THE REFLOATED BARQUE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 58, 6 September 1917, Page 8

THE REFLOATED BARQUE

LAUNCHED THIS MORNING.

The big sailing vessel which went ashore at Pencarrow Heads some weeks ago, and which during her long stay on the Wellington Patent Slip for repairs, has been one of the "show places" of the city, was successfully relaunched from the cradle this morning. ; Some thousands of spectators—including many of the juvenile element of society—were present to witness the somewhat unique sight, and the hillsides in the immediate vicinity of the slip were crowded with people. The weather, which was so threatening in the earlier part of the day, cleared up wonderfully, and with the sunlight dancing on her gleaming white upperworks'and the multi-coloured flags fluttering in the wind, the ship presented a: very brave sight. One old veteran, with seafarer written large oyer him, stood by, literally drinking in every line of the ship, and it was not hard to see that his thoughts were flying back half a century, when such vessels were not the exception but the rule. 4s soon as the, work of clearing away the temporary roadway was completed, the accommodation-ladder was drawn up, and at a wjiistle-signal, the big vessel began to move smoothly sea-wards. Everything went 'without a hitch. Although the barque has passed the 25 year mark, Her hull is in a really remarkable state of preservation, and .it.,;was not difficult to imagine that she' was a new vessel taking the water for the first ..time, and not a veteran which had weathered a quarter of a century. The master of the vessel has taken advantage of her enforced stay here to-thoroughly overhaul her, and nothing hae been left undone. ' She will probably remain in port to undergo overhaul to her rigging before leaving New Zealand.