KEEN INTEREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27039, 25 March 1949, Page 4

KEEN INTEREST

FAREWELL SCENES DEPARTURE OF TERRA NOVA Photographs published yesterday in the Daily Times of the departure of Captain Scott’s ship Terra Nova from Port Chalmers in 1910 aroused widespread interest, especially among those who can recall, visiting the vessel. In the Daily Times of November 30, 1910, the sailing of the Terra Nova is reported at length. “Flags were flying everywhere,” the report stated, “and from an early hour the George street pier was crowded. The centre of attraction, the wooden barque Terra Nova, lay low in the water. “At half-past two, the hawsers were cast off. Sirens roared, whistles shrieked, rockets banged and detonators shattered an over-tense atmosphere. The crowd cheered frantically as the Terra Nova gathered way. “At the Heads,” the report continued, “ they dropped the pilot, and the men made way for the four wives, the only ladies who had come down from Port Chalmers in the Terra Nova. Mrs Scott, Mrs Wilson, Mrs Evans, and Mrs Wyatt were handed down amid silence to the deck of the tug. “ The procession of excursion steamers and launches began to break up at the Heads. The training ship Amokura fired a salute of six guns, cheers were exchanged and the Terra Nova rang on her engines and doing a steady six knots went on her voyage towards the Pole. “ Mention has been made of the sadness of the parting, for even people who never saw the Terra Nova before last Monday had come to regard the little ship and her crew as old friends, the article concluded.