THE GRAND OLD LADY OF THE SEAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GRAND OLD LADY OF THE SEAS

THE WINTERHUDE RETURNS

ONE day recently I stood on one of Auckland's highest peaks and «H/.ed idlv out to sea. Hefore me, like a great ear pet of many colours and

intricate design, lay the expansive city, grey and gaunt in patches, relieved here and there with emerald patches of trees and lawns, while the tiny red and green roofs of white houses stood out in bold relief. There was no noise, no sound of hooting motor cars, nor the clang and <!in of hammers of men at work. 1 was at |>eace with the world, and sat down or. the green sward and gazed with longing eyes to the great sapphiie and turquoise waters of the Hauraki Gulf. Kerry boats, like tinv ladybirds, scuttled across the glass-like surface of the sea. and one or two small tugs, like brown ants, crawled lazily hither and thither, with small wi-|>s of white smoke flying above them.

As 1 {razed out to sea. quite suddenly there came into view i small white sjM'ck on the horizon. At first it looked like a piece of thistledown floating on tlie water's edge, then again 1 thought it must he a seagull or some marine bird. I knew it was not a ship, for there was no sinoKe, nor eon Id 1 distinguish any funnels. "Strange," 1 thought, "could it lie—no, it simply couldn't be —yes, it is really a sailing ship! \es, an old-fashioned barque with its sails fluttering like gossamer in the wind." 1 thought I must lie dreaming, but as the barque came closer to view 1 ex|<eiieived one of the greatest thrills of my life. For a moment I forgot the busy world at mv feet. I was looking "down on Auckland of the early eighteen forties —this must be ail emigrant ship, laden with men and women seeking a new world. I imagined tall, gaunt and bewhiskered men, and the women with silken crinoline dresses and poke bonnets. I could see long, sleek .Maori canoes creeping out across the blue to meet the ship, and could hear tbe excited cries of the children aboard. Hut no! I awakened from my stupor as the great ship sailed past me. and ran down the hillside and into the city to see mv first sailing ship. This was the type of ship in which my freat-great--grandfather had sailed to New Zealand's shores in 1839, aiid how sTrange it seemed that I had never seen one liefore. It was not until I was right at the barque's side that I found that I had been looking at the Winterhude sailing into Auckland Harbour. All her sails had been furled, and she had been towed by a tug to the Kings wharf There in the vear 1937 I was actually looking at something enriched by romance and history. What adventures must have been hers. What storms she must have perilled! Never again was 1 to catch that :hi ill as 1 saw her round Rangitoto lieacon shortly before sunset. She was like a great white swan, peaceful and stately in her liearing. .

It was after conversing with the Finnish sailors aboard that, with mufli difficulty. i managed to learn something of this old barque's history. This was her second visit to Auckland, the first having l*?en in 1933, ami she had been sailing the seas for over fortv two years.

My mind travelled Junk to the (lays when the Winterhude was only a dream in the minds of the suilor» of her day. In the gay old city of Brcmerliaven I could hear the hammers of the workmen and the songs they sang as they huilt the ureat German sailing ships of the day. There were no mechanical devices to make their tasks easier, as in the shipyards of the Clyde where the most modern of all craft, the Queen Mary, was huilt. I could see her launched and glide down to the ocean bearing the pretty name M»bcl Tvickers, named, no doubt, after some pretty German girl—perhaps a daughter nf one of the Brenwrhaven shipbuilders.

1 could sr-e her diynified figurehead at the Imu. represented l\v ♦ cables carved in elm, currying I lie pmud it rm-• >1 (h<- city of llivin -n - n key grasped liy h iniiiled fi-t, 11• • ti■ 111 and Mrmi;'. I!ul her im■ n»•-• [ni'nt. career is lost, in the shrouds of time. 11 ■-1■ n \ chunked, tlic world fed! upon cyil days, and war came, ami no luiiy.-r was t lie proud tivurchcad honoured l»v British ships. Was it an accidcnt. |m'i-11;■ j• - ,i collision which split the proud ea»les in two? \\ e do not Ull • ■ . hut today 11 ■i • remains of th« figurehead lie in a locki r oi the W intejhmle. Who knoy»s that 1 lie day might conic when tliey Will ayain "laec the nld liaroiic a- she t.iawrsci t lie end lc-s hlne '!

And what of the Wintcrhude to,|a\V No more docs she sail the scan as one at many sailing ship-. Shi' i- old ami worn, ;-rcv witii the lavages of years. Hut --lie j- jiroiidci than an\ ship <m the ocean, this •.'land old ladv ol the sea. Ihe towcrini; ma-ts and -pleading i-nnue art) a sight which cau-c more excitement than the sleek, shilling, oil and con I* I'ti xcs -ids. The W iiitcrhndc feci- that she i- pint of a jireat t rn.! it.inn, and is not yet ready to depart to Daw Jones' locker.

On this trip she came over -i\ thoiisaml mill's to New /.calami with n careo of "llano from the Seychelles. The y.,yaee took ,-i\t\ .-eye,, days, and must have heen worth a hundred day- on the (.tneen Mary to t Mono wild love H real taste of the -ea. I I you eet out \•• ii r atlas \oii will find that the Sevchelles arc a yroiip of i-iaml- 111 the llidian Ocean, about six. hundred miles north ca-t of Madagascar. The \\ nit ei hinle left these islands on Decemhcr the third of last Near, and had goi..| -ailing in eood weather for ahotit. sixteen days. Alter pa-.-mg t lie i-laml- of New Amsterdam and St. I'atil (also passed nearly a hundred \cars ago In' many of the pioneering ships on their way to Sew /cm la ml i lie ship struck a frond wind and sailed steadily oyer the Southern Indian ttiriin. Sy<. nev was reached, and she t lien set sail for \e\y /calami yyith a. strange earjrn— four pigs, twelyc chickens, and sixteen pigeons. Sh« would haye needed only a cow or tyxo. and would have carried a real miniature farm. Between Tasmania and Auckland the hanpie ran into n hard easterly, and. after sighting the Three Kings Islands, she made her wav down the coast to the uitv.