“ON WINGS OF WIND”

Otago Witness, Issue 4042, 1 September 1931, Page 69

“ON WINGS OF WIND”

ROMANCE OF THE SAILING SHIP AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. One of the most interesting addresses ever given before members of the Otago University Club was that which was delivered at the weekly luncheon on Thursday by Mr H. C. Campbell, who spoke on “ The Romance of the Sailing Vessel.” The chair was occupied by Mr O. V. Davies, who briefly introduced the speaker. “ The present interest in sailing vessels is a striking example of the old proverb that ‘We never miss the water till the well runs dry/ ” said Mr Campbell. “ The world as we knos' it is reckoned to be some 6000 years old, and yet it is only within the last 60 years that steam has disputed the realm of the sea with sail. “ Even sq, when most people thought of ships they had in mind ships of war of the great British Navy, whereas the commerce and exploration of the world was begun and developed by the Mercantile Marine, and when, early in 1917, the Motherland 'was brought very near to starvation owing to the success of the German ‘U’ boats against the great mercantile fleet that for so long and unobtrusively had, week by week, poured the food supply into the ports of the Homeland, then, and not till then, did we realise what a large part the cargo carrier had played in the building up and sustaining of the Empire; and, up till 60 years ago, that work lay almost entirely in the hands of vessels that traversed and re-traversed the seven seas driven solely by the winds of heaven. Ad miral Beatty well summed up the position. when he said that the Mercantile Marine was a branch of that great sea service without which the British Empire would cease to exist, adding that in a normal . year food supplies and other necessities of life were brought to and taken from the British Isles to the incredible total of no less than 150,000,000 tons. We may well remember that to maintain the food supplies of the United Kingdom and to prevent oversea trade from utterly vanishing, no fewer than 15,000 men of the mercantile marine laid down their lives between 1914 and 1918. But in turning your thoughts back to the now fast vanishing white-winged vessel I cannot, I think, do better than read you an extract from that fine work by Basil Lubbock called ‘the Last of the Windjammers/ He writes.

There have been many discussions as to which of Nature’s beauties should be awarded the palm. Some have lauded the snow-capped mountain peak, others the giant forest tree, others again the glories of sunrise or sunset, the charm of running water, or the grandeur of the breaking wave, but as regards the works of man all old-time votes were given to the sailing ship. Another ancient saying that ‘God made the forest oak, the living glory of the hills and dales. Man cut it down, but out of its trunk and limbs he built the line of battleship, the glory of the seas.’ A sea captain who had sailed to every part of the world was once asked, ‘ In all your voyaging what is the most beautiful sight you have ever seen? ’ Without a moment’s hesitation he replied, 'My own ship a-rolling down to St. Helena under stunsails in the southeast trade/

“ Britain, however, took little part in the great carrying trade of the world till the close of the fifteenth century, as it had hitherto been largely confined to the Mediterranean, in which first Tyre then Athens, Rome, and Venice fought for the supremacy of the sea. The first country to enter into competition with the Medi terranean power was Portugal, under the leadership of the son of her king, known as Henry, the Navigator, a nephew of our own King Henry IV. Born in 1394, he died in 1460, but in that time he had made Portugal a great rival to Venice as the leading factor in the world’s commerce, and the result of his work was seen when, in 1498, Vasco Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut in India and opened up a sea route to the East. In the meantime, Columbus, under the encouragement of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, had, in 1492, set sail on his first great voyage of discovery towards the West, hoping that in that direction also he might find a way to the East Indies and so dispute with Portugal the new-found source of trade. He little knew of the great continent that barred his way, but America was discovered. The outstanding effect so far as Britain was concerned of the enterprise of Portugal and Spain was that the trade of the world shifted from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, that ocean that washed the southern shores of England, and soon the keen-eyed fishermen of Devonshire and Cornwall saw passing by their shores the galleons laden with the pepper, spices, silk, drugs, and all the valuable commerce of the East, and no wonder then they began to ask themselves whether they too could not share in the newfound wealth.

