SHIPS WITH A HISTORY

Otago Witness, Issue 3500, 12 April 1921, Page 44

SHIPS WITH A HISTORY

THE DARTFORD’S HISTORY. FROM SAILER TO STEAMER. Ships, like men, often have a checkered career, and some of them play many parts in their lives. They sometimes start life as one thing, and end their career, still as ships it is true, blit in quite a different There are one or two ships on the New Zealand coast at the present day which have quite a history (says the New Zealand Herald), and as one of these is at present lying in Auckland Harbour, and as the other is a regular and frequent visitor, a few particulars of these two vessels mav bo of interest. The first of these is a small coastal steamer called the Opihi, of 1217 tons register, with a carrying capacity of 3750. Anyone seeing this vessel in dock would at once be struck with the unusual shape of her stem. This would be apparent even to a “ landlubber,” as all modern steamers have a straight stem. A further inspection would reveal the fact that there were other little differences about her hull, deck, or fittings, which were unusual, and these would set thoughtful men thinking. The fact is that the Opihi was once a sailing ship, and sailed under the name of the Leila, and belonged to German owners. After sailing the high seas for a number of years she was eventually dismantled and converted into a steamboat, and is now doing very useful work on our coast in this capacity, and there is no reason to doubt that sho still has many years of usefulness before her. The other subject of this article is, or was up to a few days ago, a fine graceful barque, looking as trim as the day she was launched. Her name is the Hartford, and she has carried the same honourable name throughout her long life. Built in the year 1877 at Sunderland, in England, to the order of the well-known London shipowners, Messrs Devitt and Moore, she commenced her career as a full-rigged ship. She is 1312 tons gross register, and her dimensions are as follows:—Length 2215 ft beam 36ft, moulded depth 23.8 ft. This fine vessel sailed the seas as an ordinary trader for many years, and made some smart runs in her time. For instance they tell of her making the run from Callao to Iquique, a distance of roughly 4600 miles, in 18 days, and on another occasion she is said to have made the passage between Wellington and Vancouver, and back, some 3000 miles each way, in 55 days there, and 55 days back again. But perhaps one of her nest runs was betweei Iquique and Callao, in ballast, when she made 298 miles in 24 hours. Then she was bought by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, who used

her as a training ship for cadets, 30 of whom were carried, with an instructor, and a splendid training ship she made. ’But in the year 1910 a serious and pathetic change came in the good ship’s life, and for reasons best known to the owners, she was dismantled and converted into a’coal hulk. That, indeed, was a come down in the poor ship’s life, but she bore up bravely under this social drop, until the year 1918 when, on April 16, the commercial tide changed in he r favour, and she came into her own again. Imagine her joy on being towed into dock and rigged once more in her former glory, with this slight difference, that this time she was rigged as a barque, and not as a fullrigged ship, as she was originally. Since 1918, she has again taken her place on the ocean’s highways, and carried some good cargoes and earned some good freights for her owners. But alas! her days were numbered, and to the great grief of everyone who knew her she was ordered to be dismantled a second time. This pathetic and dismal operation has been going on at the King’s wharf during the last fortnight, and has just been completed. What a transformation ! Less than a fortnight ago she was one of the most picturesque sights to be seen; a. graceful barque with all her spars and ringing intact. Then, after a few passes with the magician’s wand (which in this case happened to be a marline spike, in the hands of the mate), she is suddenly turned into a dismal hulk, with only her lower masts standing, having been stripped of her topgallant masts, top masts, and all her yards, spars, and r’gging. Such then, is one of the pathetic ends of a sailing ship’s noble life and useful career.