THE GLAMOUR OF SAIL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 6

THE GLAMOUR OF SAIL

GRACE HARWAR TWICE MET ONLY FULL-RIGGED SHIP AFLOAT. EXPERIENCE OF PORT GISBORNE. HOMEWARD AND OUTWARD BOUND. Despite the thrills inevitably associated with the latest and greatest developments of marine ’transport, the glamour of the full-rigged ship can never fade, and appeals to sailor and landsman alike. An interesting account of a meeting at sea with the Grace Harwar, holding at present the distinction of _being the only full-rigged ship afloat in active service, was given to a Daily News reporter yesterday by Captain W. G. Higgs, master of the motor-vessel Port Gisborne, which arrived at New Plymouth yesterday morning. There were really about a score of other deep-sea square-riggers now trading, explained Captain Higgs, but these were barques, and not ships in the strict nautical sense. On March 2, 1934, the ship Grace Harwar cleared Port Victoria, South Australia, grain-laden, for Falmouth for orders, said Captain Higgs. Built in 1889, she had flown the red ensign until the war years, having then been purchased by Captain Erickson, a Finnish shipmaster, like many of her sisters at that time. “With the dropping of the pilot that day she passed out of touch with the world,” continued the narrator, “and steadily pursued her way, come fair wind or foul, down towards Cape Hom and on the long trail to the English Channel.” On May 2, just two months later, the Port Gisborne dropped her pilot off Lyttelton, and set her course along the same watery road with London as her destination. The Horn was rounded on May 15, out of sight, for the weather was thick and had been so for a week previously, and her bows were gladly turned towards the finer latitudes of the north. Save for a glimpse of Trinidad Island—the South Atlantic island, not the Trinidad of the West Indies—neither ship nor lahd was seen since leaving New Zealand until at 10 a.m. on May 27, just 49 miles north of the Equator, a sailing ship was sighted on the port bow. The course was altered to bring the Port Gisborne near the stranger, and preparations were made to give her provisions if needed. As the motor-vessel came up astern the name Grace Harwar, Mariehamn, was plainly visible on the counter. FAIRWEATHER CANVAS BENT. The wind was light from the northeast, and she was making perhaps two or three knots, close hauled on the starboard tack, her sails flapping aback and bellying full as she rolled idly to the swell. “Obviously she had her fairweather canvas bent, as is the custom in this region,” remarked Captain Higgs. “It was patched and of several varying shades of colour, while her yards departed a good deal from the horizontal. The main royal yard, in particular, was cockbilled to a very noticeable extent. Someone remarked at the time that she looked ‘rather like a Chinese junk,’ which was exaggeration, of course, and her crew would doubtless resent the simile, but she did somehow suggest, a tipsy charwoman wearing her secondbest, with her bonnet tilted jauntily over one eye. Well, it was Sunday, and perhaps she did not expect to be'observed.”

No request was made for provisions, nor did her navigator ask for his longitude as might have been supposed. Little more than an hour later the ship was out of sight astern. That day the Grace Harwar was 86 days out.

The Port Gisborne reached London on June 6, and after five weeks’ stay, left again for New Zealand via Panama on July 13. That evening at 8 o’clock a sailing vessel was sighted ahead, and the course was altered to pass near her, for it could be seen that she was a ship, and not a barque, and therefore could be none other than the Grace Harwar once again. “But there was nothing untidy or slipshod about. her now,” said Captain Higgs. “Best canvas aloft, and all sails drawing to a moderate westerly breeze which sent her along at a good eight knots, yards all shipshape, deckwork gleaming with paint and varnish, she was a picture to be remembered as she passed onward, silhouetted against the western afterglow.”

The Grace Harwar was 134 days out when-seen the second time, and would probably .reach Falmouth the next day. The coincidence of the sighting of one ship by another when the latter was both homeward and outward bound, was considered worthy of special remark by the captain.