SHIPS THAT PASS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12095, 12 March 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

SHIPS THAT PASS.

ICE-SMASHER TO COAL-HULK

CAREER. OF THE, PRINCE OF WALES.

Half a century ago there Avas no stouter ship kiioAvn to the tumbling shores of Greenland or the iron Avails of Labrador than the auxiliary barque Prince of Wales. For many a mile has she cleaved her Avay through the icefloes of Hudson Bay ; many a- pitiless sea, rolling doAAii from Baffin Bay, has spent its force m vain on her decks, and many a toAvering berg has crossed her -path- 'to threaten her with destruction. ; But the Prince of Wales Ai'as built ■of British oak by British craftsmen, and with her strong sheathing successfully defied the assaults of Arctic storms and the jolts of the ice-floes. Noav, after an adventurous career of sixty years, the major portion of AA r hich the Told craft traded between London and Hudson Bay, the Prince is spending her, last days as a coal-hulk m Wellington harbor. Nptwitlistanding ,the , severe buffetting she has received int.. alf parts of the Avorld, her ribs' are yet sound, and there; are few more serviceable hulks m Ncav Zealand than the ship under review- Her career is .easily the -.most romantic and picturesque of all attaching *to the numer-* ous cm ft that m the course of /years have assembled m Wellington . .harbor. Not alone does 'the now sombre Prince of Wales speak of a past crowded Avith 'picturesque' event, but the old craft awakens a generous affection among those who go to sea m ships, and are at the same time blest Avith the imaginative eye.

dt is iioav sixty years ago since the then auxiliary barque Prince of Wales first slid' down the Avays at Southampton. Her builders Avere Messrs Mooney, Wigram and Company, ' Arho constructed the fin© ship to the order of • the Honorable Hudson Bay Company. -At her launching there was a great ossetuibl age of the commercial and maritime notabilities ,of London, .and nearly ,all Jhe business men who composed that great concern to develop trade Avith : Canada; Avere present. On th© occasion of her first departure from London, a big jluncheon .Avas given on. board by the company, and it is, said. that King Edward, then the Prince of ■ Wales (after whom-, . by the Ai*ay , . the ship was named) wasy present on the oci. easion, and miade . commedatory refer-. ence to the Avorkmanship put. into the: vessel. -7

, -Success immediately, attended the Prince of ..Wales. 'The stormy waters of the Atlantic and the 'frozen „ seas- 'of! Davis Strait and Hudson, Bay .affected her little; she arrived. Homo again Avith a full, cargo of furs, skins, . and pelts, for her owners, and thenceforth for many years she contiiraed m this employmerit. She had a, 'companion m the Prince Rupert— a vessel of 'approximate-ly-th© same build and size. As the ite became too thick for their passage, the ships used to Avinter m Hudson Bay,. Avhero the trappers and Jiunters Were busy iii,. the • forests along- the , frozen lakes and rivers in.-. the company's territory. When 'summer advanced the thaAv set m, aiid the ice became detached m countless many-siacd masses. It, was for .smashing the big; floes, that the Pi'i neo of Wales was sinrmlied with < a poAvcrfully-rivetted iron slieathing at the piwv, and Avhat appeared, to he an impassable mass of ice Avouldat her, attack" be reduced to harmless fragments. ' From the water-line beloAv she had (and still has) a strong, thick sheathing of oak, protected by zinc iind copper layers, AA^hicb enabled the old craft to Avithstand the pressure of the ice as the waters became frozen. Inside this she is built of teak, green heart, and oak .-. Combined. A FREEZING TRANSPORT. After many . years of service for the Hudson Bay Company, the Prince ;of Wales Avas AvithdraAvn from, the trade, and converted into, a freezing transport, no less than £*10jOOO being spent iri making her suitable foi* the. ii«av work.' In this capacity the old ship Avas a familiar visitor. to all the ports, of Europe, Avhere she delivered many frozen; meat cargoes, taken from liners m Plymouth Sound. , In 1886 she was purchased by Messrs Nelson Brothers and Company, to be] used as a store ship for, frozen meat. Captain W. dimming, now harbormaster, at Gisborne,- took command of the vessel at this time. The •*kl mariner Avho relinquished command had been m the. Prince 'of : Wales from/ the time she was built, arid he did not like leaA'ing her. As a store-ship, her first load avos taken from the ShaiVj Savill and Albion Coin pauv's old mail liner Arawa,, at Plymouth, and tine Prince continued m this Avork for fourtoen mouths. Then she AVfcnt to London j and for some, time was a' store-ship ori the Thames, v In her next role one sees the old vessel at .Antwerp. Avhithor she made several trips Avith meat from London. In 1839, sjie set out froni Plymouth, bound, for Na-. pier, 'to b© used as a* freezing hulk. VOYAGE TO.NEW ZEALAND. .

