MARINER’S WIDOW DIES AT SUMNER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 187, 8 August 1931, Page 21 (Supplement)

MARINER’S WIDOW DIES AT SUMNER.

PENINSULA PLACE NAME TAKEN FROM HER FAMILY (Contributed.) The death occurred recently at the residence of her son, Mr Norman V Smith, Clifton, Sumner, of Mrs Agnes Waters Smith, widow of Captain Harry Smith, a seaman who had in the “ windjammer ” period visited most of the trading ports of the world, and for a period of close upon forty years was engaged in voyaging on the New Zealand and Australian coasts. Mrs Smith was born at German Bay (now Takamatua), Banks Peninsula, on September 29, 1557. Her father. Captain Henderson, hailed from Glasgow, and her mother was a daughter of j Mr “ Sandy ” M’lntosh, of M’lntosh j Bav, who arrived there in 1542. Mr ! M'lntosh’s home was a noted one for j its hospitality, both to sailors of the Navy and the Mercantile Marine, and it was as a compliment to him that the bay received its name, and as such it appears on charts to this day, although known locally as Menzies Bay. School Days. When she was but a little girl Mrs Smith’s parents removed to Lyttelton, and there she attended Mrs Grant’s private school at the corner of Winchester and Dublin Streets, next to the Scottish Church. Among her schoolmates were members of the Diamond, M'Williams and the Grubb families. Later she attended a boarding school at Sumner, controlled by Mrs Trew After she had finished her schooling ; there, the family removed to Christchurch, residing in Chester Street. On the death of her father, Mrs Smith’s mother married again, her second husband being Captain Ifwersen.who, while on a voyage from Newcastle to Lyttelton, in command of the Velocidiade, which belonged to the skipper, in conjunction with Messrs Montgomery and Wood, of Christchurch, was lost at sea, the vessel never being reported again. A Seaman’s Daughter. It is not surprising that, with such sea-going associations, after her marriage to Captain Smith at St John’s Church, Latimer Square, celebrated by the Rev H. C. M. Watson, Mrs Smith accompanied her husband on his voyagings for several years. On many occasions the writer met Captain and Mrs Smith, and during the course of conversation the lady would, in a very vivacious fashion,' relate some of her experiences at sea. Those were not the days of comfortable sea travel, such as captains’ wives experience now in palatially appointed steamers. The old “ windjammers ” were of anything from 60 to about 2000 tons burthen. Driven Before the Gale. The smaller standard was the case with the T. B. Taylor, a topsail schooner of 70 tons, in which Mrs Smith on many occasions set out to sea. One time, with a cargo of potatoes on board, the T. B. Taylor left Lyttelton for Wanganui. It was blowing a stiff oldtime sou’-wester when the vessel due to leave and the harbourmaster advised Captain Smith to anchor off the Heads till the “ breeze" took off, so the ship lay in Port Levy for the night. At four o’clock the next morning the order was “Up anchor,” and Mrs Smith remarked that to show what sort of a gale it was, running under topsail only the T. B. Taylor was off Cape Campbell at five o’clock the same evening. They went through the Strait “ like a scalded cat,” and had a very bad time, nearly capsizing owing to the cargo shifting. A Narrow Escape. When Captain Smith gave up command of the T. B. Taylor, Captain and Mrs Smith made their home in Christchurch, the captain soon transferring his seafaring activities to the Onward on shares with M’Clatchie and Co. "With Captain Smith’s following command, the Mary Ann Annison, a vessel of 600 tons, Mrs Smith again went to sea, taking with her her firs born son, Claud. During one voyage on the way from Newcastle to Lyttleton very foggy weather was experienced off Milford Sound, and the Captain was endeavouring one day to get an observation as to his position, at intervals having pot shots at the albatrosses with his revolver. Suddenly the man at the wheel called out: “ Hi, there! Your son’s going overboard!” and as Mrs Smith expressed it: “ There was that young beggar Claud straddled over the stern of the ship. In his excitement the Captain jumped over the wheel box, nearly doing for the sextant, and the jump caused the revolver to go off, shooting his wide-awake hat from the top of his head, but he arrived just in time to drag the youngster back by his heels It was a narrow squeak and the mischievous imp received ‘ Hail, Columbia ’ from his father.” The Cargo Shifts. The Mary Ann Annison, Captain Smith had often told his wife, was a good ship and played no tricks, “ but after one voyage he admitted that he had got as good a dusting at sea with her as he ever wanted to have, or ‘till then had had.” Mrs Smith told the writer: “ We had completed loading coal at Newcastle, and despite the fact that it had been blowing an easterly gale for several days the Captain was impatient to get to sea. In the hope that the weather would moderate he left New castle, but ran into trouble straight away

