THE "TIE TANYA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 154, 1 July 1937, Page 9

THE "TIE TANYA."

QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES

"SHE WAS A SHIP."

ot.T> TIMER'S HAPPY

memories.

"I'vj sailed in a good many first-class ships since I first went to sea, way back in '87, but the Titania was the pick of the lot. What a ship! She had a double crew in my day —10 A.B.'s instead of the usual 10 for a vessel of her size—they fed us like gentlemen, and what a captain. There weren't many like Captain Selley, I can tell you." The speaker was Mr. Harry Redfern, "Old Harry" to his many friends in Auckland, and still a fine sturdy figure at the age of 70. Incidentally he » an old soldier as well as a sailor, having served throughout the war, but that is another story. It was of the Titania and his days in her that Harry was discoursing, and he threw a new and refreshing light on the life of a seafaring man in a crack ocean going ship. Incidentally he referred to the famous barquintine as the "Tie Tanya," having,! as he says, no time for fancy tions. "The Tie Tanya she was always, called, and as the Tie Tanya old timers remember her," he said. "Queen of t e Fairies" it means, and she was a fairy to sail in. Yes, she had a fairy queen for her just as her sister ship, the Oberon, had a fairy king. However, it was Captain Selley I was going to tell you about. "I sailed in the Tie Tanya in the 'nineties, when she was running between Vancouver and London. She was owned by the Hudson Bay Packing Co., and we had a full cargo of timber and tinned salmon. We had a splendid run from Vancouver to the Horn —we were off Cape Stiff in less than a month—and I'll never forget how pleased the skipper was. 'You've brought us luck, Young Larrikin' (that's what he called me), he said to me one day when I met him after I had handed over the wheel. Then,

what do you think? We ran right into a nose ender, and got blown all over the place. Four months and 10 days that voyage lasted. Still, we were a happy ship. Captain Selley used to say: 'It's that confounded Young Larrikin who's holding us up.' He liked his little joke. Those "Piccadilly" Whiskers. "Now I must tell you about my pal Piccadilly Tom. We called him that because of his neard. It was a fine affair and he kept it smartly trimmed. Well, Captain Selley had a beard of the same kind and he was ,not unlike T<>:n in vbuild. Well, we're ashore one iLiy in Vancouver and a doctor who knew the captain a little mistook Tom for him. 'Come and have a drink, captain,' he says. 'Won't your friend' (that was me) 'come along, too?' Too right I would, so we went into a swell saloon with the doctor. When it came our turn to 'shout' my pal says, 'Dear me, doctor, it's rather embarrassing, but I've come ashore without any money, and so has Mr. Redfern here.' The doctor was a sport and he says, 'Don't you worry about that, skipper,' and kept on pushing the boat out. We had a very pleasant hour in that saloon, when all of a sudden I saw the captain at the doorway.

" 'I'm afraid you'll have to excuse us, doctor,' said my pal, and we were both ready to hop it, but Captain Selley he spotted us. Piccadilly Tom he salutes smartly and says, 'Good day, sir.* The I skipper said, 'You two look as if you've had a good day,' but there was a twinkle in his eyes, and I spoke up. 'Yes, sir, until you came along,' I said, and he grinned and called me a cheeky young devil. Then he says to Piccadilly," 'You had better take those whiskers off or I'll take mine off,' but he did nothing more about it.

"To show you what a gentleman he! was I'll tell you about the tins of salmon we took ashore in London. We might have got into serious trouble with the wharf gatekeeper, but Captain Selley he came along and smoothed things over. 'I let the men have a few tine,' he said. 'They are their own property.' So we got away with it. Looking for a Ship. "And another time in Sydney when about half a dozen of us were looking for a ship the old skipper goes to the captain of the Lady Head and says. 'These are old men of mine and I can

recommend them.' So %ve were taken! on instead of 'squareheads.' The Lady! Head was a good ship and so was the; Thermopylae (I made one voyage in! her) and so was the Kaiso (she was another clipper), but the Tie Tanya was the doll of them all. Couldn't she sail! An' two issues of grog a day.

"Poor old Tie Tanya. She was eventually sold to the Italians and got into a collision. She ended her days in Australia, I believe. She was composite built, iron frame and teak, you know, same as the Cutty Sark. I think the Cutty is the only one of those oldtimers left. I was never in her, but I. knew her well enough. The Tie Tanya was the doll for me. When you get a good ship, good shipmates and a gentleman for a captain you don't ask for anything better. I never heard a bad word against her and there was never a man "who sailed under him that ever said a bad word against Captain Selley. Those were good days."