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Press, Volume LI, Issue 15246, 7 April 1915, Page 6

A ship which had jailed the seas for forty years, and had weathered countless gales, was sunk in the English Channel by a German submarine on Monday. This vessel was a Russian barcine. which, disguised under the name of Hermes, was no other than the one-time clipper ship Hurunui. Built in 1870, th* Hurunui sailed for many years in the New Zealand, trade, flying tho house-flag of the New Zealand Shipping Company. She wa s a favourite passenger ship during that period of tho lato seventies and _arly eightiea when tho whito-winged clippers had not begun to i'eel the competition of the steamship. The Hurunui brought many settlers to Now Zealand, and carried many cargoes of wool to London, and wa*> noted si< a consistently good passage-maker. She was, if we remember rightly, the vessel which collided in tho Chanml with, and sank, the ship "U'aitara, also owned by the New Zoaland Slapping Company. This disaster, couplet! with the sinking in the Downs of a Tasmaman emigrant ship, resulted in the embarkation ot passengers at London being prohibited. Outward-bound .ships, loaded ill London, thereafter called at Plymouth to take on their passengers.

OiH' claim to distinction possessed by the old ship was -tin.' fact that she was the first vossel to outer tho Lyttelton graving dock, which wan officially opened by Sir .James Prendergast, ActingGovernor of New Zealand, on January 3rd, 1553. The Hnruuui, which was described a. a "magnificent ship,'' was warped into tho dock, breaking a blue ribbon stretched across the entrance amidst the cheer.-, of the assembled hundreds. Pieces of the ribbon arc still in possession ot some of the old resident*, of Lyttelton; who refer to tlie dock as the Hurunui dock. Though the same year saw the establishment of direct steamship service;* between New Zealand and London, tho sailing ships, among them the Hurunui, held their own for another ton years. Then the shipping companies whose steamship fleets were rapidly developing, began to dispose of their sailers, which passed into tho .hand- of foreigners to be em-ployed-wherever payable freights wero to be got- Most of tho old clippers have long since ended their careers by wreck, fire or stranding, or in tho shipbreakers' yards, but a fow of them are still afloat under strange names and foreign flags. During her last years in the New Zealand trade the old Hurunui was commanded by Captain Plunket, who was born in Christchurch, nnd who is now surveyor to Lloyd's Register at Auckand. The sinking of tho old ship, which was flying tho merchant flag of our RuEsian Allies, will bo heard of with regret, no less by her, old commander than by many people who knew her in connexion with tho development of the oversea trade of the Dominion. Her formor name is now borne by a new lOjOOOrton cargo steamer.

An athloto's fame soon vanishes, and for many of the rising generation the news of 'the ; death of A. E.. Stoddart -will havo little interest. Stoddart was a great, figure in his time, both as - cricketer and a footballer. He was one of tlie greatest Rugby three-quarters England has ever seen, and. his play in New Zealand, and, indeed, the play of the whole team, had a considerable influence on the game in this part of the world. But for that the "All BlacKs" would not have been the team tney •wero. Stoddart had the distinction of captaining England -both at football and cricket. Ho did not enter fir&tcla__ cricket until he was .twenty-eignc —it is seldom that a player develops at that ago—but he became one of the greatest amateur batsmen of his time, and a fine leader. In .the English team of iS96 he had as comrades Grace, Ranjitsinbji, Jackson, Abel, J. T. Brown, a wonderful batting combination, arid Lohmann, Peel, J. T. Hearne floid Richardson, four bowlers who could not be matched in a -world-eleven now. TBoth in England and Australia, -where ho twice captained visiting teams, his name will long ho remembered by lovers of the game.

Some of tho men who. foresaw the German menace and worked to prepare their country for it, havo had the satisfaction of striking a blow in the war. One of these is Mr Erskine Childers, tho author of that fascinating book, "The Riddle of the Sands," a story of an English yachtsman who set himself to study the channels in tho sands about Borkum, and saw one night the Kaiser inspecting a fleet of barges that Was to convey a German expeditionary fore© to England. It is a thrilling tale, showing knowledge of tho sands and their conditions that could only have been gained by intimate experi..nce. Mr Childers is a lieutenant in- the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and has boon on service since the beginning of the war. Tho Admiralty's despatch ou the Cuxhaven raid, to hand by yesterday's mail, shows that Lieutenant Childers acted as observer in one of the aeroplanes that took part in the operation. He was taking part in a war he had foreshadowed, but when he wrote "Tho Riddle of the Sands" he did not imagine that he might be serving in the air.