GHOSTS OF THE PAST

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1935, Page 12

GHOSTS OF THE PAST

SWAN SONG OF “SEA BIRDS” In ths brief • shipping report that the Alaska Packers’ last four sailing ships have been sold to. Japan for breaking up is a note in ilie last swan song of sail which will echo round ■every port in the Seven Seas, writes Boyd Cable in a recent issue of a London Journal. . /• ' ‘ :

For many years the packers bought into their fleet ships that had made great history and were famous in the annals of fast passenger/ and sailing feats, of gallant battles against narrowly escaped disaster, of collisions and running down, wrecking, burning, scuttling, sinking and of salving arid resailing on a new lease of ’life; Many of these ships' were British built, and sailed under the Red Ensign until they were “sold foreign” to serve new masters, and came at last into the fleet of “Alaskan Stars,” as the ships were called from the firm’s rule of giving each a name of “Star of —” this or that country. One of the . four just sold is the Star of Hollafid, but there are few of the old hands in the great Brocklebank Line to-day who will riot remember her as their staunch old Zemindar, built by Harland and Wolff, one of their crack jute clippers,..und the last, sailing ship the firm, owned put of all their fleets that had .sailed, the waters of tlieu-wprjri’ 'cpirtinuphsly from 1775 until/ ..thirty., pO'. •/■’years’ ago, when steam; Tepla.cbd: : ’the liisfcx : t She had. ,'lier ■adventures, including-one, under..the German flag, of being:/titsmastedi t YtpYYe<L into port, and a total loss. But 'She wa*s repaired, ,’with rig cut dowii to barque-, and- f6r years after continued to make : passages that rivalled the best of h4r'jute clipper days'. • ; A more : tragic -tale Was of the Duth-barton-bhilt Star, .of .England, which was the BlaiririorS in : .1.92G, wvhen site was capsized- '.by/ . a.' - squall in Sari Francisco Bay,: lying at anchor in light’ ballast. ’Slie; went ’.over so : quickly that of the crew working in her hol'd only a. "few had - time -to escape, arid the hull with alive and thelsliifr copld be heard ..battering ..on the plates inside, • and /'frantic efforts /.were made to save'.them. Unfortunately,, instead of the ship being towed .in arid beached or made fast to supporting a hole was.nia'dejn the plates wherh she floated. As the released , aii’ whistled ..-out the!/ship swiftly settlM and slde .biiirig.^ av cd. ■ 1 ; Months laterslie was raised, sold to new,'owndrs,; Sailed 1 the world .fbr abotit feii: ye’arri;. rind?jn'/the Alaskan Stars 'fbF^hoth.eti : tWdnty. man.Y/AdvenWres. The Star of ' Scotland. was another ship raised ' from her:, -’watery grave As the .Kenilworth, /she'. With other ships, was fired by the. flames from a -bUrriin’g 1 building at the whrirf where they. were tied, up. They we'rO tdWed- clestr, nltiiaugli-. the , t>yq others were’ dOstfbyed; the Kenilworth was '/saVed- by. scuttling/ in water , from whifch; site/. could be' .raised. Eight years another narrow; eficdpe she put into port” s lWhhf,>cufgd .-on fire; and later agalri/-was/almost? jost in fierce gales off the Horri that-, drove her back to port . with wrecked, steering geriAv and •.rfgfeihgf Arid/ after it dll she?/sailed; under flag for a score/pf years.'.. ;,>■■ " Lfe E^ochsa, : beftse she •' became the Star of • Chlfe, j/ltad many claims to fame. Built in clipped styles and/Liverpool owned, she, cluicjcly made a reputation fdr speed, outstanding run being out to New York from Liverpool against the Westerlies in under 11 days. She was riiatched in two races against the famous American clipper ship Young America, being so unfortunate, in losing the first that she .was backed by wagers of thousands of pounds fot tho second; which,;- she /also lost. - ; . -■/

For about thirty years she was commanded:bjr'the one captain,' .wild ttiok her. over from the builders. 'HO lit'cj’allj’ made liei; ills' home, took' his wife and children to sea' with him, brought the throe boys up until they were serving him as . third, second and first mates;, dnd when he died at sea left his eldest soh. to take over command. She had done over fifty years active sea life before the Packers bought her, and a total of about sixty before she was converted into a towing barge/The Packers’ ship trade was like no other at sea/and offered a last refuge and livelihood to the bldtimers of stil driven out by stehni. The ships did only two to' -thHe' months’ sailing!; a year—from San Francisco to Alaska in the spring with cargoes of tinplate and materials for the salmon packing or canning and carrying also up to two hundred cannery woTkersj lying at anchor with only the captain and a fpw helpers aboard until the season finished, and than loading with the tinijfed salmon and the workers' to run bsck to ‘Frisco, discharge, and lay up uptil the spring. ' • ' Less than ten years ago there were over thirty-five shins, some of oser 3000 tons; in the -Alaskan; f%t. Now the last four ’ tire, kOld. v for Bio same inexorable reason "jliat ope so£ them, once famoi)s.a£Zcntind'ar, was sold by Brocklebanks and is now sold by the Packers —to be replaced by steam. The disappearance of the last Alaskan Stars is symbolic of the waning and. vanishing s.tar.’of sail.