of a 65-day passage the , ■ Crusader made from Lyttelton to I.onjldon. It should be explained that a pas- , sage Home from New Zealand was a •very different tiling from a passage to ] I New Zealand from the Old Country, af ,! owing to the nature of the trade winds ! the Homeward passages were generally : J done in much faster time than the out- , ; ward trips. It is most probable that ■ ' this 63-day voyage is the one that has I'misled Mr. Lubbock, who, however, is . not alone in his error, for several old 1 salts in New Zealand have been of the I same opinion as to the Crusader's . ; alleged record between London and Port , Chalmers. I AN OCEAN RAGE. " Mr. Warren writes: "So far as my - memory serves mc it waa in 1877 that '- the Crusader, the Avalanche and the ' Ocean Mail had a memorable ocean race 1 Home. The Crusader went Home in 65 • days, and the Avalanche in 78 days. 5 These three clipper ships left their re- • spective ports on or about the same f date, the Avalanche and Ocean Mail t from Wellington on the same day, and -. the Crusader from Lyttelton. The Avalanche (Shaw. Savili) was in charge of i Captain Williams, a very popular and '■> able commander, and the Ocean Mail ' (New Zealand Shipping Company) in 7 command of Captain Roberts. As the " Vvalanche and Ocean Mail proceeded I down the- 'Wellington Harbour a heavy - "southerly buster" sprang up, and the • Avalanche anchored off Worser Ray- ' The Ocean Mail put back and anchored ' off Soatnes Island. The following morn- : ing with a fair wind both ships sailed ' away. The Avalanche on this occasion carried about one hundred passengers. ' I Both shjps were becalmed for a day off 1 the Chatham Islands, and Captain ■ Roberts paid a visit to the Avalanche, i A large number of fine albatrosses were 1 sailing about the ships, and several were • shot for their skins, which were pre--1 scnted to some ladies on the Avalanche ' The sailors predicted bad luck from killing these birds, and strange to relate, 1 Captain Roberts' boat was stove in , against our ship's side, and he had to i be conveyed back in one of the boats ■ belonging to tlie Avalanche. A breeze ' cominn- up we parted company that s evening and never sighted the Ocean - Mail again, but when our pilot came i aboard in the English Channel we were - informed that the Ocean Mail had gone • ashore and was totally wreoked at the • Chathams. When rounding Cape Horn • and in sight of land we sighted a full - rigged ship, sailing much closer to the ' Cape and rapidly overhauled her. To our ' surprise it was the Crusader. By evenf ing we had left her hull down astern, i "The following day our course was ! altered a point or so to the south, and ' some hours later we were taken aback in <■ a heavy squall. Our wheel wa s smashed ' and many of our sails blown to ribbone. I Heavy weather and head winds held U3 up for 14 days, and but for this unfortunate mishap we should probably have had a neck-and-netflc race to the Channel. "When the pilot boarded our ship he informed us that the Crusader - had passed up the Channel 13 days - ahead of us. The Avalanche arrived ! on the 2nd of June, 1877, making the ! passage in 78 days. ;! "On her return trip to Wellington dur- , ing September she was in collision with the barque Forest of Windsor, going down the Channel, and over 100 persons were drowned, inc'uding more than sixty pa-sengers from the Avalanche. "Captain Williams was on command and was drowned. Three of the crew were saved by clambering on to the Forest of Windsor. The latter ship also sank, but had time to launch several i Ivint'S. and the whole of the crew were • landed safely." OTHER FAST TRIPS. , The Crusader on "another occasion, J when in command of Captain Scotland, ! made tire voyage from Wellington , j to the English Channel in 64 days, 1 though no single day's run exceeded \\ -'iOO miles. It was remarkable that , I on this voyage the ship never oncu A had the wind on the port side from the : time she cleared New Zealand w.t.i a westerly wind until her arrival home. CONSISTENT SAILING. Tlie Crusader r.riulet: mostly io Lytt-'l-ton. The record of her trips in the 70's to this port is :— April 1, 1572. 09 days out. January 5, 1873, 81 'dais (74 land to land). Febn<*iry Ist, 1874, 90 days from London. Decmber 30, 1874, 96 days from Plymouth. > February 8, 1876, 99 days from Ply- ■ mouth. January 13, 1877, 87 days from ('raves -.nil 'Sit I iv :r>7ii land i !-*n.". October 12, 1577, 83 days (74 land to land). October 11, 1878, 91 days (62 days land to land). September 24, 1879, 92 days from the Downs (So from the Chann?l). October 7, 18S0, 95 days from Gravesend. On the first three trips mentioned above the Crusader was in cjmniand of Captain Sulm' I'-nd. ;i lie in-xl > wu ill command of Captain Renaut, and in 1576 Captain Renaut remained behind in England to take command of tb* new ship Hennoiae, his place on the

Crusader being filled by Captain Lyttellyn Davies, who was .n command from the end of 1870 until 1880. The above dates are copied from the files of the Lyttelton "Times" and may te accepted as rel-iable. The foregoing fact* prove conclusively that Captain Renaut was not in charge of the Crusader during 1877, and that the vessel did not make a record run from London to Port Chalmers or any other port in the Domitiion in 65 days. The Crusader -visited Auckland in ISSt, in command of Captain Scotland ; on this occasion she occupied 103 days on the voyage from Gravesend. She made another voyage to Auckland during the following year (1885) arriving here on May 25, after a fast passage of 85 days from London. She arrived a third time in the Waitemata on September 4, 18S7. This time in command of Captain Perrin, the run from London occupying 99 days, and again in 1888, still in command of Captain Perrin, she dropped anchor in harbour on August 25. after another fast run of 84 days. Mr. Basil Lubbock states that in 1877 the Crusader, under Captain Renaut, made the run from Lyttelton to the Lizard in 69 days. I have no means of verifying this, but it is no doubt correct. CAPTAIN REXAUT'S EXPERIENCE. Captain C. H. Renaut, who was in command of the Crusader from 1874 to 1870, was the second of a name that has been intimately connected with the shipping history of the Dominion. There has been a Captain Renaut trading to Xew Zealand ever since the year 1848. when the first Captain Renaut, Captain William Henry Renaut. was master of the ship Blundell, the first vessel that entered inwards at the Port Chalmers Customhouse. He was the father of the Captain Renaut of the Crusader, and grandfather of Captain C. M. Renaut, now of the Auckland shipping office (marine department). Captain C. M. Renaut tells a good story of an incident in his father's career in the old Crusader. It happened on the voyage from England to Lyttelton. After leaving the Azores the ship

began to leak, and she was making as much as two and a half inches an hour, so the skipper was sorely tempted to put into one of the ports on the South American coast towards which ships used to kee.p in order to pick up the trade winds, but the ship's doctor (the late Dr. Guthrie, of Christchurch) advised against this, as yellow fever was rife in the South American ports at