HER LAST VOYAGE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 304, 17 September 1908, Page 10

HER LAST VOYAGE.

THE HULK BLACKBALL. Shortly after daybreak on Tuesday morning the. Blackball Coai Company's hulk Blackwall left Lyttelton in tow of the powerful tug Canterbury. As soon as tlie vessels cleared I Lyttelton Heads the tug drew away about fi GOOft., a 12-incli hawser and two stout wire h hawsers being requisitioned for the voyage. A northerly swell was encountered till four j, miles from the Heads. Fine weather prevailed after, and Port Robinson was abeam at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. From this point a southerly wind set in, and the sails on the Blackwall were ® hoisted, and lout assistance to the Canterbury, I 1 although the speed of the vessels was not ap- J preciably increased. Kaikoura was passed at 6 p.m., and the wind had freshened consider- 5 ably. Five hours later Cape Campbell was abeam, and the Mararoa was sighted on her way to Lyttelton. Pencarrow light hove in sight at 2 a.m. yesterday, and the sails on the .DlackwaU were taken in shortly after.' At 3:55 ; a.m. .both boats were abeam of the light, having, occupied 20 hours 40 minutes in the trip from Heads to Heads—a creditable performance. Speed was reduced, and off Point Jorningham tue tow-lines were taken in, and tho Canterbury conducted lier charge to a berth at the King's Wharf. It-is-exactly half a century since the" old i Blackwall was launched from a ship-building 1 yard in Bath, Maine, U.S.A., the birthplace of i many famous wooden ships. As a full-rigged . ship tho Blackwall sailed for twenty-five years. Faithfully built of the best pasture oak'and pitch pino, with a' registered tonnage of 1130 tons, tho Blackwall was, in her palmy days, a good paying ship. ■ She carried 1850' tons ' deadweight, or 1,000,000 feet of timber. Ac- i cording to documents in possession of the Blackball Coal Company, she was surveyed at Cardiff in ISGG, at Londou in 1870, at St. John, New Brunswick, in 1871; in 1872, at London, she was partially rebuilt and fitted with new topsides, and classed A 1 for four years in the American register; she was docked at San Francisco in 1874, in London ISSO, and in Liverpool in 1881, and on every occasion she was passed as being thoroughly sound and seaworthy. In' 18S3 she was dismasted on the passage to Melbourne, and was towed into Hobson's Bay, where on January 4. 1883, she was. purchased by the New Zealand Shipping Company to end her. days in the inglorious capacity 'of .a soal-lulk. After being fitted with jury-masts, she was loaded with coal, and , came, to Lyttelton under the command ■of Captain Plwer." For the'past twenty-five years she has been in Lyttelton doing service as. a coal-hulk, .and some years ago she wis acquired by her present owners.. Her adventures, however, were not at an end, for on the night of April 5, last year, while: talcing in coal from the Petone, and coaling the dredge Manchester, she sank between Nos. 3 and 4 wharves, and she remained in her muddy bed on the harbour bottom for over six months. Messrs.- Knewstubb Bros., of Port Chalmers, made unsuccessful'attempts to raise her. Later on she was taken ill hand by Mv. M. J. Miller, and his splendid efforts, which attracted great attention and earned much praise from nautical people, were entirely successful. , After taking about COO tons oi coal out of her, he built stout bulwarks of timber, sheathed with canvas, round the vessel, to rcacli above high water, and in less than an hour after the Timaru suction dredge (hired from the Otago Harbour Board) got to work with her huge pump, the Blackwall floated on tho evening of October IG. A few months later Mr. Miller was entrusted by the Blackball Coal Company with the big and expensive work of repairing arid refitting the vessel to do duty once more as a coal-hutk. This involved a big outlay of money, and an immense amount of work. - The tug Canterbury, which has been ' out from the builders just about a year, proved herself a splendid towboat, and a good sea boat. At no stage of the trip was she pushed, and her engines;, which aro capable, of- 1050 horse-pawer, were not worked above-750. horsepower, but-nevertheless,she.made the passage from Lyttelton Heads to Penca'rrow, with a 1200-ton hulk, loaded with 520 .tons ofi'coal, at an average'speed of.eight knots.' \ . After'taking in coal and-stores the: tug left Wellington: about noon-on- the return Voyage to Lj tteltoh, where she ' is due early\ this morning.