BABY SIZE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 37, 13 February 1934, Page 5

BABY SIZE.

CONTRAST IN SHIPS. MAGDALENE AND MARGARET. «DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE." Quaint humour created by ordinary circumstances is exemplified by tho sight of two ships berthed at the King's wharf. The Magdalene Vinnen and the Margaret W., lying in adjoining positions, look at first glance like mother and daughter. The juxtaposition of the two vessels, similar in hull, but vastly different in measurements, seems an almost deliberate attempt to interpret nautically the old phrase "dignity and impudence."

When sho arrived, in port two -weeks ago the large four-masted German barque was loaded below the waterline with a cargo from the Seychelles Islands. Her hatches have since disgorged the 4GOO tons she brought here, and the great windjammer looks even bigger as more of the hull shows. Her maindeck is now towering above the wharf level, and her sturdy bowsprit rides higher than the neighbouring sheds. Two hundred feet above water level, her tall masts look dizzy as clouds scud by. A few feet further along the wharf the Margaret W. is berthed, looking almost as a chicken snuggling under its foster-mother's protective feathers. This ship's three masts were denuded of sail more than four years ago, and now support the falls of cargo derricks. She relies for her propulsion now on modern motors, and her decks have been slightly altered in appearance since she was launched in 1919, but her hull from a distance might almost be a scale model of the larger vessel.