ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19282, 20 September 1924, Page 7

ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE.

THE OLD TUG LYTTELTON

LONG TRIP FROM LONDON.

FIFTEEN MONTHS’ VOYAGE.

One of the most remarkable vcyagea ever undertaken by a tug, and certaanlv one of the longest, was that of the Lyttelton, which was brought out from England to New Zealand 65 years ago. An interesting account of the vessel & ences is given by Mr E. Keble _ Chatterton, in his book “Seamen All’ just published in London. The Lyttelton, which at one tune was a familiar boat in Cook Strait waters, was only 75fb long, with about loft beam. She drew only sft laden, was ketch-rigged, had 23-horse-power engines, and was of 48 tons only. The intention was to take the vessel to pieces, pack them up and dispatch them aboard a ship to New Zealand, which at that time was still scarcely-known country. But one day it was decided that the Lyttelton should not be dismantled; should she sail out to her destination, and bo save considerable cost. A captain was found who agreed to take up the job and provide a crew-—all for the sum of £4OO. As tho skipper wished to settle in New Zealand, ho arranged to bring out with 1 him his wife and five daughters. The crew consisted of a mate, four sailors, two boys and a cook, who were all aspiring colonists, and agreed to work their passage at the nominal pay of a shilling a month. The engineer, however, was taken out of Scott Russell’s yard, given the job of looking after the machinery on tho way out, half-pay daring the voyage, with a year’s engagement in New Zealand as her engineer at £2O a month. PREPARING FOR THE VOYAGE. After doing her trials on the Thames, she was fitted out to sail across the seas. Her engines and boiler remained in position, a short stump of her funnel appeared above tho deck, but tho remainder, together with the paddle-wheels, had been unshipped and stowed away in the forehold, where also about 30 tons of patent briquette fuel were carried as ballast. The ship was provisioned for six months, the galley was reserved for the captain and family, while the mate and engineer had a cabin further aft, and tho crew were in the forecastle. On August 18, 1859, this small ship started out, being towed down as far as the Nore. Four days after leaving the Nore she was still boxing about off the Thames estuary', and had to put into Ramsgate! It was the first of her long series of adventures. She was towed into the harbour to replenish the ship’s “medical comforts’’—a designation that will be understood even in a prohibitionist communities—and a stronger foremast was also needed. After describing the many vicissitudes encountered in the Channel, the author proceeds:—With a fair wind tho Lyttelton made a good run down to the equator, but now day after day was spent in Live doldrums making no headway. Here Christmas Day was spent, and the last of the turkeys consumed. The flat cairns and the boiling sun became unbearable, and tho captain even bad big sweeps got out at which the men toiled ineffectually. But the Scotch engineer enterprisingly rigged up the old foremast as an axle, added a kind of paddle-wheel arrangement at each end, constructed hand-gear, and this was worked from the deck by the crew. The net result was that the ship made about a knot, and it was kept up for several weeks whenever tho wind was paltry. A GOVERNOR’S DISGUST. The captain eventually made for Cape Coast Castle, anchored three miles out and was promptly visited by a smart rowing-boat containing His Excellency the Governor in uniform. This dignitary, unable to understand the stumpy funnel and the curious gadgets over the side, had mistaken her for a new kind of gunboat. On discovering bis mistake he shoved off again m disgust. Supplies being now required from the shore, and the captain being unable to raise the money by bond or bill, he was compelled to sell part of the patent fuel ballast. This enabled the ship to reach Fernando Po, where she was beached and scrubbed, and her own proper paddlewheels taken out of the hold and fitted. Twenty-five tons of English coal were here also obtained, hut this had to bo dug out of a mound covered with vegetation several years old. By means of a “bottomry bond” the port expenses were paid, and two negroes engaged as stokers as far as Cape Town. As if to put a variation to the adventurous cruise most of the ship's company now contracted fever, which delayed matters another fortnight, but steaming at about four knots the vessel mad© St. Palo da Loanda in 16 days, by which time the whole crew was restored to health. Here, by means of another band, tho stores were replenished and more coal obtained, and thus they arrived at Walfisch Bay, where the crew were given a much-needed rest and some dried fish was obtained:. Wind and steam then brought tho Lyttelton to within 260 miles of the Cape, whereupon the coal gave out and there was no favourable wind. At last the sea-weary tug arrived at Saldanha Bay, where further troubles awaited her company. She dropped anchor at Capetown on April 27, 1860. BEST DAY’S RUN STERN FIRST. Further complications here occurred, for the agents declined to bo responsible for the continuance or abandonment of the cruise, without referring the matter to London. At length orders came from Home that the bottomry bonds were to be cleared up, and the ship was to proceed under sail to New Zealand. Thus, it being now the end of July, the vessel with her same captain, mate and engineer, but four new seamen and a negro sea cook, set off again, and steered well south so as to get into the westerlies. As the little packet was approaching Cape Leeuwin, heavy westerly gales occurred and this short trip refused to be steered with such forces behind her, so they had frequently to heave her to. On one' occasion she drifted stern-first to leeward 104 miles in 24 hours. This was, in fa ct, the best day’s run in. the ■ whole voyage. Weeks passed, and finally the ship made the landfall of Capo Farewell, and took a fair wind through Cook Strait as far as Capo Campbell,' in the South Island. But now, when off Flaxboume, the wind shifted to south-east, and she made for Wellington, where she arrived on November 23, 1860, having been actually 462 days out from London.

SHIP’S VIOLENT END. No one expected her, nobody wanted her, she had long since been given up for lost, the insurance money had even been paid, and—as if to bring matters to the very peak of the climax —tho company for whom alio had been built, for whom she had been sent all these perilous miles, had gone into liquidation! Thus, from tho time when she was let go by the tug that summer’s day at the Nore, till she let go anchor iii New Zealand waters, this craft had nothing but trouble. Of her service and ultimate fate the author writes: —ln the end, this unwanted ship was sold to some owners in Lyttelton, and she was a success. Later on she was lengthened and converted into a screw steamer and traded between Collingwood and Wellington, but I suppose by this time the spirit of the ship had become a little restless at such prosaic voyaging; and so there came tho time when she ran ashore on the Beef Barrels near the French Pass, sank, and was finally blown up by dynamite so as not to be an obstruction to the traffic. A violent and ignoble end to a vessel which had made so much history!