"AS STRONG AS IRON."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

"AS STRONG AS IRON."

BY WILL LAWSON.

FLAX FOR SHIPS' ROPES.

On a blue-skied, sunny day in the year 1856 the schooner Hope beat her way, a graceful, white-winged craft, up the wide waters of the Waitemata. The wind drummed in the taut backstays and topping lifts; her standing rigging was set up as rigid as wire; and as she carao into the wind with ;i rattlo of headsails her mainsail and foresail came down sweetly to be stowed by her smart crew. The halyards ran smoothly through thp blocks as good lines should. The headsails followed and a tug took her towingline. Still moving gracefully like the lady she was, the pretty ship came alongside the jetty and made fast her lines. And there she lay to be admired by all who passed that way. She was a fine example of New Zealand shipbuilding and rigging, for her hull was all heart of kauri and her rigging and gear were New Zealand hemp made into ropes at the works of Captain Thomas Black at Matata, in the Bay of Plenty, and set up by Captain Daniel Sellars. In those days it was not considered remarkable that this should be so. Indeed, Captain Black, the owner of the schooner, wrote in 1870 that for thirtytwo years he had used this sort of rope in his vessels. And he claimed to have had more practical experience with New Zealand flax than any other man in the colony. lie said, " The complaint that rope made of this flax does not hold the tar is in part true with either native or European dressed flax; the cause is that it has not been properly divested of bark, gum and other glutinous matter; this for want of being well washed, and this alone.'' Proofs ol Strength. Fifteen years after that sunny day when the Hope sailed so daintily up Auckland Harbour, another ship of the same line, the schooner Fortune, swung into the Queen's Wharf from a voyage along the North Auckland coast. Her rigging and running gear was just as smart as the Hope's arid it had been set up for seven years. And this was remarkable, for it was the same rigging, transferred from the Hope to the Fortune in 1864; and in 1871 the owner wrote that " it' looked as well as ever and after fifteen years and six months of constant wear, trifling chafe by runner-tails excepted, it looks as well as on the first day. No European rope ever held the tar better, and, as to stretching or shrinking, it has not required setting up more than five times this fifteen years. There it stands like iron bars, impervious, as it was, alike to wet, heat or cold." Two other instances of New Zealand ropes proving satisfactory are mentioned in " Pliormium Tenax," by Sir James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. One of these concerned the American warship Rcsaca, which used ropes of this material. They had received a dressing of whale-oil and were rove off for lacks, sheets, staysail halyards, jib-sheets, whips, etc. Commander Lewis reported that, on a wet and stormy voyage of fifty-four days from Auckland to Valparaiso in the year 1870, the rope stood up well to the work and proved itself equal to manila rope. The other instance was that of the well-known clipper Crusader, which on a voyage made in 1870-1871 used New Zealand hemp ropes, both for cargo work and for braces and halyards. These ropes were afterwards placed in the Colonial Museum in London. In the Olden Days. Along the Auckland waterfront to-day may be found men who recall the days when New Zealand flax ropes were used and they will fell you that flax ropes were stronger than manila when they were new but soon lost their strength when exposed to the weather. So it became necessary to mix manila fibre with the flax to ensure a proper soaking of the fibres with tar and other solvents which the rope-makers use to render their ropes impervious to water and ravages of weather. To-day manila predominates in this combination.

Tho flax which was properly stripped and scutched by the Maoris in the carly days, before tho stripper mills were started, could be made into ropes. It is on record that some of these ropes were sent to Portsmouth Dockyards and subjected to the most severe tests, which proved that they had all the qualities needed in stout Navy rope and cordage. From the early 'eighties, when ropes of New Zealand hemp went out of use, to tho year 1932 is a long cry. Yet, for all t'h at, loyal New Zealanders have not despaired of making, from their Phoriniiun tenax fibre, rope which, would meet all requirements of ships. " Stronger than iron " was the verdict passed on tlio fibre of New Zealand Pliormium tenax, called "flax" in tlio vernacular, by a scientist many years ago, at a timo when this fibre was being studied by European experts. The Tender Point.

With these examples of the past before us, the question arises why is not hemp from New Zealand licnip woven into ropes for ships to-day ? Captain Black knew.

lie referred to it more fully than has already been quoted from his reports, for he was keen to see it widely used and experimented extensively to that end. 110 said, " First in order (of the tlirco or four varieties of (lax suitable for this purpose) stands parctaniwha, from tho length of its golden fibre, easy of dressing, rapidity of growth and product of fibre. ]n either flax or rope, few could distinguish it from nianila. New Zealand flax, being partially charged with gum and vegetable mucilage, will not receive it softens the rope and causes it to spurn the tar. This is the tender pointit touches trade secrets and customary habits of long standing. If we can give them <1 dry, fu/./.y article that will hold and swallow oil and tar, our market is niado. This must bo done." That was written on Juno 10, 1871. Tho position to-day as regards tho use of New Zealand hemp for rope-making is the same as it was then, except that today active steps are being taken to rid the fibre of the " lignin," as the gummy substance is termed by chemists, and, when that is done, our flax fibre will bo as useful for rope-making as any other, with tho added quality of greater strength. The pretty schooner Hope will sail 110 moro in these waters, nor tho Fortune, her successor, with their Now Zealandmade rigging standing rigid as iron in tho sunlight. But, when the aims of chemists and flaxgrowers are achieved, greater ships than these will use hawsers and lighter lines made of New Zealand fibre.