the coal cargo shifting, and causing a , list* to starboard of eighteen inches Calm weather had to be waited for be- , fore the ship could be trimmed, and then the Captain found that we had been blown back to Lord Howe Island. Caught Unawares. I “ Those times shipmasters used to go • sputh about to Timaru through ; Foveaux Strait, but this time we could I not get south, and had to go through i Cook Strait. One evening, in fact one . of the most wondrous nights I had ) ever experienced at sea—a glorious , moon, indeed, a most peaceful scene , from deck—the Captain on going below r instructed the second mate, a young r man, to call him immediately the pre [ vailing breeze from the nor’-west died - away. This the mate forgot to do, and > at. the dropping of the nor’-wester the t ship was suddenly struck by the worst - of sou’-westers, which blew away the two upper topsails and the foresail [ There was nothing for it then but to . turn tail and run before the gale. * Job’s Comforter in Hour of Trial. ; . “ My boy and I were battened down i in the cabin, and had to remain there - for nine hours. We had to run through > Cock Strait till at Blind Bay we reachr ed smoother waters. The boats on : deck were flattened out like pancakes, > and the bulwark stanchions, lOin by Bin greenheart, were levelled with the . covering board of the ship and the ’ bulwarks stripped. As the captain was unable to come down to the cabin, he sent our big nigger cock-steward to see how we were g ing on. And a i proper Job’s Comfcn ter that nigger was! He came into the cabin and said: * Missus, nebber no more will I : see my wife and chillun! ' We’re all i gone • ’ I told him that if we were I ‘ gonners ’ what was the use of making : a fuss about it. There was no backI door out of the ship. He rolled the : whites of his big eyes and gazing upwards said again : ‘ We’re all gone ( Nebber see land again ! ’ Indeed was ■ he a cheerful individual to call upon a person who had been battened down ’ for many hours, listening to the creak-

ing of the vessel’s timbers, and the ' fury of the waves surging across the deck, never knowing which moment would be the last.” ! But even that buffeting did not deter Mrs Smith going to sea, and she made many trips afterwards between Lyttelton. Melbourne, Sydney and Bris--1 bane, and some rough ones too, once | when during the whole of the voyage 1 there was “ hardly a dry spot ” in the 1 ship. “ One handicap, though,” she ; related, “ I could never sleep at night. 1 I would hear every change of the ’ watch, the giving of the course, and ; the rattle of the gear. The captain, r though, would no sooner be down on > his bunk than he would be fast asleep.” i A Lonely Wait. 1 Subsequently Captain and Mrs Smith : shifted their place of residence to Auckland, and almost immediately on : arrival there the captain took charge of the Rhino, and on his first trip was • lucky to escape the centre of the cyclonic hurricane which destroyed Apia, Samoa, and the many war vessels there, the only ship escaping from i the harbour being f 11.M.5. Calliope, whose commander snowed daring seai manship in getting out to sea. Owing ■ to the effects of the hurricape on the t Rhino causing re-fitting, and then his , necessary trading calls among the Islands of the Pacific, Captain Smith : did not return home to Auckland for a period of over two years, and Mrs Smith remarked that it was a most , lonesome and trying time for her. i When the captain did come home his children did not know him, and one of them asked his mother to “ chase that man away.” During her residence in Auckland Mrs Smith gained a large number of friends and in no year did £he fail to send their surviving members birthday and other seasonable greetings. A very kindly woman, a large circle of acquaintances in Christchurch will miss Mrs Smith and her cheery ways. : There are two sons, Mr Claud Smith, Sydney, and Mr Norman V. Smith, of Clifton, Sumner, and a half-sister, Mrs ■ J. W. Shand, of Christchurch.