AT SEA IN THE ’EIGHTIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 27 June 1944, Page 2

AT SEA IN THE ’EIGHTIES

CAREER OF CAPTAIN T. W. WHITWELL MASTER OF THE CHARLES EDWARD EXPERIENCE WITH M AUNG AT APE MURDERERS (By “Shellback”) Incidents in the career of an interesting maritime personality of the ’eighties. Captain Thomas Watson Whitwell. senior captain in the service of the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Coy., are given in the following contributed article. Captain Whitwell was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and ai rived as a young man in Australia in the year 1851 where he was present at the Ovens and Murray gold rush. The somewhat hectic living on the goldfields beginning to pall, he shipped in a orig trading between Victoria and New Zetaland. After some voyages to and fro between Australia and this country he decided to make Nelson his home port and from 1853 he engaged in sailing craft trading to the Wairau. On the Nelson and Marlborough Steam Navigation Coy. purchasing the vessel Tasmanian Maid, it was decided that Captain Whitwell should be given command of her and he was thus em- 1 ployed when the Taranaki war broke out. The steamer was immediately j requisitioned as a transport, and not a few exciting incidents were experienced by her intrepid skipper, and his crew while taking part in these duties. The Tasmanian Maid was used to convoy troops to Taranaki and would return with refugees. At times great difficulty was experienced in preventing the womenfolk from stowing away aboard the transport in order to rejoin their kinsmen in the warstricken area.

Captain Whitwell later had command of the small paddle steamer Lyttelton which was built in England and reached New Zealand after a long voyage. The firm for which she was intended had gone into liquidation and the Lyttelton came under the house flag of Messrs Edwards, Bennett and Symonas. shipowners, of Nelson, and Captain Whitwell became her master. Upon the discovery of the West Coast goldfields this firm purchased the steamers Wallaby, Kennedy. Nelson and Charles Edward. These formed the Anchor Line of steamers. Captain Whitwell commanded each of these steamers in turn but he was chiefly associated with the Charles Edward. “OLD CHARLIE” GOES OVERBOARD The Charles Edward was a smart tops’l schooner-rigged paddle steamer of 141 tons. An outstanding feature of the steamer was a slipper bow. surmounted by a figurehead representing the vessel’s namesake. Bonnie Prince Charlie. This effigy received damages from time to time by coming into contact with wharves during berthing operations. Finally one dark night Old Charlie, as he was familiarly termed, was knocked clean off his perch and lost in a flood tide. After that it was considered desirable to convert the steamer’s stem to the straight variety but with a rake, and further ornamentation was dispensed with. RECORD TRIP TO SYDNEY In those days New Zealand possessed no dey docking facilities and it-was deemed necessary to dispatch the Charles Edward to Sydney in order to effect certain repairs to her hull and machinery. Aided by her spread of canvas and favourable gales Captain Whitwell made the run in something like four days. This was a record for those times, though it must be remembered that the Charles Edward could always average her ten knots under. steam alane. In her latter days the

j vessel was converted into a twin-screw ; steamer and though much of her smart : appearance was sacrificed by the re- ; moval of the paddle sponsons and j tops’l yards she still did long and faith- ! ful service. In the end the Charles Edward closed her career by becoming a total wreck on the Wanganui bar, in December 1908. PLOT UNCOVERED The West Coast gold rush days were perhaps the most colourful in Captain Whitwell’s sea life. With large quantities of gold being shipped weekly to Nelson, added responsibility and adventure was the order of the day. On one occasion Captain Whitwell numbered among his passengers none other than the infamous members of a bushranging gang who afterwards made history as the Maungatapu murderers. As was the custom in those days, no passengers were allowed to carry firearms when sailing on coastal steamers, this being the prerogative of the ship’s officers. On this particular trip Captain Whitwell was well aware of the identity of his rather unwelcome passengers and it may be certain that a strict watch was kept on them. Vigilance met its reward when during the early part of the night which had to be spent at sea on the run from Greymouth to Nelson, he contrived to overhear the hatching of a very pretty plot c#n the part of the desperadoes. It was this: During the hours of the early morning watch the members of the gang in question were to essay a raid on the ship’s galley with the object of acquiring the cook’s supply of choppers and butcher’s knives. .With these in their possession they would then be in the position to effect a hold-up and to destroy all their fellow passengers and such members of the ship’s company who would not fall into line with their plans. Having accomplished this they would enforce the remaining ship's officers to navigate the steamer to Australia where it is presumed they intended to land at some lonely spot, taking with them the gold they knew to be on board. However their schemes were brought to nought. The galley was broken open according to plan, but the place was found to be absolutely bare of all instruments with which a crime of such magnitude could be effected. Captain Whitwell had been there first and all the shining array of knives were lying securely locked away in the skipper’s cabin. CROSSING THE BAR Captain Whitwell rose high in his profession as a coastwise shipping master and at the end of his career he held the position of second senior ship master in the colony. Captain Kennedy being his senior at the time. As is the case to-day the Greymouth bar would often prove unworkable and it would be nothing to see a considerable fleet of vessels steaming off and on, awaiting a favourable opportunity to enter the port. Among the waiting merchantmen would often be found the Charles Edward, and when the signal would go up from the tip head for the first steamer to make the passage, it would invariably be found that Captain Whitwell had been chosen to make the trial by water . With a long line of vessels trailing in her wake the Charles Edward would make a gallant dash at the foam-crested bar. Swept from stem to stern by the advancing billows, and under the able pilotage of her watchful master—who would more of-

ten than not be lashed to his bridge rail —the little steamer would finally glide to safety in the smooth waters beyond the turbulent harbour’s mouth. RETIRED TO FARM Like many sailors Captain Whitwell had dreams of retiring to a farm life when his seafaring days were over and in this he was successful. For some years after his retirement from the sea the captain and his sons occupied farming land in Marlborough. Subsequently the Marlborough property was disposed of and with one of his sons, the late Mr Frank Whitwell, the captain spent the balance of his retirement in agricultural pursuits at Wakapuaka. The captain towards the end of his days became an enthusiastic bowler and despite his advancing years he vigorously cycled the nine miles of country road on his journeys to and from the city and its bowling green. Captain Whitwell passed away in 1904 at the age of 74 years.