STORY IN BRICKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 14

STORY IN BRICKS.

PASSING OF OLD HOTEL.

PORT MELBOURNE HAUNT.

STIRRING DAYS RECALLED

[from our own correspondent.] MELBOURNE, April 13,

When the masts of sailing ships wero a familiar sight in the Bay and Port Melbourne was a busy maritime centre, the old Chusan, in Bay Street, Port Melbourne, was a hotel known to every sailorman.

To-day it is just a mass of bricks, but even they toll a story. All of tho bricks used in tho construction of tho placo wore brought out as cargo from Europe. Tlicro are Flemish bricks, and brightred bricks from Marseilles, big handmade bricks like granite, and pale grey bricks from Scotland among tho debris which is being cleaned and sold. For many years tlio Chusan served as tho headquarters of the Port Phillip Stevedores' Association, and one of the foundation members, Mr. Hugh McLeavy, is now working in its demolition. In the new rooms of the association which were built alongside a few years ago, four men who have been associated with Port Melbourne history for nearly 80 years sit and play cards daily and recall happenings of the days when shanghai ing and crimping were daily occurrences. r J hey still speak of money as "sovereigns," as in the days of gold coinage. Swedes Shipped as Negroes. Ono of the four men, Mr. George Dvsart, a veteran Scot, wears the tiny gold ear-rings which were a sailors fashion long ago Ho used to engage labour for the masters of sailing ships, and was the central figure of the story of the three Swedes who were blackened and shipped as negroes with Captain Currio on the ship Darius. He denies that the men were shipped against their will, but says they were willing participants in the ruse which deceived the captain.

This story has been told tho 'tforld over where sailormen gather, but with fts constant repetition it has gained a romantic atmosphere which is far from tho actual facta. Mr. Dysart's memory of the incident and how ho helped the men to smear their faces and hands with burnt cork and oil is refreshed by the fact that Captain Currie gave him £8 for each of the meu, ns negroes were difficult to procure in port. This veteran tells of the days when the Chusan flourished and its spacious courtyard was constantly filled with horses that were waiting to be shipped. There was a time when a mystery man frequently called at the Chusan. He claimed to be a survivor of the mystery ship Marie Celoste, which was found without a soul on board with all her sails set. He went to the grave with his story untold, although he often hinted at tho real solution. Most of the men who knew him have also passed, and no one remembers very much about the man except as a strange unkempt figure who wandered around tho place in silence. Waterfront Upheavals. But the place was doomed, and after having been empty for some time was sold by tho owner, Sir Rupert Clarke, to the Port Phillip Stevedores' Association on very easy terms at the end of the 'nineties. Within its walls the big upheavals which followed on the waterfront were controlled, and many momentous meetings have taken place there. But to-day its glories are departed for ever. A broken wall about 2ft. thick totters on one sido over where the oldtimes sailors indulged in heavy gambling, and on the footpath is tho flight of stone steps worn smooth by tho feet of thousands who sailed the seas long ago. The Chusan is no more, but its memory will live so long as men go down to the sea in ships and sit around in the forecastle and spin the yarns of sailing days.