MYSTERY VISIT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 200, 21 May 1936, Page 11

MYSTERY VISIT

Ship Joseph Conrad Seen Off Wellington NO SIGNALS MADE Full-rigged Vessel Passes Through Cook Strait Au unusual and beautiful sight, a full-rigged ship under all sail was seen off Wellington heads yesterday afternoon. Shortly after 3 o’clock the signalman on- Beacon Hill was astonished to see her come round Sinclair Head. The vessel stood in on the port tack ami appeared to be making for the harbour. When about two miles and a half off Pencarrow Head, however, she squared away to the southeast and passed out beyond Baring Head, aud she was still steering that course when last seen at dusk. The ship, which was identified as the Joseph Conrad, made no signal, though she hoisted her ensign when out oil Lyall Bay. The signalman could not make out the letters of her name which through his telescope was seen to be a double one. While the ship was heading toward Penearrow, the Tamabine, outward bound for Bicton, passed close by her, the steamer's company thfls getting a "close-up” of what is to-day a very rare sight at sea. The Tamahlne passed near enough to read the ship’s name, aud identify her. She was carrying foresail, mainsail, three topsails, three topgallant sails and two or three fore-and-nfters. -She had no royals. On a World Cruise. Sailing round the world in leisurely fashion, the Joseph Conrad reached Auckland from Melbourne on February 21, after a three-weeks’ Tasman traverse, She passed a week in the Waitemata, anchored iu the stream, and left on February 27 for New Guinea. She had on board, besides four New Zealand .cadets, a party of Australian gold prospectors. Captain A. J. Villiers then stated that he would visit Papua, later sailing east to Tahiti, Cape Horn ami England.

The little sailing ship was built at Copenhagen in 1882, and rebuilt in 1906. She was used as a training ship by the Danish Government, being then known as the George Stage. In 1934 Air. A. J. Villiers, author of “By Way of Cape Horn” and other books on sailing craft, purchased her when she was destined for the ship-breaker. He took her to Harwich, and fitted out for n world cruise, setting sail iu October of that year.

The Joseph Conrad is a ship of only 203 tons. She has no engine. She met heavy weather in the Channel and took nearly three weeks to reach Madeira from Harwich. Thence in 35 days she made Nassau, in the Bahamas. At New York she carried away her moorings and piled pp on the rocks of the Brooklyn shore. She was badly holed, am! afterward, through bumping on a pier, nearly sunk within sight of the sky-scrapers of New York. Afterward the Joseph Conrad sailed for Australia via Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good'Hope, the East Indies, and New Guinea. She reached Sydney on December 9, having sailed some 30,000 miles in about 15 months. Cook Strait Coincidence. It is now just over seven years since the last sailing ship passed through Cook Strait. She was the Finnish fullrigged ship Grace Harwar, owned by Captain G. Eriksson, of Alariehamu. If the ship sighted yesterday was the Joseph Conrad there is the extraordinary coincidence that her owner was also on the Grace Harwar on that occasion. In April, 1929, Air. Villiers and a youthful friend, Air. Ronald G. AValker, signed on before the mast; in the Grace Harwar at Wallaroo, South Australia. They took with them a cinema camera and some 6000 feet of film, their idea being to make a moving picture of life in a sailing ship. The Grace Harwar sailed from Wallaroo on April 17, 1029, with a cargo of wheat for Queenstown for orders. After crossing the southern Tasman Sea, t<be ship was held up by southeasterly gales and headed up to pass New Zealand through Cook Strait. Delayed for several days in sight of Mount Egmont, the Grace liarwar passed through Cook Strait just after dusk in the evening of Alay 8, 22 days out from Wallaroo. The master of the Grace Harwar, using an old electric torch, signalled the ship’s name and reported “all well” to Beacon Hill signal station, and then stood away before a fresh nor’-wester on his course for Cape Horn. Seventeen days later, Villiers's companion, Ronald AValker, was killed by being crushed between the fore upp«r and lower topgallant yards, while working aloft. The Grace Harwar

finally arrived at Queenstown on September 3 after a long passage of 1381 days from Wallaroo. The story of the passage is (old by Villiers in his book “By Way of Cape Horn.” The Grace Harwar was sold last year to shipbreakers,