NEARLY 90 YEARS OLD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 304, 19 September 1936, Page 12

NEARLY 90 YEARS OLD

. ? . • /• ■:A - --’-: .s’--'L 1 * Ancient Coal-hulk Still Does Duty . — THE PRINCE OF WALES ■ Black and drab, the coal-hulk Prince of Wales swings at a mooring buoy in Wellington Harbour, off Kaiwarra. Hundreds of people passing along the Hutt Road, or looking out over the harbour from their hillside homes, set eyes daily on the hulk, but few are sufficiently interested to let their glance linger. The Prince of Wales has the distinction of being one of the Oldest ships afloat in New Zealand waters; she is nearly 90, she has sailed all round the world, traded in the frozen Arctic, played a proininent part in the commercial history of New Zealand —and spent some 30 years as a coal hulk about Port Nicholson. And it is said that a Prince once dined on board her. Built in 1850 at Southampton for the Hudson Bay trade, the Prince of Wales was constructed particularly solidly of English oak, than which few woods are better able to withstand the test of time and salt water. To this, and to the great strength of her timbers, designed to resist the pressure of Arctic ice, is largely due her great longevity. It is stated that when she was christened, the then Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII, performed the ceremony, and dined on board the vessel which he had honoured with his title. Searched for Missing Explorer. In 1856 the Prince of Wales was fitted out as the expedition ship to be sent into the Arctic ‘Circle in search of the missing explorer, Sir John Franklin. Later she came into colonial watqrs; it is possible that she was one of the early immigrant ships that landed settlers in New Zealand, but the name was a not uncommon one, pnd several ships bearing it visited the coast. The first certain record of her seems to be when she was purchased in England, fitted out for the freezing' of mutton carcases, and converted from a sailing ship; to a twin-screw auxiliary steamer. She arrived at Napier in 1889 after a 124-day passage from London, and was used as. a freezing factory and storeship at Gisborne until 1891. She was able to deal with 20Q carcases a day. She took a leading part in the establishment of the frozen meat export trade, establishing the Industry at Plcton in 1891; afterward, of course, it became the principal trade of that port. She was later a storeship for frozen meat at Port Chalmers. » So much for her history. Since 1906 she has been a coal hulk at Wellington, owned by the Union Steam Ship Company. Her oaken timbers are as sound as ever, her planking as tight. There is every prospect of her lasting out a century of service. Veterans of the Sea. Although old among ships in these waters, the Prince of Wales is by no means one of the world’s veterans. On the English coasts there are ships still working actively that would make this hulk appear comparatively juvenile. The/ coastal trading ketch Ceres, still taking an active part in the Bristol Channel and West Coast carrying trade, wag built at Salcombe in 1811.

The sailing barge Favourite of Rochester) occupied largely in carrying dry cargoes in the estuaries and inland waterways, was built in 1803: 133 years old, and still at work. • The Tilikum, the Indian war eanoe In which Captain J. C. Voss made his famous circumnavigation of the world in 1904, was stated to be over a century old then; after being abandoned for many years at Hamble, she was stated last year to have been reconstructed, and to have taken a new lease of life as a motor launch. However, the Tilikum could hardly be classed as a ship in the normal sense. Many of the sailing craft that trade in the Aegean and East Mediterranean, however, are reputed to bb of even greater antiquity.