AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF THE PORTS.

THE GRAIN SHIPS.

(By LEE FORE BRACE.) Tall ships, long ships, full-built ships and LoaSP'at Port_ Costa with 'barley, Mann^d ea by an, longshore hoboes, and wild thrashing round the Horn. Those of use whose seafaring career began in the late 'nineties or early in the present century, suffered the limitations of the ships in which we sailed. Our seafaring began too late in time to have shared in the classic age of sail. The older hands among our ships' complements had served in the great ships, the tea clippers and the wool ships, and we youngsters had to sit in respectful silence while the seniors spoke of the ships that made Britain famous as a maritime power Who amongst us can forget the almost reverential awe with which we listened to the yarns of the men who had sailed in the Thermopylae and famous Cutty Sark, or even, perhaps, the Ariel or James Baines? It was a willing silence, for as our sea learning progressed, we found that, in the matter of fine seamanship, daring navigation, and all-round excellency of naval architecture, those days were admittedly supreme. For myself, I can claim no more than being a grain ship seaman, whose service afloat, until I "swallowed the anchor," was spent almost entirely, with occasional Australian divergencies, in. the great ships of the Pacific grain fleet. And everyone who knew those ships will agree with me that they were truly wonderful ships. , „ The Last Survivors. Up and down the Pacific coast they could be found. Every port, from San Francisco to Vancouver, would be packed with them at the opening of the grain season. These ports were the last strongholds of vessels whose motive power was the wind—the last struggling survivors of all other trades, from which they had been ousted by tlie more economical tramp steamer. San Francisco was the chief port at which they gathered, and it was no uncommon sight to see there anything up to a hundred or more big sailing, ships all eagerly seeking freight. They came to the Golden Gate from all ports of the seven seas. Many of them had come up via the Horn, loaded with cement or coal from Cardiff, others had a much more pleasant passage over the Pacific from Australian ports, while many made 'Frisco their final port after journeying to India with salt. The Thermopylae. I Big four-masted barques and ships were most of the vessels to be found in the grain fleet. They had to carry a big cargo to make ends meet, and the grain merchants had little use for small vessels. Occasionally some of ( the old-time "heelers" could be seen sneaking into the port, as if ashamed to be seen in such company. Through the raw murk of a winter morning I once saw a small bedraggled barque make the anchorage at Alcatraz Island. The eyes of every sailorman were on her as she came rounding to, for her lines and her rakish look bespoke the thoroughbred. Although the yards had been stripped from her mizzen, giving her an unkempt appearance, there was a "something" about her out of the common. As her signal number fluttered out from the gaff-end it was found that she was the famous Thermopylae, in her day the greatest ship in the world. Gone was the gilded cock from her main truck, the emblem of speed that was never wrested from h'er,, and gone, too, was the old house flag of the Aberdeen White Star line. She looked so tiny among the big ships, and few of us could believe that she could ever have done the great things which lay to her credit. She loaded alongside the writer's ship, and without exaggeration, it could be said that we could have carried her on our main deck. It was a great compliment to the old ship when the grain merchants placed her on the early berth for London,' and it was a fitting, close to her great career, because on this voyage, which proved to be her last, she led the grain fleet a merry race down and round the Horn, beating every one of the big ships by many days. " . Famous Names. It is only to sailor men that the names of ships are interesting, but each r.;i.l everyone of them had an individuality of her own. If mention is made of t-'? Palgrave everyone will at once think <-: masts going overboard, because during her career she was dismasted no less than five times. And when I state that the Mermerus, Pericles, Locli Etive and Loch Torridon, all came up from Australia seeking a grain cargo after they wer- thrown out of the wool trade, everyone will think of the palmy days of sail, when these great clippers were thrashed through the- big Horn greybeards "riproaring for the January sales." • The typical grain ships were the big Cly le four-posters.' The majority of them had been Tbuilt specially for the Calcutta jute trade, and when steam took charge there it was found that they were equally suited for the carriage of grain. They were efficient ships, indeed they had to be. Cape Horn during a winter passage was not a place- to take liberties with/ and of all the trades that sailing ships were ever engaged in, the grain trade was least tolerant of weaklings. Wheat and barley has always had a nasty habit of shifting in the holds of ships, and wo? betide the weaklings among the fleet if she were hove down with a shifted cargo.

It was a brave sight to see fleet lying in long rows at th® 'lE 6 * anchorage. A better sight bv f« co to see a newcomer coming ud sea with all her wings spread o utT strong westerly wind that alwL. vailed at the Golden Gate a« A pre * up to the anchorage, one by one sails _ would come in with a cUwl running gear, and then when .fa.„ \o£ the first vacant berth round she ™ ft come with a mighty flarminir oul(1 and then would comV&l> the cable as she came to rest.

384 Days on a Passage Such a sight was the arrival n t «. Durbridge. Months before we saw l* enter the port she had been w Lloyd's as "missing." Three eighty-four days making the , d a long time, perhaps the longest vL ' on record between England an! CalS® Her sails were patched with and everything Her hull was rusty- 'n! barnacle covered, which tolrl •> „ -r an< l a tale of wild 'adveSUon g "J" waters. For three months s>, o rr e P to weather the Horn, but the wiM d beards refused to give her passage £ all her sails were either lost or hff she tried to make the Falkland Islantt refit, but again she was blown eastward. She then tried to mah> for Capetown, but met with strong ? erly gales the most of the way 11 early there the wind cIS S hurricane force from the old quarter the west-and there was nothing but to make an easterly passae* +„ i." T'- • Kn " she sighted the signal station at Bluff but again strong gales drove her off tlVi land and from there to 'Frisco she *£? tically made a drifting course. The grain trade was the last stand n,,4 by the unfettered.gipsies of the sea rl hung on to it to the bitter end and I 7 the harbours of the Pacific slope most "f them sailed on their last traverse

These be dreams of long ago »rim ships or steamers e m ' mot « <•« ** '«>' to O MIL O, hSL°" ,s '» , » •*»•««