MISSIONARY SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 275, 16 August 1932, Page 2

MISSIONARY SHIPS

Vessels of the ’Fifties SOME EARLY VENTURES Voyages for Christianity Much has been written of- the steamer Southern Cross, now laid up in the upper harbour at Auckland, awaiting a buyer, and of her many years’ service with the Melanesian Mission, but, says the “Star,” nothing has been said of the pioneer ships that voyaged to the islands in the cause oft. Christianity more than half a century ago. According to Mr. A. E. Prebble, M.A., a divinity student at St. John’s College, it was after Bishop Selwyn had made a voyage to Rotuina in 1848 in H.M.S. Dido that the bishop began to make plans for his first missionary voyage to the islands. In 1847, Bishop Selwyn had purchased the 20-ton Auck-land-built schooned Undine for travelling round the New Zealand coast, and it was in that tiny vessel that, on the first day of August, 1849, he sailed for the mission fields. Two months later the schooner returned to Auckland bearing four native boys, whom the bishop called “the first fruits of Melanesia.” Early in the following year the Undine made her second voyage to the islands, taking back the native boys, so that they would not be in Auckland during the winter. Soon after her return the Undine was sold for £250, a price £7O less than had been paid for her. Badly Built First Vessel. In September, ISSO, Bishop Selwyn attended a meeting of the Australian bishops at Sydney. It was at this meeting that the Australasian Board of Missions was created for the purpose of undertaking missionary work among the natives of Australia and the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific. In May of the following year, largely through the generosity of the dioceses of Sydney and Newcastle, the Northern Mission, as the Melanesian Mission was then called, was presented with its first vessel, the Border Maid, a vessel of 100 tons, costing £l2OO. The bishops of Newcastle and New Zealand had been chosen to be missionary bishops, and in July, 1851, they sailed from Auckland for the islands. When the ship returned to Auckland she had on board 13 native boys. A second voyage was made in the following year, when 23 scholars were brought to Auckland for education at St. John’s College. But the Border Maid was badly built and ill-found, and in June, 1852, she was sold for £lOOO. The mission was then without a ship, and the approach of winter in 1853 made it necessary to return the native scholars. As no ship was available in Auckland. Bishop Selwyn took the boys to Sydney in the Daniel Webster, and returned them to their homes in the barque Gratitude, chartered at a cost of £3OO. On his return to Auckland the bishop went to Norfolk Island, in company with Sir George Grey, in H.M. brig Victoria, and called at Nengone, where the Rev. W. Nihill and his wife were placed as the first resident missionaries of the Melanesian Mission. At the end of the year Bishop Selwyn sailed for England, where he made stirring appeals for assistance in his work. He returned to New Zealand in July, 1855, with his new recruit, John Coleridge Patterson. A few days after the bishop returned to the Dominion the Southern Cross No. 1 (.100 tons), the £lBOO gift of friends and supporters in England for the work in Melanesia, arrived at Auckland. For four years this little vessel served the mission faithfully and well, but her end came on June 18, 1860, when she was wrecked in the vicinity of the Hen and Chickens. Chartered Ships. With the wreck of the Southern Cross No. 1, the mission was again without a ship, and from 1860 to 1863 it had to depend upon chartered vessels—the Zillah, the Dunedin and the Sea Breeze, all unsuitable vessels for missionary work. In 1863 the Southern Cross, No. 2, a brigantine of 93 tons, built in England at a cost of £3932, was purchased. The vessel made her first voyage to the Islands in May, and for ten years rendered useful service, although Ute rapid progress of the mission had convinced the authorities of the necessity of obtaining a vessel equipped with auxiliary power. Toward the end of 1872 an order was placed with Messrs. Henry Niecol and Sons, shipbuilders, of Auckland, for the building of a three-masted topsail schooner of ISO tons, fitted with an auxiliary steam engine, to be known as the Southern Cross No. 3. The cost of the ship was £5OOO, of which the sum of £2OOO was contributed from a fund collected in memory of Bishop Patteson, who bad been murdered by the natives in the previous year. Considerable delay occurred in the building of the new ship, and it was not until March, 1874, that she was launched. For eighteen years the Southern Cross No. 3 served the mission, building up

a reputation for sea worthiness and speed. It was this vessel that was eventually sold to Captain IV. Ross, of Auckland, and renamed Ysabel, under which name she traded in the Pacific for many years until finally destroyed by fire a few years ago. The Southern Cross No, 4 arrived in March, 1892. She had been built in Essex, and was a three-masted topsail schooner of 240 tons, fitted with an auxiliary- engine, and had cost over £lO,OOO. At the beginning of hetvoyage she had struck severe weather in the English Channel and had been forced to return to port for repairs and alterations. The history of the Southern Cross No. 4 formed a striking contrast to that of her predecessor. Largely it was a record of unfitness and misfortune, terminating with her tragic loss by fire and explosion. The history of the Southern Cross No. 5, the steamer that Is at present laid up at Auckland, has already been published. Her successor, the Southern Cross No. 6, is expected to arrive in Auckland early in October.