Where Do The Old Ships Go.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 11 (Supplement)

Where Do The Old Ships Go.

Continued from front page. Consequently the ship which reached « England first got the highest .price for its cargo. There was also the I impetus of the gold rush in Cali--fornia, and the haste of prospectors to reach there as'soon as possible. ' All this brought about not only a ' refinement of design in the maritime world, but a new skill and daring.., amongst seamen. Racehorses of ithe3' sea, the clippers were "not content '■ with topgallants and royals, but set l skysails and moonrakers." Their captains took risks that seem un-1 : believable to-day when one considers 1 the frailty of those towering wooden . ships and the terrific gales that swept ps the Horn. In a gale they' clappeil on sail and literally took wings and flew. ■ ■ ; : ;f While the Cutty. Sark has been - spoken of as the fastest clipper, she i was actually only the third 'fastest.' T'lie Sir Lancelot is recognised as the : swiftest' vessel, and the famous Ther- ' mopylae logged, faster than the Cutty i' Sark many times, once doing 380 miles in a day. In ISG9 she raced home from Foo Choo to London in . 91 days, a marvellous feat. She carried 1000 tons of tea. What happened to the Thermopylae? Together with the Cutty Sark, she was sold to the Portuguese for a training: ship, i and underwent rough treatment for 28 years. The Cutty Sark was rebought, but tall Thermopylae was deliberately sunk by her -owners. :j> Many of the clippers were lost, a more .dramatic fate than that of J: their unfortunate sisters who were condemned to lag about modern'har-*l- - as coal hulks. With the grace of masts and spars shorn away, .they ; huddle .together in squalid ugliness, I blistered and black with coal. Dragged behind impatient tiigs' or- - drifting hither and thither "at the 1 :' mercy of the tide and their chains, they speak mutely of - their days of glory. In . Wellington Harbour lies a ; sail-! ing ship which made an earnest effort to sink. She is the Coromandel, an Indian barque, which carried, tea and spice long before she ■ loaded kauri spars down the Hauraki ."Gulf. After her was named the town• and peninsula Coromandel. Stranded/ • Westport, she was bought and:towed to Wellington, where she keeled'averi't and lay with masts almost flat" ob lithe water. •- ' -3 4