TAHITI SCHOONERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 199, 23 August 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

TAHITI SCHOONERS.

NATIVE-BUILT ISLAND

TRADERS.

STORY OF AN EPIDEMIC.

(By A. G. HENDERSON.)

One Saturday afternoon there came ' into Papeete a grubby little schooner ' called the Matieura, native-built, from 1 Iturutu, an island three hundred miles or so away to the south. She needed, a ■ coat or two of paint, but her rigging ' was sound and lier sails were compara- 1 tively new. This little ship would come up with the steady south-easter ' that blows for six months of the year 1 in these seas, but she might run into i bad weather, a squall or two, even a hurricane, and sho must be able to weather the worst storms. It had taken her six full days to make this trip. She was crowded with passengers and cargo of sorts. The passengers' luggage was trifling. Pandanus mats for bed, afloat or ashore. For pyjames they carried pareus, strips of gay cotton cloth, a yard wide, maybe two yards long, which are folded round the waist and tucked in, or, rather, the top edge is rolled outwards to tighten it. A Mixed Cargo. The women on the Matieura carried their Sunday dresses folded in neat little bundles. The men similarly had their singlets and pants in reserve, to be donned when they reached Papeete. Huddled together under a, rough sailcloth awning on the after-deck, they made a very bright picture as the schooner came alongside the quay. They proved to be a very quiet, well-behaved group intent on business. As the Sgchooner came near it was evident that she was fairly heavily laden. The deck space was all occupied with goods piled high. On© speculated as to their nature, and the revelation was more interesting than the surmise. There were crates of chickens, little pigs tied by the legs, squealing vigorously, boxes of pandanus and bamboo . hats, bales of pandanus, mats, fruits of sorts, gourds and dried bananas tied up in leaves and many queer packages of which the contents could only be guessed. One surmised that the hold contained copra, but the surmise was wrong. The main cargo was coffee and arrowroot, in sacks, and it remained in the hold until it had been sold. Quite evidently this Rurutu cargo was an attraction, because there were already on the embankment some score of traders and natives. The passengers were in no hurry to come ashore. They had goods to sell, but much of the produce was intended for the big Sunday market, and the owners remained where they were until evening. Between the embankment and the road there is a strip of grass, maybe twenty yards wide, under the trees. A few live pigs were brought ashore with legs tied and laid on the grass. Crates of chickens followed, and a few sun hats made their appearance. But neither sellers nor buyers were in a liurry. Both could afford to wait, the sellers because there was the big market before them, the buyers in the hope of lower prices later on. > - A jveelv.theJtfatieura stayed tiecTup to' the old crtnhon that serve as mooring posts on the quay, and a cargo of supplies was put aboard for the people of tlio southern island. Tragedy of Infection. Now there is a story of the Matieura that is worth the telling. Remember that the Matieura is a native-built ship. Even at the quay-sido she had to be I pumped frequently because of leaks in her hull. Ships do not last long in this latitude. The borers get into them wherever timber is exposed, and the Matieura is built of timber throughout. A few years ago (1923) she sailed from Papeete to Rurutu with eighty' people on board, all natives, with the exception of an Englishman and his wife and two children. On the second day out influenza* made its appearance, and next day every man, woman and child on the schooner, excepting only the four Europeans, were sick. Fortunately the winds blew from the east or south-east fairly steadily, and the ship sailed herself. I There was no attempt at navigation, though the skipper was just well enough to keep a general check on direction. Actually she passed Rurutu in the night without knowing it, but by a mere chance the land was still in sight at daybreak. The sick crew was roused sufficiently to put the ship about, but it took them two days to beat back to Rurutu. The passengers and crew tumbled ashore without taking the slightest precautions. Within a week the whole island population of 1200 or 1500 went down with influenza, and there were 300 deaths. Hazy Navigation. Another story that is told about Rurutu suggests that the modern Polynesians are not wonderful navigators, whatever their ancestors may have been. An Englishman, trying out a mining proposition on the island, needed food supplies for his labourers, so he sent a native schooner to Tahiti to bring down a couple of tons of yams. The native captain made Papeete without difficulty, bought the yams and started back to Rurutu. The gun each day gave him liis latitude, but his idea of longitude must have been hazy, the best he could do being a rough and ready estimation of the probable leeway. In about 23deg south the skipper cruised east to look for Rurutu. Sighting Tubuai, he mistook it e for Rimitara, turned about and sailed east for two days. Then realising his mistake he turned west, and with a favouring wind lie eventually fetched up in the Cook Islands. He now judged that his safest policy would be to return to Papeete and start again for Rurutu, and in order to be sure of his way he set a course towards Raiatea. He was blown out of his course to Bellingshausen Island, and in making back he fell in with Maupiti, where he had some relatives. The occasion demanded a fortnight's rejoicing. Eventually he got back to Papeete, and the crew rested after its strenuous labours. In the end the schooner did reach RurUtu, after a pjeriod of three months, with one sack of yams, all that the crew and the cockroaches had left.

While I was in Tahiti a schooner was reported missing from Rurutu. A big squall had sprung up, the schooner lost her anchor and was blown to sea. A week or two later it was reported that she had fetched up at Bora Bora, nearly 350 milee to the north. This was the best the native crew could achieve in the way of navigation. \Of course, not all schooners arc so indifferently navigated. The regular trading companies employ competent skippers, and their ships run to schedule. The auxiliary oil engine, of cotirse,. helps the sailor materially, and the little s> i]>s are well found and equipped. -P a P° ~ never prettier than when schooners arc tied slern-on to the quay