THE END OF A CLIPPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 17

THE END OF A CLIPPER.

SAMUEL PLIMSOLL DISMASTED ON NEW ZEALAND COAST. (By HENRY BRETT.) CVIII. - A ship that was)lucky in an unlucky incident was the Samuel Plimsoll, a famous craft in her day,' in- the Australian trade. "She met her end-in 1902 at the comparatively early age of .29 years for one of those stout-built iron, ships, but unlike.-many, good ships that went to the bottom, and were never heard of again,, the Samuel Plimsolls fate was.much less-tragic than it might have been. Built in 1873, the Samuel Plimsoll was-put into the Australian trade, running to Sydney and Melbourne. Her first passagfe to.Sydney was done in 68 days. Other good runs from Plymouth to Sydney were: .1874, .74 days; IS7G, 78 days;*lS77, 79 days; 18S0, 72 days. She made ; several. other passages to Sydney or Melbourne in from 73 days to 78 days. In 1883, on the passage to \ Sydney, she averaged 32S miles on thirteen consecutive days, and/" during one 24 Jiours covered 34S miles. One day in 1899, when the Samuel Plimsoll was lying at anchor in the Thames River, a lire broke out, and she had to.be scuttled. When raised she was Bold-and passed into the ownership of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Co., who ran her to New Zealand. She left Glasgow for Dunedin and Auckland on June 18, 1902,- in command of Captain Jaffray, and all went well until after she passed Nugget Point Light on September 17. She°then encountered a heavy southwest gale, which lasted several days, and when she was off Cape Saunders a heavy squall struck her. The lower main topsail carried away, then the maincap broke, and mizzen and main masts wont over the side with a • terrible crash. Singularly. enough no one was hurt, neither then* nor in the' exciting time the crew experienced before they cut the wreckage dear. The gale was blowing great guns, there was a tremendous sea running, and every moment the crew expected the ship to founder. She had been rolling so violently that something had to give, and no one was very much surprised when the main and mizzen went with a crash, within a few seconds of one another. In their fall they smashed the ship's four boats lashed on the boat-booms amidships, and carried away a lot of - the . bulwarks. Overside the great heavy iron masts and yards were banging the-old ship's plates with ponderous "thumps," and you would have thought that the next minute one of them would go plump through her sides, but after a terrible timer during which j the men ran great danger, they man- i aged to get the wreckage cut away, and the rolling, plunging ship was somewhat eased, but she was quite unmanageable, and all efforts to make her lieave-to were hopeless. . She simply lay in the I trough of the seas and wallowed. Driven as far north as Gable End Foreland by the gale, she was there lucky enough to be picked up by the Union Company's Omapere and towed into -Gisbornc roads for shelter. Thence she was taken- in hand by the. Union Company's Hawea, and after a trying and stormy tow the battered ship reached Port Chalmers/ After unloading she was towed. over to Sydney s and eventually was sold to a West Australia firm for 'use as a bulk. ■ ~ ■ — :. i _