WHAT TO SEE

Southland Times, Issue 21894, 21 December 1932, Page 8

WHAT TO SEE

STEWART ISLAND ATTRACTIONS FOR THE VISITOR PORT WILLIAM (From Our Correspondent.) Port William is one of the most interesting spots on Stewart Island, and is easily accessible. Passenger launches run trips all through the holidays, the run taking about an hour. For those who can stand an eight-mile walk, the trip overland is both mteresting and picturesque. A metalled road runs from Halfmoon Bay to Lee Bay and from there on there is a good coastal track to Maori Beach (Wooding Bay on map) at the head of Port William. It is the only Stewart Island beach on which is found the large shell Cochlodesma Angasi. This is a pure white and very fragile bivalve, ranging from three to seven inches m length. Although chipped and broken specimens are fairly common, perfect shells are rare, the reason being that seagulls, knowing their fragility, fly aloft with them and drop them on the beach, thus earning an easy breakfast Visitors who wish to obtain a good specimen should be on the beach at daybreak before the gulls arrive. When Lee Bay is reached a small building will be noticed on the right side of the road. This is the cable station and houses the end of the water cable which runs across the strait from Bluff. Lee Bay is approximately the half-way mark, being about four miles from Halfmoon Bay, and will be found a convenient place to boil the billy. , _ _ About a mile beyond Lee Bay is Little River and quite a long detour can be saved if the tide is low by taking a small foot bridge across the river, thence a short distance along the beach and up a sharp rise to the track again. Port William. From there to the entrance of Port William is a beautiful bush track. Although the south head of Port William is called Observation Point on the Map of Stewart Island, it is better known locally as Peter’s Point, named after Peter Garroty, the first white man to settle there. As the track rounds the point is passes through about an acre of bracken. This was Garroty s vegetable. Peter settled there about 186 b and supplied vegetables to the visiting whaling ships, and from all accounts did very well. At some suitable point on the track, from which the whole of Port William can be seen, the visitor would do well to pause and consider the history of this interesting place. On looking to the head of the harbour the huts belonging to the Maori Beach Sawmilling Company can be seen lining the beach, and presenting a very peaceful scene. The place, however, was anything but peaceful in, the early days when the beach was lined with the huts of a savage, hostile and warlike tribe of Maoris. An extract from Carrick’s Historical Records of New Zealand South will show the state of things existing as late as 1809. “As early as the year 1810, when the Sydney Cove was prosecuting these adventures, Stewart Island natives appear to have been contracting a bad reputation. A Sydney Customs Record dated March 30, 1810, made by the master of the Boyd, reports that at Port William, which is distant 60 miles from the Solanders, the Boyd fell in with a whale boat, with seven men, left by the Brothers in October 1809; • from the overseer of which I received the mortifying intelligence of several boat crews in various employs having been barbarously murdered and mostly devoured.” Port William was named by Captain Grono, master of the vessel, Governor Bligh, belonging to the Australian shipowners Lord Williams and Thompson. Each member of the firm has his name preserved in New Zealand in Lord’s River, Port William and Thompson Sound. From this time Port William was visited more or less reguuarly by the various whaling and sealing ships which operated in Foveaux Strait. Its quiet sheltered waters formed an ideal place for the “trying out’! of the captured whales. First Warship to Visit South. Port William was the anchorage of the first ships of war to visit the south cf New Zealand. Following the wreck of the Elizabeth Henrietta on Ruapuke in 1824, the Australian warship H.M.S. Tecs was despatched to make an attpmpt at salvage. She lay in Port William and crossed to Ruapuke when the weather was suitable, but was not successful in refloating the vessel and returned to Sydney after spending over seven weeks in the attempt. To New Zealanders and Southlanders in particular, the most interesting part of the history of Port William is in connection with the exploits of the famous Bluff whaler “Paddy” Gilroy, and his ecually famous ship the Chance. Paddy used Port William extensively for trying out his catches, and many and varied were his experiences when he came in contact with the Yankee whalers which were operating about the port at that time, among them being the Tamerlane, Eliza Adams, Matilda Sayer, Coral and the Rainbow.

