SHIPS AND THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 25

SHIPS AND THE SEA

(Hy "Helmsman.")

Wellington's historic hulks are gradually disappearing. From a fleet, of more than twenty tkey have dwindled, with the passing years, to a mere halfdozen. The William Manson met her fate by fire on Ward Island recently, and this week the old four-masted schooner Holmwood left Wellington for "Port Underwood where she will be broken up. Although many of the vessels which have served as hulks at Wellington played such- important parts in the industrial evolution of Australia and New Zealand and had most colourful careers, sentiment cannot be considered when their days are over.

Another of these humble but essential servitors is the hulk Alameda, which still rides proudly at her mooring

buoy after more than 20 years of Wellington's "blown seas and stormy showers." This vessel was launched at Bath, Maine, in 1876, being of 1474 tons gross and ship-rigged. For some years she sailed up and down the North American coast and later commenced regular voyages with lumber from Maine ports to New South Wales.

Early in the morning of October 20, 1895, conditions in Sydney Harbour were somewhat foggy and the tug which had picked up the Alameda at the Heads was making a slow job of getting her up the harbour, for the ship was deeply laden. Suddenly, out of | the murk, loomed the steamer Indrani, outward-bound for Hamburg, and with a bone in her teeth. LAST LONG VOYAGE. She crashed into the ship's starboard quarter and the Alameda heeled over with the terrific impact. She was stoutly built, however, and the buttress of timber stacked on the decks enabled her to stand up sufficiently long for the tug to run her on to the beach at Johnson's Bay. The steamer crept back to the wharf with a broken nose and engine displacements. A survey showed that the Alameda's deep-sea journeyings were eroded and her American owner, Aimer Young Frask, agreed to her being offered at auction. She ■ was sold, on December 20, 1395, to Henry Beattie, for £550. and on January 28, 1897, she passed into the possession of William Scott (representing the Westport Coal Company) for £1050. She was made seaworthy for the trip across the Tasman, her rig wasaltered to that of a barque and, after her registry had been transferred lo Dunedin, on February 25, 1897, the late Captain Ferdinand Holm (of the Holm Shipping Company) took command and sailed her to Wellington. Despite her 63 years in the seaways the old ship appears likely to continue her useful life for at least another decade. Her owners (she has not changed hands since 1897) keep her in good trim. That is the story of the ship, and no doubt the histories of many of the hulks in New Zealand harbours would furnish a great deal more in the way I of romance and tragedy and the wild | sea law of windjammer days; but few of them can match the Alameda's record of having been, over a period of 20 years, the home of a family of six girls and three boys, the children of -the ship's "husband" (Mr. A. J. Briggs) and his wife. CONDITIONS ON HULK. Women whose children have been born and reared j ashore, with doctors and nurses available at the least real or apparent need, can have no conception of the conditions that faced this gallant mother of nine sturdy New Zealanders. Anchored nearly two miles from shore, the Alameda had to take what came in the way of winds and sea and she got full issues when southerly and northerly gales roared across the harbour on hundreds of occasions during the last twenty years. When the ship was fully laden with coal (she has capacity for 2000 tons) she just dug herself in and held on to her mooring chains and, deep' down though she was, tossed violently in ' the heavy seas. But actually the most ; disturbing conditions prevailed when ' the vessel was almost empty and a sea ] was running. Then, for days and nights on end, she would ride quietly up to her buoy until slammed by a ' sudden gust. She would then thun- ' der away to the range of her cable - and bring-to with a terrific jerk that made sleep, or even rest, quite impos- ' sible. : The care of children under these " circumstances was a whole-time job, - for they had to be kept below deck : where facilities for their amusement ' \\_re exceedingly meagre and the accommodation was, naturally, inadc- ; quate, according to the modern con- 1 ception of the air-space requisite for 1 growing children. . l. As the members of the family _ceached school ace the ©roblem of

LIFE IN A HULK

A HOME ON THE HARBOUR

getting them ashore each day became acute. For a time Mr. Briggs made the trip in the Alameda's launch and, as the nearest landing-place at the time was the Glasgow Wharf, it meant a threermile run night and morning. On many days, in both winter and summer, the state of the sea prevented the trip being made and there were days when the children reached the wharf drenched to the skin.

An end to the hazardous journeyings came when one day the boat, with its passengers aboard, swamped in a southerly. Later those of the family eligible for the school correspondence course were enrolled under that system. Those rare occasions when the Alameda was towed to a wharf for a few days were marked

- in red on the family's calendar and r when she came in the children kicked i their heels on grassy paddocks and I climbed trees far out of sight of the ; sea. Picture shows were a nightly i relaxation and small feminine noses I were flattened on many shop windows . behind which gorgeous raiment and frills and furbelows were displayed. , Two of the girls have married and : now the mother considers she is en- ; titled to shore leave and she will soon t say farewell to the sea, whose moods I in Wellington Harbour she has ex- > perienced during so many anxious t years, for Mr. Briggs has been for- , tunate in securing a State house. i IN BRITISH NAVY. i Mr. Briggs spent several years in the British Navy. He is a New Zea- . lander, but joined- H.M.S. Pembroke [at Chatham in July, 1903. She was , merely a depot ship and after getting [■ his sea legs in her he sailed for '. Australia in H.M.S. Diadem. At Syd- '. ney he was commissioned to H.M.S. , Mildura, of the Australian station. In '. September, 1904, he and 73 other rat- , ings were transferred to H.M.S. Lizard in order to make room on the Mildura , for the first batch of Australians for | the Commonwealth Navy. Lieutenant : Glossop, who.later distinguished him- ! self when in command of H.M.S. Sydney by sinking the Emden, was a lieutenant on the Lizard at -the time. Mr. Briggs nest saw -service in the : torpedo gunboat Boomerang,- and the ' first-class cruisers Wallaroo.and Euryalis. The Euryalis had relieved the , Royal Arthur as flagship of the sta- '.. tion. She proceeded to China and ', then on to England,- arriving there in, •January, 1906. There Mr. Briggs re- [ joined the Pembroke, remaining in ] her until November, 1906, when he ' boarded H.M.S. Vindictive, which was. taking ratings .for-H;M.S» Pegasus for service on the Australian Station. CASTAWAYS RESCUED. He was aboard the ship when, on May 12, 1908, she rescued the crew of the French four-masted barque President Felix Faure, wrecked on the Antipodes Island on March 13 of that year. The castaways had been marooned for 59 days, but had found ample food -in the depots provided by the New Zealand Government. The barque was of 2860 tons gross, and she was laden with nickel ore from New Caledonia. Mr. Briggs's next transfer was to H.M.S. Torch, which visited many islands in the western Pacific, and on her return to Sydney he was commissioned to H.M.S. Gibraltar, which had brought relief crews for ships' on the Australian Station. He proceeded Home in her and in 1909 was invalided out of the service.- Mr. Briggs has been ship's "husband" of the Alameda for 21 years. j