STRIPPED BARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 12

STRIPPED BARE.

OLD STEAMER CLANSMAN. SAILS ON LAST VOYAGE. ANCHORED IN "ROTTEN ROW." During the many years that the old steamer Clansman has carried the Northern Steamship Company's flag in and out of Auckland she has berthed at the Northern wharf hundreds of times, but is it probable that never again will she rub her iron sides against the old familiar piles. The accident which befell the well known trader off Bird Rock, Bay of Islands, a week ago when she fractured her tail shaft, only hastened her withdrawal from the passenger and cargo service, and during the past five 1 days she has been completely stripped of the furnishings which once made her the luxury ship of the white funnelled fleet.

The long saloon of the veteran —she was built at Glasgow in 1884—was as empty yesterday as the cupboard of Old Mother Hubbard. The two rows of swivel chairs on either side of the dining table had been removed, and it was impossible to find a comfortable place to sit. On the bare table was a solitary breakfast menu, which informed the curious that on July 29 of last year passengers by the steamer were offered oatmeal porridge to warm up with, smoked schnapper to follow, and then the choice of grilled rump steak and chips, fried sausages, minced scollops on toast, Ceylon currya and rice, and Ins'i stew. A note on the foot of the card' added that there were also "tea, toast and preserves."

The cabins opening on to the saloon were as uninviting as the saloon. Screw holes in the Avails told where permanent fittings had been removed, and there was not a vestige of bedding in the bunks. Not a single "compactum"—a combination mirror, cupboard, and washbasin —was to be seen, and lamps were also missing.

On deck the ship looked more like her old self, but the nautical eye noticed that much was missing. On the starboard side the chocks were empty, and the boats could be seen in the water at the breastwork. A workman who was busy loading cushions, lifebelts, brass fittings and the like into a motor lorry, volunteered the information that the boats on the port side would be taken off before the vessel went into the stream. On the bridge the wheel and compass had been removed. Prominent were a pile of those unsightly but extremely useful articles popularly known as "strawberry boxes." Reliable old ship that she was the Clansman was always known as a good "roller."

Now that she is no longer wanted to carry passengers to the North, the Clansman will idle away her remaining years in the stream. It is still possible that she may go to sea again, as did many old windjammers that had been laid up in the years before the war, but it is hardly likely. Maybe she will become a nesting place fo" hundreds of gulls, but tliis, too, is improbable, as for years the birds have favoured a scarred and blackened old hulk that was relegated to "Rotter. Row" when the Clansman was still making good money. But the old vessel should not be lonely. The Wakatere and the Rarawa are only two of her best known sisters who swing with every tide.