To- this day the log; of the s.s. Prmpc of Wales, kept during this voyage, has been preserved, audi; it was Mndly lent itothe-Avriter by Mi* * B. G. Pilcher. Jt was 5 o'clock en a fine clear June morning: (tho 2Sth) m '1899/. that the old craft proceeded out of the. Sound. . Tfie log reveals nothing sensational. One reads> "engines going full ' speed ahead bhese tAveiity-foitr hours," "settfore topgal't sail," m the- tropics, •'brisk, squalls and lightning to thp »S.E.i" "people employed shifting, coils of.' wire (cargo) from the* fore loAver- hatch tot maiii.7ha,tchAvay to ease ship pitching," "no Avork to report*, this (Sunday) being th© Sabbath." In the Southern fJcean a ten-ific north-, west hurricane . came doAvn ou the sliip. Avith lightning, thuiiaer, and ,. torrential rain. , ''Tremendous "sea running ; ship rolling heavily .; m; fore stay-sail. Wiijd veered to /N a W, sat- 10,30 p.m. . after te^*Yific ha^l storm." TAgain..ori the 23i|d ■September, "midnight, brisk gale arid violent- squalls, with tremendous, seji. Ship laboring heavily." -.Two .weeks later, ; m a heavy; sea, it w,as found that the. cargo (oil . m drums) r was. adrift, "secured it,- one drum empty, and one ditto, damaged." ( And so , on goes the interesting daily tale of yarions winds and seas,, told m that brief yet direct and varied style so characteristic .of maivv a\ ship's log. / Napier was readied o*n the . 2' th , October, 18?9, and soop 'after the auxiliayy hurque ivcnt. to Gisborne. •, • ' .•-,..•'. 7-7,.., ■• . ..-■■■ : "''■ I 7/./ • ; ON TOjI^COAST. - , 7 /j . •■For fourteen, months ,ithp - Prince. o.t Wales wwans n at G,isbbi*lie ,as : •a. freezing .ship, Captain Gumming, still being iri Charge. . Then . Picton was visited, subsequently Port Chalmers, at each place meat haA-ing been frozen. From the latter, place .the ship . returned to ,Gisbcrne/fpr..another .year, but by this time the Tapid advance 7df steamship building and the extension, of trade -tlireatei|ed her .vocation. .--The employment of the r Prince . pf , Wales, vyas no .longer profitable, .and iri, 1899 she -was. brought tp Wellington to be laid up. Many readers will remember her , smart .appearanqe •as' - she lay •: m the stream, and on the i*sth December, 19,05, she. was to. be copyertqcl into a hulk, having been purchased .for this object by Mr "E.T G. Pilcher, of the Tyneside Proprietary/ This ended her seii- going career^. -,th|e tivin-screw engines and freezing machinery (Avhich had grown obsolete)' Avere taken out, -but as a result of the workmanship and timbers used m lier conjstruqtion, her days of usefuhiess may yet be many. .-..,.'. ! ' , A SPLENDID SEA-BOAT. . | , One vv ho , ImeAv the, , Prince of Wales AveU. told, the ..writer th'aVthe old ship was one of the stroWekt aria,d best craft ever sent doAvn the^ Vays.- v She. Avas h, splendid .sea-boat, 7 arid ■■■w'us- like _ a small, man-of-war. . Wheniii'the servicje of/ Hudson's Bay Coriipariy /she carried four big guns on ;deck, /.and' 'she Avajs handsome' m: appearancev-^Wellington Post./ .'•■•".. . .'.-,; y/ ,7 ' '. ..."."■•:[