END OF FAMOUS SHIP.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 March 1928, Page 7

END OF FAMOUS SHIP.

E. R. STERLING TO BE BROKEN UP.

LAST EVENTFUL VOYAGE RECALLED.

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, March 24.

There is a distinct touch of pathos in the fact that the E. It. Stirling is to end her forty-five years of noble life at the shipbreakers’ yard. The [terrible battering the vessel ie< cited on her last voyage meant the end.

“She is to bo towed round this week-end; then we part,” said Mr.'E. It. Sterling. “1 could refit her at a cost of £SOOO, but freights are depressed.’’ , An expert says that- in the present state of the market the E. It. Sterling, for which her captain once rejected an offer of £15,000, would not realise more than £4OOO. Captain Sterling is undecided as to the future. He thinks lie may give up sailers in favour of steam. I nany case, he is going to America first, then to Australia. A touch of the sea dog was apparent when he was informed the ship would have- to be ballasted in order to be towed. Captain Sterling said: “It is not necessary to have her ballasted : I will stay aboard throughout the tow and show you.”

An epic of the sea. was revealed hy the arrival, on January 31. at Victoria Docks, on the Thames, under tow. of the famous sailing ship E. R. Sterling, over nine months after her departure from Adelaide with 50,000 tons of wheat. Such an adventurous voyage has not befallen her in all the years she has sailed the southern seas. She rounded Cape Horn, meeting nothing worse than icebergs, but 300 miles north-east of the Falklands a terrific tropical hurricane ripped out the mizzen and driver masts, killing the chief mate. Steps taken to repair one and carry on were successful, despite raging seas. A month later, while slowlv progressing. the already crippled vessel encountered a hurricane. and three mast's were, n’ped out the lifeboats stove in. the bulwarks damaged. and the wireless aerial blown awav.

The E. R. Sterling is an iron sixmnsted bnvquentine, 9577 tons, built iooo Ha, 'o, nd . rmd miff at Belfast in lAB3. She is owned bv the Sterling Slim ping Company (E. R.. Sterling and registered at Seattle, U S 4