“A GOOD SEAWORTHY SHIP”

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1930, Page 15

“A GOOD SEAWORTHY SHIP”

PRAISE FOR THE OLD RAR AW A. CAPTAIN WALLER’S OPINION. A derelict in the indignity of the ever increasing "rotten row, . reduced, in her. declining years to the silence and idle.ness of an interminable anchorage in Waitcmata harbour, the familiar old Rarawa is now always an object of pathetic interest to Taranaki people when they, visit Auckland. For much as they 1 disliked the mal-de-mer with which she so often afflicted her passengers the Rarawa was known to be safe and trustworthy to a very marked dcrree, and people knew that, fair or foul, their lives were- always safe in her keeping. “She was a good, seaworthy ship,the Rarawa,” said Captain W. Waller to a News representative. "She was built by the Dundee people, Gourley Bros, q’jjcy were good They built the Ulimaroa and you could always depend upon getting a good, model from them. Captain Blackburn brought her out from England. He was lost in the wreck of. the Kia Ora near Kawhia. "I always said the Rarawa, with all her fittings so complete, reminded me of a big passenger ship. In a way you might call her a "little big”, passenger ship. She could do .12 -knots or so. Neither the Rarawa nor - the Ngapuhi ever had any serious trouble. AN either of them ever lost a man. They used to ■bo held up at the Manukau bar occasionally but they never had any trouble in berthing at New Plymouth, in spite of the fact that when I was first stationed here the breakwater was 800 feet shorter than it is now. "About the beginning of 1915, in the early days when I was appointed harbourmaster, the Rarawa used to make three trips from New Plymouth to Onehunga each 'week as a rule. She arrived at New Plymouth on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and sailed the same evenings, except when it was particularly rough at the bar or when she was delaved over the week-end for race traffic. After the end of January, 1915, however, the trips were reduced to only two a 'week. "During the war period for a time her sailing from New Plymouth was altered. Mines were feared in the Taranaki Bight and she left earlier to have daylight on part of the journey. Floating mines were found, of course. Two were discovered near Mokau and two near Raglan and one at Oakura, which I saw exploded. This -early sailing lasted for only a few months during the ' middle war period. Otherwise she kept

regularly to her time-table, leaving New Plymouth as soon as the mail train airived. . "I am sorry to see her g 0,,, said Captain Waller, “and others 'will be sorry, too. It was a good way .to travel. Y'ou could stretch your legs, have a salt bath in the morning and. get a good breakfast. Of course, when the Main Trunk was opened right through the passenger trade fell off considerably. “With the improvements to the road the trade dwindled all the more. Still, it’s the way of things—the sailing ship gives way to the steamship and now the steamship gives way to the motorcar and —yes, I suppose that’s so —soon the motor-car will have to give way to the aeroplane.” , <