NEARLY 90 YEARS OLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19125, 21 September 1936, Page 3

NEARLY 90 YEARS OLD

HULK STILL DOES DUTY Till-] PRINCE OF WALES ONCE AT GISBORNE Black and drab, the, coal-hulk Prince of Wales swings at a mooring buoy in Wellington harbour, oil kaiwturu. Hundreds of people passing, along the 11 utl, road. Or looking out over the harbour from their hillside- homes, set eyes daily on the hulk, but few are sufficiently interested to let their glance linger, states the Dominion. The .Prince oi ‘Wales has the distinction, of being one of the oldest ships afloat in Now Zealand waters; she is nearly 90. she has sailed all round the world, traded! in the frozen Arctic, played a- prominent, part, in the commercial history ot New Zea-land-—and spent some 50 years as a e.o'al hulk about Port Nicholson. If is said that a Prince onee dined on hoard her. Built in 185 C at Southampton for the Hudson Bav trade, the Prince ol Wales was" constructed particularly solidly of English oak. than which few woods are hotter able to- wilhslaiul the test- of time, and; salt, water, lo this, and to the great strength of Her timbers, designed to insist, the pressure oi Arctic ice.'is largely due her great, longevity. If is staled that when was christened. the. then Prince of Wales, ulterwnnl King Edward VII, periormed the ceremony, and dined on. board the vessel which: lie had honoured with bis title.

SEARCHED FOP, MIFSTNC EX RLOR Ell

In 1856 the Prince of Wales was fitted out a.s the expedition ship to be sent into the Arctic Circle, in search of the missing explorer, Sir John l 1 ra.nk--1 in. Later she came into colonial waters; if is possible that she was one of the early immigrant ships that landed settlers in New Zealand, hut the name was a. not uncommon one, and several ships hearing it visited the coast. Ihe first certain record of her seems to be when she was purchased in England, fitted out, for the freezing of mutton carcases, and converted lrom a sailing ship to a twin-screw auxiliary steamer. She arrived at Napier in 1089 after a 124-day passage front London, and was used as a freezing factory and storeship at Gisborne until 1891. She was able to deal with 2CO carcases a day. She took a lending part in the establishment of the frozen, meat, export trade, establishing- the industry at Picton in 1891; afterwards, of course, it became the principal trade of that port. She was later a storeship for frozen meat at Port Chalmers. Ho much for her history. Since 1906 she has been, a coal hulk at- \\ ollington, owned, by the Fiiion Si cam Ship Company. Her oaken timbers are a? sound as ever, her planking as tight. There is every prospect of her lasting out a. century of .service. VETERANS GF THE SEA Although old among ships in those waters, the Prince of Wales is by no means one of the world's veterans. On the English coasts there are ships still working actively that would make this hulk appear comparatively juvenile. The coastal trading ketch Ceres, still taking an active part in the Bristol Channel and West Coast, carrying trade, was built at Salcombe m 1811. The sailing barge Favourite of Rochester, occupied largely in carrying dry cargoes in the estuaries and inland waterways, was built in: 1803; 133 years old, and still at work, ’.the Tiliiuun, the Indian war canoe, in which Captain .1. O. Voss made his famous eircnmnavigatitln of the world in 19C4, was slated to he over a. century old then; after being abandoned for many years at 1 lambic, she was stated las* year Lo have been reconstruct eel, and to have taken a new lease of life as a motor launch. However, the Tiliknm could hardly be classed as a ship in. the normal sense. Many of the. sailing (■raft that, trade in the Aegean and East Mediterranean, however, are reputed to be of even greater antiquity.