NAMING CAROLINE BAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19771, 12 April 1934, Page 6

NAMING CAROLINE BAY.

To the Editor of " The Timaru Herald ” Sir—My grandfather, who sailed from England in 1879, has only just recently heard that that charming little bay known as Caroline Bay in Timaru. was named after the sailing vessel which brought him and my great-grand-parents to New Zealand over fifty years ago. The Caroline (Captain Davis) left London for Wellington in that year in the depth of winter. She was a noted clipper, but having been becalmed in the tropics and much buffeted rounding Cape Horn the voyage occupied over four months, during which land was never sighted until nearing Mt. Egmont. Amongst the passengers were Dr Hudson and his brother, of Nelson, Mr and Mrs James Andrews, of Kaiapoi Island Farm, Mr and Mrs Pybus and family, including two sons, one now the Rev. Mr Pybus, of Port Chalmers, Mr and Mrs Norris, and their family of seven, including Canon Norris, of Cashmere Hills (eight more members of this family arrived later), also Mr Jennings, Mr Greenfield, and, of course, others. It was the last mentioned who was instrumental in getting the name Caroline Bay given to your beach after the old ship, which, by the way, was wrecked on the next home voyage after this trip, at the Straits of Magellan. Mr Greenfield died some years ago. and. I believe, was never married. I thought this might be of some interest to South Canterbury folk and yourself.—l am, etc., J.R.M.F. Wellington, April 10. I Our correspondent’s observations are interesting in view of the controversy that has raged round the naming Caroline Bay. Mr Jahannes C. Anderson, in his “Jubiiee History cf South Canterbury” says: ‘‘Joseph Price chief officer of the Harriet, left the boat in December, 1839, and started whaling on his own account at Ikorai, Banks Peninsula. Price shipped in September, 1931, on board the Caroline for a whaling cruise; but whether Caroline Bay was named after this ship, or after another Caroline, a whaler that frequented the coast up till the year 1835, is not known.” — Editor of “The Timaru Herald.”]