AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 285, 1 December 1928, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF IKE POETS;

A PACIFIC GRAVEYAItU

The death of Captain Oswald W. Schulze removes from our midst an interesting personality. "No master mariner in port was better known, and few of the men who go down to the sea in ships have had more thrilling experiences than he had. It was the writer's privilege to have heard from him, a first hand account of the Rarotonga hurricane of 1883, and much of the sinister history of the Avarua reef at Rarotonga, better knoiv ll to sailormen as the Pacific Graveyard. During a visit to this beautiful island, some months ago, the writer verified all that the late Captain Schulze had told him.

No epot in the King's Dominions is more beautiful than Rarotonga when viewed from the sea. The. lofty volcanic crags, inaccessible to the foot of man, rising perpendicular for a thousand feet or more, make a wonderful picture. All shades of green and blue and brown are mingled, while the coraJ stranded reef which surrounds the island makes a perfect frame of old gold enclosing the whole. The writer viewed this entrancing picture with the rising of the sun. The sea was as calm as an inland pond, and yet the dull booming of the big Pacific rollers, as they eternally thundered over the reef, gave one a thought of what the picture would be like when a big northerly was blowing. And the history of Rarotonga and the Avarua Reef telk us that it is not always a pleasant picture that greets the visitor coming up from the sea. Gales and hurricanes and sudden squalls have t a kill a toll of ships since the dawn of history.

Tiio first ship which came to grief on the reef is supposed to be a Spanish vessel. Her name, where she hailed from, w here she going to, and other authentic details have all been lost in the antiquity of time. She piled up on the reef long before the first Englishman came to these sunny seas. The first evidence that t.'iis vessel left her bones .there came from the finding of Spanish silver and gold coins by «ome native children when digging among the coral. The oldest date on any of the coins *'as 1574. C3ose to the spot where the coins were found a copperfastened oak beam was dug up. When the coral encrustations were scraped away it was found that the beam was carved on three sides with religious mottoes and figures of the Saints. For a long time this beam was used as a lintel over the door of the house of a native chief on the island. In 1884 it was purchased from the owner by Captain Schulze on behalf of the commander of the San ChristoDal, a Spanish exploration ship which cruised in the South Pacific that year. Who knows? Perhaps this old wreck was one of the Spanish galleons making up to the Philippines from Pern. The date on the coins might make us well believe that she had been harried by Sir Francis Drake, and perhaps she was making a southerly passage to the East in order escape his vengeanee when she met her iate at Rarotonga. Like our own Maoris, the .Rarot origans pass on thelegends of the race from father to eon, and among these legends is one of eome black-bearded men coming among them from out of the sea, "clad in coats so hard that clubs couldn't hurt." Who these black-bearded men were ibe evidence now offering, unfortunatelv, does not g, rcn : e - .„ Some day, doubtless, the Avarua Keef will give up a few more of its secrets, and then, perhaps, the history of the •south 1 acific will have to be re-written. The next wreck of which we have a definite account was the whaling barque Orcae, of Xew Bedford. In 1843 she called at the island for a supply of wood and water after a three years' cruise in southern «eas. Coming to the anchorage, she missed stays and piled up. In a few hours the rollers made matchwood of her, and to this day the older generation of natives will chuckle when thev tell you of the rich harvest of whale oil they gleaned ii'om the beach.

In 1883 happened along the worst hurricane in the history of ihe island. Three Urge schoonens and two «mall ones were ring inside the reef at anchor. Among them was the topsail schooner Atlantic, commanded by the late Captain Schulze. am °f- Wl 'th tlie exception of the Atlantic, made an attempt to stand out to sea under clcse-reefed canvas, but not one managed to get through the reefs an/ an^ e ' \ €e l was a seething cauldron, and at, ship after ship piled up the watchers on shore could hear, above the shriek of the hurricane, the frantic and hopeless cries of the doomed eaamen. Onlv six out ox a total of fifty-two managed to leach the beach, and of these onlv two 5X13. Uaa * *"* ih ' s m "' gk • l

Captain Sehulze. prune seaman that lie m h °P eless *0 attempt to feather the ree 4 and make an offing, - f ,°r f ave ins ship and crew, he ran V a luli * slipped his anchors and ian hj« vessel up on to the most sheltered part of the beach. So good was his judgment, that his crew- managed to -wade ashore at low water* and a few we£ ' Aff 1 " , was successful in kedging the tiiuTv TV° deep .. wat _ er > a] most without f Tlm *' a « the fir«t ship that ever iiia foef 001 greedy maw of the AvanletTSl ° f . Raroto , a S a be ineom- ' e hril ioni "* or W the accident to -ie Dri 0 Jxona. A shady gentleman well hr £ Jghou „ t £ he Soilt h Seas, known Y P .. yy, r v f s ' , had becn chased out of Tr", , i ancl hy tlle aimed constabulary Si l . b f n ., BUpplvin S m»skets, powder and shot to the rebelling Maoris and a W reward „„ offered for £Vp?a,e It was the custom of Hayess to stow tie powder under the cabin and carde^v litter the floor with straw. No official bp r drea ™ that powder wouk! be stored m so dangerous a place, while Haj es request to be careful with fire wa« S U nolim r t y 'l 6 Httle Which theie * ad Oeen no time to clear away. Being unable to \W 7 1 j Cargo 0n hl « last visit agents that th a ', b?ln " a ™ed by his agents tnat the police were after him lie thnt 83 f.l Rarotonga. having been told there was a likely demand for his f o D f id"' I 'h in f g at , Avarua ' he mvited several of the chiefs aboard to look over °? od<? ' and during the welcome the *»bm lamp was knocked over. The fire spread rapidly, but. Hayes, although an arrant rogue, was no coward. He chased his visitors overboard and, hurriedly mus J5-Ja •ar-A'y s \l¥r Sr. f 1,1 " ,ne * Aft p T £ re fron > uniting the powder aW i Was extinguished he engaged a large number of natives-several hundred we are told—and with their assistance he plugged the holes ar,-i ' to tow him into deep water. When thev rTo/Z. P TJ at 6eized hold -vi;vi f tfce chiefs, and refnsed them their liberty until they handed over fifty tons of copra for having set fire to h£ Jh?p I Having received this ransom, he set saU still having the chiefs aboard, and a few ' Af ,M. er tbe Was wrecked on «■" the W through the .stern post of He brig, thereby causing her loss. During the latter part of last century Sea r f 6 umb ® r . of schooners, mostly South Sea traders, lert their bones on the reef ! a g , the il! " fam ed Sea Bird', bird W> T® en S a ged in "blackShe cflled Jt V G Ueeneland Plantations, lafcraran/Lvf °i° nga to recruit native I the winH e her maßteT *" as ashore 1 north fitron " from the i T,t ■ lagged her anchors, m<ie bon^ ning the reef wa ~ s etre ™ ™th — :.rs 1