AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 28 February 1938, Page 13

AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE

CRUSADER'S ARRIVAL IN 1574

PASSENGERS AT ANNUAL REUNION Eighteen of the 300 passengers who came, to New Zealand in the famous clipper ship Crusader in 1874 were among those who attended the fourteenth annual meeting on Saturday of the Clipper Ship Crusader Association. The meeting, which was held at the Jellicoe Hall, was attended by 60 persons, who discussed incidents of that trip which was, perhaps, the most eventful of the Crusader's 28 voyages to this country. Exhibits and photographs of interest which had been collected by the members were shown and discussed. Mr R. B. Dalley, who presided at the meeting, explained to "The Press" that it was now the aim of the association to, gain the support of all voyagers on the Crusader, irrespective of the year, and new names, were coming in each year. The children and descendants were being included in the association, and it was with their welfare that it was the most greatly concerned. Those of the actual voyages present were Mr and Mrs A. Newman, Mesdames A. Roberts, E. J. Hammon, S. Wood. J. E. Rogers, and S. M. Durilop, Messrs R. B. Dalley, R. Doak, W. A. Collins, H. Quartermain, C Goodtt, G C. Jowers, M. W. Woodfield, W. Burns, W. A. Webb, J. Cleland, and F G. Evans. The following officers were elected for the coming year:— Patron. Mr H. Hearn; president, Mr R. B Dalley; vice-presidents. Captain u. M. Renaut, Messrs P. A. Irving, J. Cleland, A. Collins, and F. G. Evans: secretary, Mr M. W. Woodfield; executive, Messrs J. Singleton, J. H. Timms, C Timms, P. Timms. W. W. Burns, E. Evans, E. A. Alexander, R. Doak, G. lAllmaton, T. A. Austin. Mesdames E. J. Hammon and C. Timms. The Voyage fa 1874 \ On December 31, 1874, the clipper i ship Crusader, 96 days out of Graveslend, arrived at Lyttelton after what was perhaps the most eventful of her 28 voyages to this country. _ After leaving the Azores the ship, which had a gross register of 1058 tons, and was carrying more than 300 passengers, began to leak, making as much as 24 inches an hour. The captain, Mr C. M. Renault, was temnted to put into a South American port, but the ship s doctor, Dr. J. Guthrie, of Christchurch, advised against this, as yellow fever was rife in the ports at that time. The ship was therefore held on, and by the time the Cape of Good Hope was reached the seriousness of the leak decreased, and there was. no need to put into port. An anxious time was experienced when the leak became again serious, and the supply of pump leather gave out in the southern seas. The boats, fully provisioned, were swung out in readiness, and a bucket brigade was formed by the younger passengers to supplement, the pumps. An appeal to an American ship for pump leather was ignored, and the ship carried on to port leaking badly. After the emigrants were landed and the cargo discharged, the ship was docked at Port Chalmers, were a hole, in which was the skeleton of a .fish, was located. It is thought possible that the fish's body, blocking the orifice when the ship was leaking in the Cape of Good nope, prevented the water from flowing more freely. ,■„*,. „,. - * The family of Dr. J. Guthrie, Christchurch, has the skeleton in its possession. The hole was attributed to corrosion of the iron bottom by an earlier cargo of copper. The Crusader, which was launched in 1865. was considered the fastest clipper m the Shaw. Savill fleet, and brought more than 8000 people to New Zealand. A smart figurehead of a crusader graced the prow of the ship, and her general appearance was that of a well-kept yacht.