SCOWS AND SCOWMEN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 3

SCOWS AND SCOWMEN

IN AND OUT OF WELLINGTON. THE VESSELS' EVOLUTION. TRAMPING THE TASMAN SEA, (By Eareyo.) Some schooners havo ac much contempt for scows as blood-horses have for camels or donkeys. The writer onco stepped to the galley of a schooner by the Railway Wharf, and remarked, deliberately, to the cook : "How do you like life on this scow ?" The cook wa& chewing tobacco, and he shifted the quid fiercely from side to side of his mouth before this answer rumbled out : "Scow ? You'd better get a pilot to take you round. Scow? Live on a scow? I'd be sorry to die on a scow." This lofty sailor attitude probably dates back to the first specimens of scows in Auckland, which were as ugly as anything ever run into the sea. Later models were not without some grace. The Echo, which spread her wings for Karamea to-day, has lines to please even very critical saltish eyes. THE CHILD OF NECESSITY. Along the timbered inlets of Auckland's much-indented coast there was need for something like a scow to run logs or sawn timber down; hence the scow arrived. The first vessels were rudely fashioned with axej saw, hammer as principal tools. They were rough tramps of the sea, but they did their work well in the shallow water, from which steamers of respectable tonnage were banned by their deeper draught. However, the steamers now have their revenge. Some of Auckland's many scows are squatting in idleness on the blue Waitemata. Little fussy steamers have pushed out some of the wind fleet. It has occurred to man to make rafts and get them towed by a steamer. MORE AND MORE VENTURESOME. Auckland's first scows were like a great oblong box. Th*y were squarish, Hat-bottomed, with a good centre-board and no hold. The timber was taken on deck. This primitive type may yet be seen, though time lias brought improvement in some structural d-etails. The square stern, flat bottom, and centreboard are the leading traits of all scows. They soon ventured out of Auckland waters ; steadily they nosed a passage south ; bravely they thumpw l the water all around New Zealand. Naturally Australia entered the scow men's heads, and the Tasman Sea was conquered. Even some of the larger deck scows have flown, to Australia and back year after year, always with timber — softwood there, hardwood back. Others, with holds, run timber across and bring coal back from Newcastle. The scows have the fore-and-aft schooner Tig, pnd the larger three-masters carry square topsails on the fore. The flat bottom enables them to fling out twice as much canvas as a keel vessel in a brisk breeze. ■ In a fair average wind, a fair average scow will reel off six or eight knots an hour, lengthening to fourteen knots if the wind is roaring. Some of the scows have an auxiliary engine to help on calm_ days, . and in working in and out of tricky channels. Empty, a scow, capable of stowing 20,0 tons, may draw only 2Jft forward and 4ft aft. Has the scow family a Dutch ancestor? Holland sends out to the stormy North Sea and the Baltic a sailer of shallow draught. Instead of a centreboard the Dutch craft have a board at each side. "PILE-DRIVING." About four years ago several mishaps to scows in rough water within a few weeks got some searching questions asked about these vessels, and some regulations 'were made about ballast when the boats were sailing without cargo. It was a distressing chapter of accidents, but apparently the ill-luck has left the scows.' They hays not suffered notably during tho past three or four years. A master mariner, who has kept long watches on every type of deck, has come to love the scow. A few years ago thenetion of'scowing" was an abomination to him, but he was in an eccentric mood one day, crowded down his nausea, and shipped on a scow ; since then he has used no other. Tho .Echo's ruaster ? Captain Holm, says that scows do not rolf like the "'keelers," such as schooners. However, it they are travelling light they may "pile-drive." The bow is lifted up by the mischievous waves, and then tluids down. , If any of the men are then trying to sleep in forward quarters they can keep trying. The "pile-driving*' sends jars and shudders through the body, and ceases not at any quantity of reviling. The "pile-driving" is much modified by a full load, and is barely felt aft at any time. On most of the deck-scowd the living quarters aro all aft. Master and mate sleep on one side of a partition and tho crew on the other. CROSSING THE BAR. Scows can take far more liberties lhan steamers with river bars. A ecow, at a pinch, can bump in, with a following sea, but it is a diflercnt matter getting out. A ecow may be imprisoned for afortnight behind the Karamea bar, waiting for sufficient smooth water. One bump on the run out, against a isca making into the river, may, turn the vessel's head away, and she may get come severe treatment. Therefore keen well-practised ©yes have, to keep watch for the right time for a dash outward. Master and mate catch a full share of manual toil. The ecow men have to be all of tho brand "handy." Any young fellow, with a craving for days packed with interest, can feed that way to- the full on one of the scows that flutter gently along the coast of the North Island or over the Tasman Sea. They will learn much physical geography and Bomcthing about the staro, perhaps, and they will discover the difference between white and black pine, and the differencebetween a bag of chaff and a bag of wool.