FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 31

FIFTY YEARS AGO

BARQUE HUDSON ASHORE

■ The. iron barque Hudson, a 794-ton vessel built ',16 years before by M. Pearse and Co., Stockton) and owned by the Shaw, Savill, arid Albion Company, went ashore at 3 o'clock on the morning of November 26, 1885, near Milford, about 12 miles north of Timaru. Under. Captain E. Thomas, she had left. London on August 15, 1885, The mishap occurred in a dense fog. When found by the tug Titan, the vessel was lying uninjured on a sandy beach. Her crew had all got ashore, but the captain's boat was nearly swamped as "he made for the mouth of ,the O'pihi River. Captain Thomas had bepn in charge of the first, immigrant Vesesl to Timaru in 1874.

According to Captain Thomas, the vessel had made the passage from London in 95 days to the Snares. The' Timaru lights were sighted on the evening of November 25, but she then stood out to sea on account of .'the fog. After standing off and on, she was caught in the current. The wind dropped, and she drifted down on to, the beach. A great amount of cargo was jettisoned the following day, and the morning after the tugs Lyttelton, Herald, and Titan succeeded in shifting the Hudson 50 feet. After several further attempts, when 300 tons of cargo had been taken out. of the vessel, she was towed off by' the three tugs on the evening of November 27. The tug Lyttelton towed her up to that port,* where she arrived two days, later. • ■

A report from the steamers! Opau and Pelham that they had seen the Hudson at auchor eight miles from Timaru evoked an indignant protest from Captain Stannard, of the barque

Bells.* He said that when his vessel was near Timaru in bazy weatherman the • night of the stranding' <he had ■ seen a bright' light and a red on* right ahead.' Hot knowing*hit fcotU tion, he had clewed up all sail, put the helm down, and was about to let ' go ihe anchor when the leadsman re» - ported 17 fathoms. It was then report ed that the light belonged to a steamer, and a blue flare was then lit, but the steamer took no notice. Captain'Stan* nard criticised the action of the steamer captain, pointing out that- a sailing vessel was helpless in light winds, and that the least the steam- x boat men could have done was to let the men of the barque know how Timaru bore. The blue flare was a universal call for assistance. . The steamer Lyttelton, which .-was undergoing'conversion from a paddle to a screw steamer, was reported on November v 26, 1885, to be ready for sea the following week. Compound enl?ines>of 30 h.p. had. been fitted at' Mr. Seager's yard, and high-pressure boilers were being placed in the vessel. She was able to carry 130 tons' of >:argo, and a new deckhouse and cabin amidships had been built for If pas* :;engers. She attained a speed of I luiots in' the harbour the previous day. '• The steamer Mohoka, sunk in' the Opawa River after collision with the Waihi, was lifted alongside the bank on-November 28, 1885, and cargo was being removed. When entering the Wanganui River on the,morning of December 1, 1885, the steamer Stormbird rtranded on . the south spit, inside' tin: bar. She was expected to get oft on the next tide, The Union Company decided on November 25, 1885, to send the first two steamers carrying the San Francisco mail, straight through to San Francisco, without transhipping at Hono* • lulu, as,was* originally intended.'