SEA MEMORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 8

SEA MEMORIES.

A HOKIANGA WRECK. DEVONPORT'S FIGUREHEADS. PRIDE OF THE NAVAL BASE. Soon a new face will be seen in Clover Avenue, that well kept promenade at the Naval base at Devonport, from where the figureheads of many old ships look with wooden eyes to see the giant liners pass up and down the harbour. Commander E. Lyon Bcrthon, officer in charge of the baee, has received from Mr. J. Wark, of Koliukolm, Hokianga, the figurehead of the barque Joseph Craig, and as soon as the battered lady has been rejuvenated she will join that interesting band of wooden men and women that live in the avenue.

At the present time the new figurehead would look sadly out of place in the collection, for her frowsy appearance is in striking, contrast to the splendour of her brothers and sisters. Her chin is missing and the tip of her noso has gone, while paint is entirely lacking , . The right hand rests across the breast, but it is impossible to distinguish what it is that the wooden fingers hold. The figure, it appears, was once full length, but it now ends shortly below the waist, the broken torso suggesting that whoever was responsible for the butchery was no expert with the axe. At ana early date the lady, who even in her present unhappy condition bears a striking resemblance to Queen Victoria, will be placed upon the operating table in the carpenter's room, on 11.M.5. Philomel and her missing chin and broken nose will be restored. When the carpenter has finished hir; job the training' ship's artist will take a hand and the lady of wood will regain her I complexion.and will be given an eutirely vnesv; trousseau. JVhen. tig full trans-

formation has been brought about the figure will bo mounted near the entrance to the naval recreation area. A Broken Towline. The Joseph Craig , , whose figurehead is shortly to be given all itc> former glory, was a barque of 751 tons that came to grief at Hokianga on August 8, 1914. The vessel was being towed over the bar when the towline parted and the ship drifted on to the beach. Although the crew escaped, the barque could not be got off and she became a total wreck. Hokianga proved an unlucky port for the Craig Line of sailers, for it was off there that the Constance Craig, inward bound from Gisborne, disappeared in 1907. The Constance, which wae slightly smaller than the Joseph, was sighted 10 miles off the heads, but was blown to sea and was never heard of again.

When the figurehead' of the Joseph Craig—Commander Berthon would, lie glad to know the original name of the barque—takes her place on the concrete mount that is already waiting for occupation, her nearest neighbour will be Mr. William Maneon and a lady of Indian blood. The figurehead of the William Manson is that of a gentleman with grey hair and heavy side whiskers, sporting a light grey bow tie beneath his chin. The ship which carried him was built at Aberdeen GO years ago for the China tea trade, but proved too small for the job, and she left the company of such famous ships as tha Taxping and Sir Lancelot to make money freighting tea from England to Australia. Later she saw service in the intercolonial and Island trades until 1014, when she went ashore near the entrance to Nelson Harbour, and was so badly damaged that she was condemned. At the present time she is a coal hulk at Wellington. The large figurehead from the barque India, which was wrecked at St. Martin's Bay as far back as 1883, was presented to the base by Rear-Admiral Geoffrey Blake shortly before his departure for England. The Army and the Navy. Both the Army and the Navy are represented in the collection. The Duke of Wellington, in a bright red uniform with gilded epaulettes, once rode at the bow of an auxiliary schooner of that name that was built at Glasgow in ISO 3. After her sailing days were over she served as a coal hulk for both the Union Steam Ship Company and Jhe

Northern Company before she was con-' demned in 190t>, her hull finally being sold to the Moehau Granite Quarries for use as a breakwater. The representative of the Navy is a, Jack Tar of Nelson's time, sporting a shiny black hat and a curly beard. His original home was above the cutwa\cr of the barque Ocean Eangcr, built at Liverpool in 1567 and dismantled in the Soutfl in 1898.

If ever scandal is talked in Clover Avenue it most likely concerns tns blonde lady, robed iii apple green ana wearing a crimson rose in her hair, i° r her history is a mystery. The fig™' head was washed tip on the West Coast, between the Manukaii Heads and Port Waikato, half a century ago. The fema'e figure that once graced Hie bow of fie 1280-ton barque Mornington, later known as the America, dismantled « Auckland at the beginning of the present century and finally destroyed by lire, wears a. gown of dove grey that is relieved by trimmings of blue. An unusually large figure of a brunette, gowned in yellow with a silver rume around her neck, was once the pride oi the four-masted barque Kcwa, ongmany known as the Alice A. Leigh. WhenitM Ecwa (2909 tons) was dismantled at Auckland a couple of years ago she was the largest British sailing ship afloat-

Three Times Wrecked. Not the least interesting figure in the collection is one of St. Barnabas, clasping a cross in his right hand. * was taken from the steam yacm. Southern Cross, one of the vessels ° that name owned by the Melanesia'! Mission. A small head at the western end of the avenue looks patlietlM' J unhappy. Perhaps the reason »'■*" is that the ship which once canned the lady was three times wrecked, the Ellen she went ashore at thes moutj of the Heathcote River in «* as the Elizabeth and Ulvaria Cameron she was run down and sunk oy steamer in Lyttelton Harbour, an finally became a total wreck at d in 1889. Another small head was taßeu from the brigantine Eliza Firth, was wrecked on Tory Shoal in 1!}ll)i A large model of a moa also Mβ,' a place in the avenue. Its home was at the stem of the brig Moa °»e ? the first vessels built in New &atond, The brig was built on n m ™\ the cliffs at Parncll, and was lsuncM" ill 18-rj.