VIA THE HORN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 17

VIA THE HORN.

SHIP'S LONG VOYAGE. TRAVEL FIFTY YEARS AGO. STORMS AND MUTINY. To iiieet, in this world that takes it for granted that ships shall cross the oceans with the regularity of steamers, people of no more than middle age who vividly remember a very different era is a much-needed reminder of how rapidly civilisation has progressed. Fifty years is, after all, only an infinitesimal division of time in man's history, yet compare one of the passenger liners now in port with, for instance, the brigantine Gazelle, 302 tons, which left Auckland for London, carrying four New Zealand ladies as passengers, just 50 yearn ago to-day. The modern liner could carry the Gazelle on her deck, and the passengers aboard her have hardly been aware from day to day whether the sea was calm or rough. None of them will be able to tell such a story of their voyage as can Mrs. H. McLean, of Devonport, tell of the homeward passage of the Gazelle.

I hey had their .share of storms and calms, did those four passengers in the Gazelle, with a mutiny thrown in for good measure. A mutiny! Why, the sailor of to-day is as much shocked by the word as is the most nervous old maid that ever set foot on shipboard, fortunately for Mrs. McLean and her fellow passengers, it was not a particularly serious mutiny, as mutinies went in the old days. Quite disturbing enough, of course, but not nearly so much so as the shortage of food and water that threatened tlieni before the Gazelle made port. through the then German consul at Auckland, Mr. Hermann Brown, the master of Gazelle, Captain Brechwolt, was introduced to me while his ship was loading at Auckland," writes Mrs. McLean. "On learning that I was studying German, he promised that, if I could find three other passengers, he would take the party to Europe for £20 each. As my father was then in Europe on a business visit, tho project was an attractive one and the party was soon collected, consisting of an English lady unci her daughter, a friend of my own age, 14, and myself. Imagine girls of 14 setting out on such a voyage! Sailors' Superstitions. "We left Auckland at 5 a.m. on June 2. r >, 1880. After a few days of fresh winds, during which we went through the initiatory bout of seasickness, we were becalmed until July 8, when a terrific gale sprang up. A sail blew away that night and for four days we dared no go on deck for fear of being washed overboard, a fate that one of the sailors very narrowly escaped. We were l:i souls on board, captain, mate, six sailors, the cook steward and four passengers, and we had left port on a Friday, the sailors' unlucky day. The crew's superstitious fears made them restive, and the trouble came to a head over the matter of our live stock. When we left Auckland we had four live pigs aboard. One was killed and eaten before the storm, and two subsequently died. Convinced that the voyage was going to be an unlucky one, the crew demanded that the surviving pig be killed before it, too, should die. The captain agreed that we were evidently going to have a long voyage, but that it was therefore all the more necessary that we should conserve our fresh meat for emergency. At this, the crew mutinied, and threatened to seize the ship. We passengers were locked in a cabin, while the captain and the mate, who were brothers, walked the deck for a day and a night with loaded revolvers in their hands. The pig was, however, killed, and the fresh meat was very welcome." Before tTiey were a month out, the young Aucklandera saw snow for the first time, and snowballed each other round the deck. The captain was not only teaching them German, but also instructing tlieni in the rudiments of navigation and seamanship, "Only once in 100 years does an easterly wind blow round the Horn, the captain told u.s, and we had to get it. For three days and nights we were hiivc-to in snow and sleet, with the decks, masts and spars coated with ice and the water frozen in the tanks. We rounded the Horn on August 15. at night, but were still followed by stormy weather and rough seas, which often broke aboard. My friend was nearly washed overboard, but one of the sailors jumped to the rescue and dragged her to safety. The sailors had to keep the pumps going continuously." Supplies Run Short. Neptune came aboard when the ship crossed the line on September 9, and presented each of the passengers with a "christening certificate." At tho same time it was discovered that the supply of water was getting low, only one tank, three-quarters full, remaining. Everyone was put on an allowance of one lager beer bottle every 12 hours. A several days' calm was followed by more rough weather, during which the fore yard broke and the ship sprang a leak in the bow, at the waterline. This was successfully stopped up with oakum by the carpenter anil one of the sailors, who were lowered over tho side. C'alms alternated with strong head winds that forced the vessel to heaveto, prolonging the already long voyage. By September 30 all the tea was used, and the stock of preserved vegetables was getting very low, but Mrs. McLean was able to fall back on a box of biscuits and tinned fruit that her mother had packed. Land was sighted on the morning of October 22, and by 5.30 that evening Eddystone lighthouse and the white cliffs of Plymouth were in view, but four days later the Gazelle was still drifting about the English Channel, delayed by fogs and head winds. Very little food or water remained, and the ship was leaking badly when, on October 27, a pilot came out from Falmouth and the ship was towed into that port. Meeting With Melba. The repairing and provisioning of the ship took several days, during which time the passengers were entertained by friends ashore. She left there again on October 29 and arrived in the East India docks on November 2. Mrs. McLean was met at tho dock by a friend of her father's, the famous '"Long Drive" Walker. who introduced her to his niece, Nelly Mitchell. "During the week that we spent seeing the sights of London together, I did not know that I was in the company of one who, as Madame Melba, was to become world famous," remarked Mrs. McLean. "Later, when she came to New Zealand, we met and , recalled, with pleasure tho days we had .spent in London together." From London Mrs. McLean went to Germany, where she spent the next 2V years. The Gazelle was later lost with all hands off the coast of Spain.