PIONEER SHIPS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20364, 23 July 1934, Page 5

PIONEER SHIPS.

When “Bully” Forbes Was Captain. TRAVELLING LONG AGO. Passengers who travel between England and the colonies by the magnificent liners of to-day have no conception of the conditions under which the intrepid pidneers crossed the almost uncharted oceans in their tiny sailing vessels, some as small as 15 tons register. Some interesting comparisons w’ere drawn by Mr G. R. Leggett, in a lecture on earl}' shipping, delivered recently at the Melbourne Public Library. Mr Leggett told of the tiny vessels, built in Australia, w’hich carried food and brick and wooden houses,. besides passengers, to California, at the height of the American gold rush. He instanced the Halcyone, which made the round trip from Launceston to California and back in ten months. Turning to the development of the fast clippers, which were put on the Australian run to meet the enormous demand for passenger and cargo space created by the discovery of gold; Mr Leggett said that James Baines was the first man to realise this need. He first bought the Marco Polo, and fitted her up in what was unknown lavishness in those days. No steerage passengers w’ere carried, the luxury of a cottage piano was provided for the ladies, and a band played on deck on fine afternoons. She carried a small steam launch to take passengers from the ship anchorage to the shore. A 11 Fast ” Passage. The Marco Polo astonished the world in 1552 by making the voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne in 68 days. Her skipper was the famous Bully Forbes.

Baines then acquired the Sovereign of the Seas, the largest and finest clipper in the world. He made- so much 'out of his first trip with her that he was able to order the building in America, of the clippers Lightning,

James Baines, Champion of the Seas, and Donald M’Kay. The Lightning, in 17 trips, averaged 79 days, compared with the average of 80 days put up by the famous Cutty Sark in 16 trips, and the Thermopylae in 22 trips. Mr Leggett quoted from a description of conditions on board the Aberfoyle in 1853 as typical of what ship passengers had to put up with in those days. Each passenger was allowed 21 quarts of water a week for drinking, cooking, washing and laundry. On that vessel it vras provided that all second class and intermediate passengers must provide themselves with a knife and fork, table and tea spoons, two metal plates, two drinking mugs, two cups and saucers, and a hook pot. In all cases passengers had to provide their own bedding and cabin furniture. To give some idea of the size of the big clippers, Mr Leggett said that they were fitted with three masts, each 50 or 60 feet higher than the Eastern Hill fire tower, with a spread cf about two acres of canvas in favourable weather. He described the Schomberg, the first big clipper built in England, as the luxury ship of her day. It was in her Bully Forbes vowed he would get to Hell or Melborne in 60 days.” Unfavourable winds delayed him, and he ended by running the vessel ashore. She w ? as described as being beautifully appointed. The ladies’ saloon was said to be of fairy-like beauty, painted in white and gold, with elegant rosewood furniture, and doors of bird’s eye maple and mahogany, inlaid with pearls and brilliants. While the saloon passengers travelled in comparative comfort, said Mr Leggett, in the steerage conditions were extremely primitive. At first the steerage passengers had to do their own cooking, but later they were supplied with a cook. Rations were served out once a week, and it sometimes happened that the hungry voyagers ate up most of their week's supplv in the first day or two, and went hungry for the rest of the time.

Except for the crack clippers, however. many of the vessels were illfound and leaky, and passengers had a most nerve racking and uncomfortable experience.