“Animosities bred of religious differences fomented the desire, and such names emerge as Drake, Raleigh, and Frobisher, who were soon putting the sea to explore the world further,"taking the opportunity, at the same time, to plunder the rich argosies of Spain, returning with the spoils of Mexico and Peru, and even attacking them in their home ports or ‘ singeing the King of Spain’s beard ’ as Drake termed it. Finally the struggle was brought to an end in the great but fortunately unsuccessful effort made by Philip of Spain to crush once and for all his island rival, and with the defeat of the Armada, England gained her command of the sea, which she has never totally lost, although the Dutch and the French have challenged her for it. A notable event quickly followed the victory of the Armada, for 12 years later, Elizabeth granted to the famous East India Company the monoply of Eastern trade, which, though only granted for 15 years, was confirmed in perpetuity by her successor, James I.

Thus began the glorious reign of the celebrated East Indiaman sailing vessels, and for nearly 250 years ship after ship was launched from the yards of Blackwall, on the Thames. The position of the East India Company was greatly

strengthened by the passing of the famous Navigation Act under Oliver Cromwell in 1651, which stipulated that only English vessels commanded by English masters could bring goods into England, except in the case of vessels belonging to the country in which the goods they carried were produced. This Act remained on the Statute Book until 1849, only two years short of 200 years. During this time, England gradually built up her supreme position as the world’s carrier, and all in vessels driven by the wind, but, as so often happens, monopoly stifled enterprise and, while the Indiamen were strong and well built, they were comparatively slow when compared with French-built ships. . So much was this so that most of the fast ships in Nelson’s fleets were French prizes of war. “ Towards the end of the eighteenth century two names appear in connection with the famous Blackwall Yard which will ever be remembered among lovers of sailing vessels. They are Wigram and Green. Robert Wigram was the sop of a privateer captain and. after his father’s death, having obtained his surgeon’s diploma, sailed in that capacity in an East Indiaman. In 1770 he became partner in the Blackwall Yard. While on his first’ voyage to India he formed a friendship with the second officer of his ship, one W. Money. Shortly after becoming associated with the Blackwall Yard a young apprentice, George Green, came on the scene and, by his ability, won a partnership, and the names of Money, Wigram, and Green are household words when the great English clipper ships are under discussion. But the outstanding factor that led to the clipper ship era were the American competition in ship building, and the repeal of the Navigation Act. While the fine fleet of the East India Company grew with the years, the fact of the close monopoly they held over the trade led to the creation of a stereotyped style of ship, splendidly built, but proverbially slow, and, moreover, for the same reasons, their captains, fine seamen as they were, had no pressing occasion to push their vessels at sea or ‘ carry on ’ as the nautical term his it.

“ The Americans realised that if, in the face of the English Navigation Act, they wished to share in the world’s trade, they must offer some advantage to shippers, and this they did m the shape of vessels that, with finer lines of construction and hard driving skippers, were soon making passages that, in point of time, left the British ships far behind, with the result tht England found that her rivals were fast pulling up on her. in the actual tonnage afloat under their respective flags. Despite many protests of interested parties the British Government decided in 1849 to throw open her ports to vessels of all nations both for inward and outward cargo, and then began a desperate race over the ocean highways between the white-winged flyers of the clipper ship era. “ Two events which followed almost immediately, greatly stimulated the competition. These were the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and a similar discovery in Australia in 1851. As there was no railway across America, passengers and cargo for California went almost entirely on the long and stormy journey round Cape Horn, aqd, of course, the route to Australia lay round the Cape of Good Hope, as the Suez canal was not cut till nearly 20 years later. I need only mention for the four years following the gold discovery in Australia in 1851, between 300,000 and 400,000 passengers were carried out to the Antipodes practically entirely by sailing vessels, not to speak of the amount of goods of all kinds which such a huge emigration entailed. With everyone eager to reach the new El Dorado, faster and faster ships were built. After discharge at Melbourne some of the vessels went on to China and the Far East, where subsequently on the voyage Home the fastest ships ever built disputed for the prize of being the first to land the new season's tea in London river. “ The first contest of ships round Cape Horn to San Francisco took place in 1850 between the Houqua, Sea Witch, Samuel Russell, and Memnon, old rivals on China voyages, and the new clippers Celestial, Mandarin, and Racehorse. The Samuel Russell arrived at San Francisco on May 6 after a passage of 109 days, thus taking 11 days off the record and her friends felt confident that this could not be surpassed, at all events by any of the clippers of that year; but on July 24 the Sea Witch came romping up the bay, 97 days from Sandy Hook, reducing the record by another 12 days. This voyage astonished everyone—even her warmest admirers, and the feat was the more remarkable as she had rounded Cape Horn during the Antarctic mid-winter, but even this record pales before that of the Flying Cloud in 1851, which passed the Golden Gate 89 days from Sandy Hook, a distance of over 14,000 miles.

