OLD CUTTER REWA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 12

OLD CUTTER REWA.

NOW PLEASURE CRAFT THE LAST OF HER KIND. MEMORIES OF OLD SHIPS. So 11k> old cutter Rewa. the last of her kind, has boon "turned out to grass." For many years, upwards of 28, she was used regularly to carry explosives from Maraetai to Auckland, and now she lias been sofd to become a pleasure craft. Time man-lies on, they say. Picturegoers have become accfistomed to hear that; it is particularly applicable to ships. In the good old days, when business was not so strenuous, and when commerce did not resolve itself into a definition of minutes and so much money per (if) seconds, sail was good enough. A lazy day without wind did not rouse I owners to a fear of bankruptcy; but] now propellers thrash out a tale of "hurry, hurry," while sail used commercially is becoming a memory. j And yet it is not so long since Auck- j land knew the change. There are many | men alive who remember the harbour white with sail wings and the wharves a forest of upreaching spars. Thus it is that particular interest attaches to the Rewa, the last of her kind. To look at her as she rides at the Parnell wharf, just near the Auckland Rowing Club, you would not think that she must be over 40 years old. She is trim, of graceful but sturdy lines. But her day is done. And that raises the thought of other cutters and other sailing ships which Aucklnad knew well in the earlies. Where they have gone? Ships Are Buried Deep. Well, some are buried under Auck- i land's reclaimed land; some are trading j in the Islands. As a matter of fact they are common there. They are useful for the smaller inter-island commerce. But those who walk daily over the new railway station site might be interested to know that at least two of I the old cutters, Morning Light and Katherine Borrowdale, .lie beneath their feet. So, indeed, do the old fore-and-aft schooner Fairy, the paddle steamer Black Diamond, the stern paddle steamer, built by Messrs. Fraser and Tinnie, and the old brigantine, Maria Virginia. In the seventies and up to the late nineties, Parnell. or Mechanics' Bay, was a busy place, the destination of many of the old sailers. In those days Messrs. Edward and William Hodgson had a firewood dump there, where the wood was brought from Waiheke by the cutter Henry Tay, and by many another, too. At the head of the bay the Union Sash and Door Co., Ltd., had a sawmill and factory. The timber used to be taken there from Mercury Bay and other places down the coast by the' cutters, Mana and Paku, which were commanded by the late Captain James Stephens. Captain Stephens was better known as "Old John Bull" or Jim Stephens. He was a typical Devonshire j man, well known in the town that was then Auckland. He died on the cutter Mana in Drunken Bay, while the vessel was carrying timber for the Kauri Timber Co., Ltd. The cutters, Morning Light and Katherine Borrowdale, were used on the coastal trade until they "went to rest. Stern-wheeler Waihou. The stern-wheeler Waihou was built in 1882 by Messrs. Fraser and Tinnie, and she made her trial trip. Then she lay on the mud until she was interred. The Maria Virginia had another name carved in her bows. She had a rather peculiar rig, a stump top-gallant mast with no main topmast. Before she was! put into "Rotten Row" she was used | principally in the coal trade between j Auckland and Whangarei. The paddle steamer Black Diamond made a few trips between Auckland and Russell, but trade grew slack and she also made the last journey. Then there is another old vessel which many old identities will remember. She was the old ketch Tiri Tiri. For years she lay under College Hill. She was there in 1883, and there she lay nothing but a hulk, until she was buried, her bowsprit and both masts sticking out last of all. | Auckland is a port, and the import- j ance of the city lies in that fact. It is also true to say that in the years to come, when Auckland is a far greater city, its growth will be due to the same Ifact. It seems appropriate, somehow, then, that the encroaching shores of the port have been the graveyard of so many ships which traded here. Auckland lives by the sea, and it has been j built in part over the top of those I vessels which helped to lay the foundation of a greatness yet to be.