Frank T. Bullen in his book “The Cruise of the Cachelot,” records some of these exploits and in order that visitors may appreciate the type of man that Paddy was, the following short extracts arc quoted in connection with the meeting of the Cachelot and the Chance at Port William: “Two whaleships lay here—the Tamerlane, of New Bedford, and the Chance, of Bluff Harbour. I am bound to confess that there was a great difference in appearance between the Yankee and the col-onial-very much in favour of the former. She was neat, smart and seaworthy looking as if just launched; but the Chance looked like some poor old relic of a bygone day Anyone who summed up the Chance from her generally outworn and poverty-stricken looks would have been, as I was ‘way off.’ Old she was, with an indefinite antiquity, carelessly rigged, and vilely unkempt as to her gear, while outside she did not seem to have had a coat of paint for a generation In many of the preceding pages I have, though possessing all an Englishman’s pride in the prowess of mine own people, been compelled to bear witness to the wonderful neatness and courage shown by the American whalemen Theefore it is the more pleasant to me to be able to chronicle some of the doings of Captain Gilroy, familiarly known as ‘Paddy,’ the master of the Chance, who was unsurpassed as ?. whale-fisher or a seaman by any Yankee that ever sailed from Martha’s Vineyard. Knew Every Rock. “He was a queer little figure of a man—short tubby, with scanty red hair, and a brogue thick as pea-soup . Overflowing with kindliness and good temper, his ship was a veritable ark of refuge for any unfortunate who needed help Living as he had for many years on that storm-beaten coast, he had become, like his Maoris, familiar with very rock and tree in fog or clear, by night or day; he knew them, one might almost say, as the seal knows them, and feared them a little. His men adored him. I

They believed him capable of anything in the way of whaling, and would as soon have thought of questioning the reality of daylight as the wisdom of his decisions.” The port of Port William, where the trying out was done, is in the cosy little bay just inside the north entrance on the opposite side from the track. There is an old trypot lying there to this day, which is believed by many to be the one belonging to Paddy Gilroy. This is not so, however, as it was left there some 25 years ago by a whaler named Cook. The history of Gilroy s trypot is interesting. When the rush broke out at Gabriel’s Gully, Paddy decided to give up whaling and he put his pot ashore in Glory Harbour in Paterson Inlet, where it lay for some years. Later Mr John Bragg and Mr Harry West brought it up to Halfmoon Bay and used it for trying out some whale carcasses which were given to them by visiting whale ships; and it may still be seen at the home of Mr Bragg in Bragg’s Bay. A settler in Port William during Gilroy’s time was Tom Cross, another well-known seaman. His venturesome trip to the Auckland Islands in his small cutter, the Flying Scud, to rescue the crew of the Grafton which was wrecked on the islands in 1864, is known to most of the older residents of Southland. Cross settled in Port William about 1868 and with Captain Scollay, of Halfmoon Bay, commenced dredging for oysters off Port William Heads. The method used for dredging in those days is interesting as compared with present-day methods. Today the operation is performed by steamers which tow the dredges along the sea bottom for a considerable distance and then hoist the catch on board with a steam winch. The operation was carried out at Port William by putting out two anchors far apart and connected to each other by a long line. After the dredge had been put overboard the cutter was'pulled along this line by hand, towing the dredge with it. When the end of the rope was reached the dredge was hauled up, emptied, then dropped again, and the operation repeated in the opposite direction. Township of Rakiura. About 1880 there was a scheme to form a settlement at Port William with immigrants from Shetland and Orkney Islands, and a barracks was built. The idea was to found a fishing industry, but the promoters of the scheme forgot that there was no ready market for the fish so the immigrants soon dispersed and the buildings gradually disappeared. All that now remains of the township of Rakiura are some fruit trees and a patch of strawberries. The detailed history of Port William will be given later, but it is hoped that the foregoing sketch will enable the visitor to appreciate the part doings of this historical spot. On resuming the walk, a pleasant hour can be spent inspecting the sawmill plant and making excursions into the bush. Those interested in shells would do well to cast an eye along the beach as frequently some good specimens can be obtained. Visitors who wish to inspect the site of the old township of Rakiura and Cook’s trypot will need to do the trip by launch, as they lie on the north head of Port William and would be difficult to reach on foot. In conclusion it would be well to issue a warning to those who may be tempted to follow any of the mill tramlines into the bush. It is now two years since the mill was operating, and as these lines fall into disrepair very rapidly, great care is necessary before putting one’s weight on any of the timber forming the tram tracks.