ROMANCE OF SAIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22198, 27 August 1935, Page 6

ROMANCE OF SAIL

END OF GRACE HAD,WAR V NEARLY 50 YEARS AFLOAT SHIP OF MANY ADVENTURES SOLD FOR BREAKING UP The steel / full-rigged ship Grace Harwar. one of the best-known of tho remaining ships of sail, is to bo broken up at Rosyth, Scotland, where she arrived recently after a varied career of 4(3 years at sea. She was sold for £'2150 by Mr. Gustav Erickson, of Mariehamn, to W.' Jobson and Co., Ltd., for demolition. i The Grace Harwar is a vessel of 1816 tons gross, and is 266 feet in lungth. As sailing vessels go, she is comparatively young yet, though nearly the oldest of her late owner's fleet. She was built in 1889 at the Glasgow yards of \V. Hamilton and Company, who built her for W. Montgomery and Company, Ltd. For 24 years the Grace Harwar sailed imder the lied Ensign, voyaging to many ports of the world. Her usual run wa3 from Bristol to Chile or Peru and home again with nitrates or guano. On one voyage, which commenced from London on July 30, 1910, after making the passage to Newcastle in 87 days, 'and from there to Coquimbo, Chile, in 39 days, she was caught in a gale at Iquigne. While riding it out at anchor she was struck successively by the French steamer Magellan, a German / four-master and a German steamer. With her figurehead destroyed, and with her bowsprit entirely cut away, Bhe yet ran home to Falmouth in 114 days. Further Collisions Outside Falmouth harbour the Grace Harwar collided with tho Italian steamer Oriana, and won the Court case that was brought against her only by the Court's refusing to credit the allegation that a ship which had sailed 12,000 miles without a bowsprit was unseaworthy. Subsequently the vessel passed into the hands of Stenraus of Helsingfors. A hurricane at Mobile in July, 1916, nearly ended her career, for she was driven ashore after being in collision, and was only salvaged with difficulty. After the war, the ship was acquired by Captain Gustaf Erickson, who ran her in the grain trade between Australia and England, and on other of the diminishing trade routes on which Bailing ships can still operate. She was nearly lost in 1919, when, under Captain Dommer, she was washed out off the Horn, and had to run t(> Montevideo. In 1923 her carpenter was lost overboard, and was never Been again. Other adventures in her career include a collision outside the Clyde, a fortnight caught in l tho ice in Christiania Fiord and a wild experience of being blown to sea from Bremerhaven with half her crew on board. / t Visit to Auckland The Grace Harwar was the last fullriggeid ship to pass through Cook Strait. On the evening of May 8, 1929, the lighthouse keepers at Stephen Island and the Brothers saw the rare sight oi; a deep-loaded full-rigger bound eastward under full sail before a fresh / north-westerly.' It was dark when she passed Wellington Hea'ds, but she re{jorted to the signal station by Morse a,mp. On this' occasion she had been driven far off her course from Australia round the Horn by contrary winds. She was 21 days out from Wallaroo, bound for Falmouth, when she t was reported * at Wellington Heads. In February,''l932, the Grace Harwar viisited Auckland with a cargo from St. Juan de Nova, and several New Zealanders took the opportunity of shipping aboard her. Three years before this, when she sailed from Wallaroo on April 17, 1929, for Falmouth wi*h grain, she took with her four young Australians, one of whom, A. J. Villiers, wrote a tale which is a fitting biography of the old ship. His book, " By Way of Cape Hbrn," is dedicated to a comrade, Ronald Walker, who was killed by a falling spar on the 38th day oat and was buried at sea.