ANOTHER RECORD

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1914, Page 10

ANOTHER RECORD

m SCHOONER'S REMARKABLE FEAT In these days when steam is rapidly replacing sail the sailing vessel is seldom looked upon as ft record-breaker. Nevertheless, some exceedingly good passages are recorded at intervals, but few can be compared with the remarkable feat accomplished by the auxiliary schooner Houto, which arrived in port early on Friday evening from Whangape. The little vessel completed the trip of over 420 miles in 46 hours, a record performance for a vessel of her type. The announcement occasioned no little surprise among the port officials, who, needless to say, could nardly believe the accuracy of the reported time the vessel took. However, when the Houto berthed at the Clyde-quay Wharf on Saturday Captain Anderson, the master, told a Post reporter that he cleared Whangape at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, and favourable winds, but accompanied by thick, heavy weather, he arrived at the Wellington Heads at 3 p.m. on Friday. At times during the passage the vessel averaged 14 knots, which made up for time lost during calms. This record is all the more noteworthy in view of.the fact that it is ten months since the Houto was overhauled. Also, she was deeply laden, having 100,000 feet of timber aboard for Wellington. On completion of discharge, produce will be loaded for/ Lyttelton, at which port tho vessel loads again for the North. The Houto was built at Sydney in 1908 by Messrs.N Davies and Mowatt, and has a gross tonnage of 77 tons. For some time she traded between Australia and New Zealand, but during the past feW/years she has been engaged in the New Zealand coastal trade. The Houto has a good record in the matter of fast passages, having many a time completed the journey between Dunedin and Hokianga in from three to four days. On one ocdasion she cut it out in a little over 52 hours, but owing to bad weather, at Hokianga she had to wait 'outside for a couple of days.