THE ACHERON'S SURVEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13673, 16 August 1906, Page 10

THE ACHERON'S SURVEY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin, —I read with nmclr pleasure jour reporter's interviow with otir esteemed friend Dr Hoeken, particularly that relating to tho Achcron where hs tells of th© visit of Bishop Selwyn and of his conducting divine 6ervico on board. That went took plara noarlv 60 years ago. One almost instinctively feels that thesis ev.ents relate to bygono days, and that all those who took part in theso stirring historical times havo long since crossed tho bar. Such, hoveveV. is not tho case. My old friend Mr A. Fullerton, of Rodney Cottage. Port Chalmers, was midshipman on hoard tlio Acheron at that time. He was a keen observer, a great reader, and has a. memory still as dor as noonday. I lived with him for some time, and many a yarn has ho told me of those days. He" has repeated to mo not only the text from which the Bishop preachcd that day, but nearly his whole sermon. So that when ono i'3Rds " the name of the captain of the Acheron has not been lost to history, as stated by a. recent telegram," etc., etc., one is almost amused to think that here wo havo at our very door an old British sailor, on-j of our "hearts of oak," who can not only tell the name of his old captain, but can rotate almost every incident of tho survey right up to soma of tho jokos the captain used to crack, And as for " Tommy" Ghasknd. ho can tall yarns about him that would make your sides split, rightup to tho time when Chasland told Oaptain Stokes that ho would show him whore huge lumps of greenstone could be bad if he (the oapta.in) would take Homo a junk io make a. coffin for Queen Victoria'. I Vr36 pleased to see Dr Hoekcn refer to his paper on tho Endeavour. He gave us a very full account of the derelict 20 years ago, and "Collius's Early History" clears up the mystery that has so long surrounded that matter.—l am, etc., Tfiouas Mackenzie.