THE SPANISH TKAINING SHIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4706, 26 July 1893, Page 2

THE SPANISH TKAINING SHIP.

Early yesterday morning the Spanish training ship Nautilus was signalled as __ approaching the port, and during the forenoon ehe anchored in the outar harbour, bnt weighed anchor again ami by noon was snugly moored at the buoys set apait for mooring men of war. When the mooring operations were completed, the vessel was boarded by Mr Arenas. Spanish ViaeCon8ul ; Mr F. H. Waymouth, Chairman, and Mr C. H. Williams, Secret iry of the Harbour Board ; Mr J. T. Brice, Mayor of Ljttelton; Captain Ciark, Harbourmaster; Mr Bel-house, Secretary ofthe Reception Committee; and the represent stives of the Press. The paity was met by the Commander, Don Fernando Villaiml, and conducted to his quarters, which ore situated right ait, where a most enjoyable half- hour was spent. The Commander speaka a little English, and with the assistance of Mr Arenas, who, when nece.sary, acted aa interpreter, the conversation was kept going briskly enough. After the formal introductions were over, and Mr Arenas had welcomed the visit >ib to the port, tbe conversation about the ship and those on board became general. It was gathered that the vessel which was purcbaeed in London s.me seven years ago by her present commander, acting on behalf of his Government, was being used as a school for instructing a number of cadets and fitting them to occupy positions in the Spanish navy. There is a crew all told of someone hundred and eighty-two souls; of these fifty are sons of gentlemen under* going the course of instruction of which mention has been made. Many of them were to be seen on deck wrapped up in great-coats, evidently feeling the cold. The vessel, it appears, had taken her departure from Ferrol on Dae. 7, and called at the Canary Islands, Bahia and other ports on the American coast, then on to Capetown, where she remained fourteen days. From Capetown she proceeded to South Australia and arrived at Adelaide daring the first week in April, and after a stay there Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle were visited, three or four weeks being spent in both the Victorian and New South Wales capiiale. From Sydney to Wellington was the next movement, and her stay in the northern port extended over three weeks. The Commander saw a good deal of the North Island, and was most enthusiastic in his praises of the oountry and ita people. Indeed he said that what he had. seen of the North Island led him to think that New Zealand waa the beat country under the Bun, , while he was equally complimentary ib his remarks of the people. He liked the Colonial Englishman decidedly better than the English Englishman.- He expressed admiration of the port of Wellington, and was equally well please^ with Lyttelton, as the spot where the ship was moored, he observed, was handy to the port and well sheltered. His time is fully oocupied, for besides giving the cadets daily instruction in navigation, _..., he -holds periodical exa m'n b tions, and was arranging to hold one of theße at the time of the visit. After some further conversation, the party, which had been most hospitably entsi tained, took their leave. Commander Don Fernando Villamil, who has charge of the ship, occupies a high position in his profession — the fact tbat he is entrusted with the responsibility of instructing the great nnmber of cadets under his charge i. sufficient proof of that fact. He was for five years commander of the royal yacht of his country, and previous to that was in command of a training Blip or "school." The Sla*c_t.\\_B ia t v _.c only Bailing vessel attached to the Spanish navy in commission as a training ship, but there are two or three steamers, on board which the cadets are in_truct-_d in gunnery, torpedo work and submarine mining. She is one of the famous old China t.a clippers— the Carrick Caßtle — and this fact once told is all that need be said with reference to her speed and general sea-going qualities. Anyone who professes to know anything of the h.s-.ry of shipping knows that the old tea clippers as a class were the fastest ships afloat, and from the fact that the vessel now in Lytt3't>n m_d9 the journey from Melbourne to Sydney in thiity-four hours proves that she has lest none of her speed. She i 3 not a man-of-war in the Ber.se of the word with which we are familiar, and i 3 supplied with only four email guns, two six-pounder rapid-firing guns made in Spain of the Nordenfeldt patt.rn, and two Hotchkies guna of a similar calibre. Like all her class Bhe is composite built, and sheet9d with real copper, which, as the handsome clipper lay in the bay yesterday, looking the pictnre of neatness on deck and aloft, glittered in the sun like a mirror. As -he came to her moorings ehe was decorated with the Spaui.h standard at peak and each masthead, in honour of one of the saint j of the couctry to which she now belongs, and the general appearance was one that is seldom met with nowadays, for she is a representative of a noble and rapidly vanishing type. Her stay at this port is exp.et.d to extend over three or four weeks, and from here she goes direct to Callao, on the coast of Peru, t .ence t. Valparaiso, where ehe will be due about December. The homeward journey will then be continued, tbe vessel going through the Straits of Magellan—a very dangerous rout, for a sailing ship. The following i 3 a li-.t of the officers*. —Capt iin, Don Fernando Villamil ; Second Commander, Don Joaquin Barriere Perez; Lieutenant, Don Claudio Alvargonzalez y Zarracina ; officers, Don Joe! Nunez Quijano. Don Manuel Somoza Haitley, Don M-t.o Garcia de los Eeyez, Don Jose Miranda Cadrelo, Don Alvaro Quitian Delgado; Doctor, Don Salvador Guinea Alz_.t.* Paymaster, Don Joaquin Coello Pardo; Priest, Don Jose Gonzalez.