“ I should now like to give you a few instances of the competition in the China trade between America and Great Britain. The American clipper ships, as a rule, after discharge at San Francisco, went across to China, there to load for English ports, and, naturally, they added greatly to the competition from which British ships were already suffering. Whilst the American clippers were able to get as much as £6 to £6 10s per ton of 40 cubic feet, British ships were loading slowly at £3 10s per ton of 50 cubic feet. An able English writer, referring to the American clippers engaged in the China tea trade at this period, remarks:—‘This new competition proved for a time most disastrous to English shipping, which was soon driven out of favour by the lofty spars, smart rakish-looking hulls, and famed speed of the American ships, and caused the tea trade of the London markets to pass almost out of the hands of the English shipowner.’ This soon became a very serious matter, and the attention of the Government became attracted, and draughtsmen were sent from the Admiralty to take off lines of- two of the most famous American ships—the Challenge and the Oriental —as they lay in Green’s Dry Dock. The British shipowners and builders were then forced to exert their finest skill and most ardent energy. Each succeeding year ships were built, and gradually were competing with the American clippers, and in 1865, between the various clippers of the new type, the British ships Falcon, Fiery Cross, Serica, and Taeping proved the most successful. “ During the same year the Fiery Cross and Serica sailed from Foochow on May 28, both bound for London. After a close race, during which they sighted each other several times, both ships made

their signals off St. Catharine’s Isle of Wight, at almost the same moment, 106 days from Foochow, and continued up channel before a light westerly breeze. Off Beechy Head they fell in with the tugs sent out to meet them, and although the Serica had a lead of about two miles, Fiery Cross secured the more powerful tug e n<l - reaclled her dock one "tide before the Serica, thus winning the premium of 10s per ton which in those days was a prize paid to the first ship to arrive in London with the new season’s tea, “ The following year another great race took place between three English clippers Areil, Taeping, and Serica. These vessels all left Pagoda anchorage, Foochow, at 10.30 a.m. on May 30, and all three ships went up the Thames on the same tide. After the usual tug-boat race, the Taeping arrived in the London cocks at 9.45, the Ariel in the East India docks at 10.15, and the Serica in the West India docks at 11.30 p.m. on September 6 —surejy as great a race as ever was run on land or sea over some 15,000 miles. I will now briefly refer to some of the Australian clippers of that day. In the year 1868, the famous clipper Ihermopylae was launched, and then the Melbourne—afterwards known as~the Macquarie. On her first voyage the 1 hennopylae sailed from London for Melbourne on November 7, 1868, and arrived in Melbourne on January 9, 1869, thus making the passage in 63 days. The Melbourne was perhaps the fastest ship ever built in Great Britain. In 1875 she made the passage from London to Melbourne in the not very remarkable time of /4 days, but when running her easting down before strong westerly gales she sailed 5100 miles in 17 days, an aver--300 m ’^ es P er day. and her best 4 nouiti run waft 374 miles—an average of over 15J knots, which even to-<lay is a very good turn of speed for the average steamer.