MEMORIES OF THE EIGHTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 27

MEMORIES OF THE EIGHTIES

(By "Argus.")

SAILING TO EL DOEADO

PART I.

Mention in these columns of the fine | old clipper Orari has called to mind a host of memories to at least one old sailor. Mr. J. A. Holland, sen., of Mornington, who arrived in Wellington on the Orari on December 4, 1882, writes me a long letter telling of some of the seafaring personalities to be met with in Wellington in those days, and o| a voyage to the Kimberley goldfields. When Mr. Holland came out. on the Orari she was under the command Of Captain Worcester, with Mr. Taylor as first and Mr. Moorehouse as second officer. "We had passengers, immigrants, and crew numbering some 120 v-iople all told," he writes, "and were 103 days out. If I remember rightly, I think the surgeon was Dr. King, who had charge of the asylum for a few years afterwards. The crew was a double one, half being paid with a shilling a month and passage."' Mr. Holland obtained employment with Stewart and Company in Courtenay Place, where he stacked timber and pooled logs ashore from the barque Kentish Lass. "Here I met several old identities," goes on Mr. Holland, "among- them the late Captain L, Holmes, who was a pilot here for 24 years. I also,remember Captain Williams, who gave the city the Seamen's Rest, and James Turner, watchman for the board when Captain Williams ran his barques to Newcastle for coaL Many a yarn Mr. Turner told me about Captain Williams coming in the middle of the night to see if he were about. If he did not see him he would set'out to find him, and when he did find him he would give him a good bullying. Afterwards the captain would cool down and take, a walk around the wharf, then come back and put a halfsovereign in Turner's hand, and say to him, 'Mind you look after my ships • well when they are in port, or it'll be the worse for you.' He had a rough, exterior but a kind heart. BY SAIL TO KIMBERLEI. "At the tune when Kimberley was advertised as a new, goldfleld, and when Australia and New Zealand went mad and could not talk of anything else, Stewart and Company sent the Kentish Lass, a sailing barque, to South Africa. A friend of mine, who had been on the goldfields of Australia for years as well as in New Zealand, was interested, and as I was green and a *new chum' I also wanted to try my luck. "As we were both employees, we got the concession of getting our meals in the cabin at the second table. After getting everything that was needed in the way of tools, and outfit we had a day or two to have a look around town. My mate knew Mr. Seddon on the Coast, and as we h^^^^nnd to meet him on the Quay, he told him we were going over in the 'Lass' to try our luck. Mr. Seddon advised us strongly to stay where we were, but it was too late then to take any heed of his warning. "We left Wellington early in August, 1883. The Kentish. Lass had bunks fitted up in the hold for the passengers. I found we had passengers I had come to know previously. Captain Holmes was in charge, and we knew he was a sailor and "navigator of r"""'" Tdo not recollect who was his mate. I happened1 to be born only a few miles from where Captain Holmes was born, on Lake Malar, near Stockholm. We had a good deal in common when we had a chance for conversing with one another. I found we had aboard Mr. Brown, for years a watchman on the wharf, Mr. James Turner, several travellers • from Wellington firms and many others. Kempthorne Prosser were; represented by Mr. Wood, who afterwards set up as a chemist and is well known as the inventor of the peppermint cure which bears his name. I suppose he has passed on, as he must have been about 30 years old then. We had on board some 30 horses ' taken on board when we left Wellington, and we had only been out in Cook Strait about a day or two when we got a heavy southerly; : STEAD* PKQGRESS. "In less than a week we had thrown overboard 13 or 14 horses. After the first blow we got on fairly well, as we had plenty of passengers always on deck to give a hand. The captain was not afraid of head winds, as we were only too willing to pull the braces or the halyards at any time, head wind or fair wind. We sailed past the Great Barrier Reef (I think it was the inside passage between the mainland and the reef) without any incident happening other than a ; growl now and again and a boxing bout or two. ; > "After some three weeks we got in | between some of the islands and sand- ' banks in and around Thursday Island, the weather being quite tropical. Sometimes we had to put the boat out and tow the Lass to keep her from going ashore. On one of the islands we sighted a steamer that had been abandoned. She had been loaded with ; horses in Australia for the Army in India, but never got there. Sometimes1 we anchored, and at night or towards dusk we landed with the boat looking , for eggs from seabirds. We got quite a few and some tasted very little stronger than ordinary hens' eggs. We made our way as quickly as the wind : would take us and in due time got around the Cape and Torres Strait that divides New Guinea from Australia, and so entered the Gulf of Carpentaria. MANY SHARKS. "Never in all my seafaring days have I seen the quantity of sharks that, we saw in the Gulf. It was like a school of herrings. They were in thousands. Anyone who had fallen overboard Would not have had the slightest chance of his life. If you threw a rag overboard it was instantly swallowed. The seasnakes lay on top of the water in all sorts of variegated colours, basking in the sun. "As we got nearer to our anchoring ground we could see the people rushing down towards a temporary landing stage. Two or three boats came out and interviewed the skipper. One was manned by an auctioneer who had left Auckland in an earlier boat, and who had already commenced his business. Every thing had to be landed in small boats. Later there arrived one or two cutters that lightered the cargo ashore in a few days. Most of the luggage, tools, and such were landed, also horses, and traps and firearms of all descriptions which had -been brought by the would-be diggers."