"THE GOLDEN HIND."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 237, 6 October 1932, Page 9

"THE GOLDEN HIND."

AND THE "SANTA MARIA."

TWO COLOURFUL MODELS. A SAILOR'S HOBBY. The good ship Golden Hind, captain, Sir Francis Drake, and master, Thomas Cuttil, arrived in the Waitemata this morning—but she did not drop anchor. She came in aboard the Xew Zealand Shipping Company's Opawa, and wae standing majestically on the top of a chest of drawers in the cabin of the chief officer, Mr. W. Wilson, under whose skill as a model-maker Drake's famous ship took shape during the voyage out from London to Auckland. 1 The name G&lden Hind, let alone the name Drake, conjures up visions of the spacious days of Good Queen Bess, the Armada, pirates, buccaneers, and the rollicking sailors one meets in the pages of "Westward Ho!"

And the model on board the Opawa full}' fills the idea. Ked topsides, cream under body, high caetellated poop with windows and galleries, brave flags fluttering from v each mast head and the peak, symbolical figures painted on the sails, guns peeping from the portholes, and a golden hind for a figurehead—she is a picture, and the splash of colour she makes seems to epitomise the colourful days of the Virgin Queen, when English sailore went round the world singeing the beard of the King of Spain, and coming home to Plymouth Sound with booming of guns and a hold full of doubloons and pieces of eight. And the Golden Hind is specially interesting because she .?ae the first English ship to sail round the world. Picture-sails. Having' been made by a sailor, the model of the Golden Hind is naturally a real ship; she is true to scale and colour —this last item being a prime factor when one reproduces the glorious craft of the sixteenth century. From the end of her high-steeved bowsprit to the huge lantern that stands on the topmost railing of the high poop—called "the coach" ,—-the. Golden Hind,.-measures- about -two.

feet, so she is a sizeable model. She carries 20 guns, eight of a broadside and

the other four in the "coach." The fore and main masts each carry two bellowing sails, realistically made of parchment. The upper sail on the foremast bears three jolly lions rampant painted on it, and on the fore course there is a big St. George's Cross, even then associated with England. On the main topsail there is the Tudor Rose, flanked with the famous "E.R." The mizzen mast carries a lateen sail, which, minus the lower part, was the origin of mizzen sails of to-day. On the bowsprit is small square sail, called in later days a "Jimmy Green," and carried even down to the clays of the Blackwall frigates, when sail was hung out in very strange places, such was the demand for speed. From the truck of each mast flutter gay flags, the Royal Standard from the main, having the familiar three lions, and also the fleur de lye, reminscent of the days when the sovereigns of England also claimed sovereignty over France.

The "coach," with its galleries and windows, is bright with colour and gilding, and it towers so high that one wonders how on earth these ships managed to carry such a.castle at sea. Probably they hove-to whenever there was anything approaching heavy weather, and thought more of comfort than of making a quick passage. The Santa Maria. The Golden Hind occupied Mr. Wilson all the voyage out, and on the last voyage Home he filled in his time by making a model of the Santa Maria, the historic ship in which Columbus discovered America, in the fifteenth century. She is naturally more medieval looking than Drake's ship. A sailqj would tell you that ehe has very good lines, but even that assurance would not give a landsman very much confidence, and he has more respect than ever for the great discoverer who could sail away into the unknown in such a craft. Like the Golden Hind, the Santa Maria makes a brave show of bunting, and ancient Spain had a very keen eye for effect with reds and golde.

To the man in the street the moffs remarkable thing about the making of these exquisite little models is that Mr. Wilson's only tools were a pocket knife, a couple of little files and a bradawl or so. His next task will probably be a model of the crack. Cutty Sark,