Mystery of a bell

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 21

Mystery of a bell

Timaru reporter Apart from the maker’s name, the inscription “11 in,” and the word "‘‘Boadicea’,’ there is nothing to disclose the origin of this ship’s bell, which has been refurbished by Mr J. G. B. Sandri, of Pringle Street, Timaru (shown above). Some mystery surrounds the brass bell, manufactured by Mears and Company, of London. The bell had been used on the Mitchell property ( P a r k s i d e Holdings) Weston, about nine kilometres from Oamaru, as a “mustering” bell summoning shearers and shed hands. There is no record in C. W. N. Ingram’s “New Zealand Shipwrecks 17951970” of the Boadicea, and no mention in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War 11. The bell is believed to have hung at the Oamaru

property for about 100 years, b ut this does not seem certain. Some light is possibly thrown by the book, “British Warships,” by F. J. Dittmar and J. J. Colledge, which lists every British and Dominion ship in service at the start of World War I. Boadicea 11, an Admiralty trawler with the port identification letters YH (Yarmouth), was previously the Henry Ford, it says. The Boadicea II also is shown as a hired drifter, and Boadicea 111 also served during the war. The Henry Ford was used for mine-sweeping and anti-aircraft duties. She was sold in 1921, and was the French Duperre in World War 11. The Admiralty decision to commission the Auxiliary Patrol with additional vessels of the Boadicea’s type necessitated a drifter construction programme. Chambers' Boy

Roy was used as the wooden prototype and “Ocean” type drifters built just before the war served as the steel prototype. By May, 1918, when contracts for the final order of 160 vessels were being let, 37 builders were engaged in the production of hulls. Most of these were sold in the early 1920 s for commercial fishing by various Government agencies which took over many of them from the Admiralty. The vessels which were retained as tenders served in most instances in World War 11. The wood drifters were of 94 tons gross. The bell might have come from Boadicea 111, in which case it would not have been on the homestead at Weston as long as is thought. Mr Sandri removed six to seven coats of paint from the 12.5 kg bell. “There was so much paint that the letters were indecipherable,” he said.