SHIPS' BELLS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 23

SHIPS' BELLS

NUMBER IN WELLINGTON

ROMANTIC ASSOCIATION

There is a romantic association attacbed to ships' bolls. The distinctive tone of a ship's bell, becomes well known to those on board, so when the times comes for a ship to bo scuttled there is keen competition to see who will obtain possession of the bell. Many ships' bells are, therefore, housed with ship lovers, but some drift out of sight.

In an interview, Captain 11.I1. A. Macindoo, secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, said that it is the custom on board ship to strike the bell to devote the time of day, aud, every time eight bells are struck the watches are changed. At night the man on the look-out, after striking the bells, reporta the condition ctf the navigation lights to the officer on watch. The inscription on 'the Marine Bell hi*the National War Memorial Carillon is "Lights are bright and all's well," conveying the meaning that those seamen who paid the supreme sacrifice during the war finished their watch and left thoir lights burning, so all is well. Captain Macindoe said that during the war there were 2479 British merchant vessels lost through enemy action, and X 4,257 lives; 675 British fishing vessels were lost with 434 lives, and 1885. vessels damaged or molested, with a loss of 5!)2 lives, therefore when the bell spoke every British sailor should 10----member his duty to the Empire, and the watch below. Some of the tragedies of tho war mentioned by Captain Macindoo were the sinking of the Aparima on. Kovenibcr 19, 1917; the Port

Kcnibla sunk by. a mine oft' Cape Farewell, on. September 18, 1917; the-Wiui-inert sunk by a mine off North Cape on Juno 20, 1918, and the sinking of the Otaki on March, 10, 1917, by.'the_ Gorman raider JMoewe after the Otaki had put up a most gallant fight. SOME OF THE BELLS. One can trace a number of ships' bells in Wellington, but there are obviously a good many others about, some, it is thought, being in the schools. The Northland School lias the bell from the Torch, which was a gunboat. She -was renamed the Eama, and was wrecked in. the Chatham Islands in 1924. . There are sevon ships' bells in the possession, of the Swan family, of Wellington, well known in shipping circles. Among the bells are those from the Poherua, Kennedy, Yalniarie, Takapuna, Southern Cross, and .Kaponga. The Poberua was a Union Company vessel that, ■ after many years' service, was dismantled and sunk in Cook Strait in 1024. The Kennedy used to be a wellknown little coaster. The Vahnariewas a ,three-masted schooner built at Hubart in 1919. ■ She ,weut ashore at Farewell Spit,-but was-refloated. She was renamed tho'Jlapu, and is now a hulk, in Nelson. The Takapuna, a. Union Company vessel, was built in ISB3. She was dismantled iv 1925, and sunk in Cook Strait. The Southern Cross, a barqueiitinc, was the .second mission vessel of that name, but was afterwards sold and renamed the Ysabel, coming here for- G. 11. Scales. The ,Kaponga was recently wrecked on tho Greymouth Bar. In the bar room of the Tramway Hotel in Adelaide'Koad there are four ships' bells. Two are unnamed, but the other two belong to tho Waipara and Tarunaki. There have been several vessels named Waipara, so it is hard to say to which one tho bell belonged. There have ;il«o been a few ships named Taranaki, but as the bell has on it. the date, 1863, it suggests that the bell came from the Union Company's Taranaki, a vessel of 443 tons, that was lost at Tauranga in IS7S. The bel) of the Coromaudel, which was recently scuttled in Cook Strait, hangs outside the labour foreman's office On the Queen's Wharf. Thc'Tutiki's bell'is in the possession of a well-known master mariner. There is a ship's bell believed to be in the possession of a lodge. If any reader has knowledge of any other ships' bells in Wellington, notification of them would be welcomed in these columns. THE TAEAWERA'S BELL. An interesting discovery recently was that of tho Tarawera's bell in the auction rooms of Macfarlauc and Company; Ltd., Liehfield Street, Chriatohureli. The Tarawera, a vessel of 2003 tons, was built in 1882, and at that time was the first vessel in the United Kingdom to be fitted with /Edison'.s electric lights. For many years she carried passengers in the intercolonial trade, and also made several, trips to tin: Sounds. In 1017 she was converted into a cargo vessel,-and used-in the coastal trade, .In. 102S she was towed

to Paterson's Inlet, Stewart Island, where she now acts as a store ship. The bell remained iv the Union Company s workshop at Port Chalmers for two or three years. Mr. A. L. Macfarlane, a member of the firm of Macfarlane and Company, wonted a bell for his firm, so he -wrote to the Union Company, and ■ received the bell from Port Chalmers. I The "discovery" of the Tarawera's boll was made recently by an ex-purser of Hie vessel, Mr. W. Massey. In tho possession of Mrs. Morley Bell, Ilowick, there are two bells, and one of them is from the Northern Company's steel paddle steamer Wakatcre, 4-U'tons gross, which was built at Dumbarton in'ISOO. . . . I