SEA EPIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 5

SEA EPIC.

WHEN SAIL BEAT STEAM. RtJAPEHtT-TURAKINA RACE. HISTORIC EVEKT RECALLED. ENGINEER'S REMINISCENCES. "Why don't you keep a better lookout?" With amazement the seeoii.i officer looked astern, where, on the rim of the horizon, the tip of a sail was showing up. It was the chief oflicer vho had asked the question the moment 1.0 stepped on to the bridge. "We haven't passed any Bliip,' , replied the second officer In bewilderment. "And the 'old man' will i>e up in a moment," said the chief, moodily. The "old man," otherwise the captain, soon appeared on the scene, and his remarks on keeping a proper look-out were pithy and to the point. Just then a royal yard began to lift over the sky-line. Three mariners gazed nonplussed for a moment, and then the captain said: "It's the Turakina, the only ship in the world that could catch up to us." The above was a dialogue that took place on the bridge of the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Ruapehii on an historic occasion, January 14, 1925, when the sailing ship Turakina showed a clean pair of heels in the "roaring forties'' to the stoamer, a sea epic that has become famous. The chief officer of the old Ruapehu is now a prosperous farmer at Wanganui, while another, at present in Auckland, who can tell the story of the historic race from a different angle, is Mr. W. R. Sneddon, chief engineer of the steamer Eemuera, who, in 1893, was second refrigerating engineer of tin sailer Turakina. A noted English artist painted a picture of the great race and with it the following cryptic particulars were given:

"Latitude 4<itlcg 50m S; longitude 6Sdeg 16111 E. Both steering east; wind north; moderate gale and rain; Turakina passed on the starboard Bide, then hauled her wind and passed a ship's length on the other side; crossed bows; shortened down topsails with reefed mainsail and furled cro , jack: through a long summers day held her own, altnough the Euapehu was doing 14i knots. Fast Sailing. "We were doing more than 15 knots on the Turakina,""said Mr. Sneddon this morning to a ''Star" representative. "We caught up to the Ruapeb.it, shortened sail, and went astern, then sailed round her. I remember that when we were flying past that the mainsail went with a terrific bang, and we hoisted a for's'l and carried on. At the time we were about half-way between the Cape and Jsew Zealand. When wo rounded the Cape the Ruapehu was lyin-r at Capetown. After we passed her we did not see her again. We were hove to in a fog off Stewart Island for 1U hours near the end of the voyage, yet we arrived off Port Chalmers Heads at the same time that the Ruapehu arrived at Wellington." e Mr. Sneddon said that on the historic day that sail showed the way to steam the proudest man in the world was Captain J. J. Hamon, as he stood on the poop of the Turakina. • When they reached Dunedin they found that a newspaper had briefly reported the fact that the Rupehu had sighted the Turakina on the voyage. It was a vei v irate skipper who went looking for a newspaper editor, but the Press rose to the occasion, did the handsome thin 2 , and the achievement of the sailing ship got the full publicity that it deserved. The Turakina was a beautifully mode led iron ship of 1180 tons, built on the Clyde in 1868. When launched she had the name City of Perth, and in 18S2 was driven ashore in a gale at Timaru. After a thorough refit she was renamed Turakina, and averaged SO days on ten consecutive voyages to New Zealand bne was a very fast sailer, and on one occasion logged CCS miles in 48 hour*. Her fastest trip was in 1594 when she covered the distance from Wellington to the Lizard in GO days, and to London in 71 days. A Wonderful Ship. "She was a wonderful ship," said Mr. Sneddon, who added that the Turakina carried the first frozen meat cargo to the Continent, unloading at Hamburg after a voyage from Brisbane. Frozen meat at that time was suspect. The process was to bring up one forequarter at a time to the deck, and to stamp it after various officials had made an examination. The discharge rate was 30 or 40 carcases a

day, and it meant a stay of three months in the German port before the Turakina got rid of her cargo of 18,000 freight carcases. Mr. Sneddon recalled another occasion when the Turakiaa loaded a meat cargo at Port Chalmers, and then went on to Napier to pick up wool. The wool was screwed down into the holds by a gang which sang a chanty as they toiled, and the mate achieved his ambition to get more bales stowed than on any occasion previously. The screwing process was so well carried out that the insulation bulkhead was damaged, and when the ship ,_ arrived at Home it was found that some of the meat cargo was damaged. r Long Sea Service. e Mr. Sneddon is a New Zealander. He was born at Christchurch, and after • learning a portion of his trade in Christ - 1 church, finished it on the Clyde. He has i been 33 years with the New Zealand r Shipping Company, served in the Turakina and Mataura (sail), the old steamers Ruahinc, Tongariro, Kaikoura, the new Ruahine; while for the past i fourteen years he has been chief engineer of the Remuera. , Into a long sea experience he has - crowded much adventure. He was shipi wrecked when the sailer Mataura went ashore between Cape Horn and the t Straits of Magellan in 1897, and was 1 seven days in an open boat before a s Chilean warship hove in sight and ; rescued the crew. In the early days of i the war, when the Remuera was in the South Atlantic, a German raider hove in t sight, but a wireless call was made to - the British warship Carnarvon in the - vicinity, and the raider sheered off and ■• turned tail. i "Just about this time the old Tura- - kina was lying idle in Rio de Janeiro i harbour," said Mr. Sneddon in conf elusion. "That is the last I heard of my • old ship."