SAILING SHIP DELAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19365, 23 July 1925, Page 7

SAILING SHIP DELAYS

THE SCHOONER H. K. HALL. LONG VOYAGES RECALLED. VESSELS POSTED AT LLOYDS. In these days of modern liners running at fast speeds to a set schedule people are apt to forget the dellays that wind and weather can cause a sailing ship. Such elemental forces are posIsibly delaying the five-masted Schooner iH. K. Hall, now 114. dlays out. from (Newcastle to Callao, Peru. Her pro-

tracted voyage across the Pacific recalls other occasions where anxiety has 1 been dispelled after hope htad almost Ibcen adandoned.

In some cases the voyage has been so jprolonged that vessels after being | given up for lost and nearly posted as, 'missing, at Lloyds, have rdachcd port i safely. Calms and doldrums often (keep a sailing vessel in one locality for I weeks, or strong head winds may drive I her thousands of miles destination. In December, 1916, consider•ablc (anxiety prevailed in Auckland over the non-arrival of the American schooner Andy Mahoney from San Francisco. Two ether sailing vessels, the Golden Gate and the Louisa Craig, had reUched New Zealand in 49 and 53 days respectively. When the Andy Alahoney was 108 days out from San Francisco and had not been reported it was fe*ared she had mot with an accident. Three days later she reached Sydney, having missed New Zealand Sowing to bad weather and defective I barometer.

I The sailing vessel Beacon Rock left Port Pirie for Wellington*in bUllast in 1900, but was blown acorss the Pacific and arrived at a port on the West [Coast of South America in 88 days. In (the meantime 90 guineas had been plaid on her reinsurance. On the journey I from America to Wellington to comipletc her charter, she took 95 days and 'was again on the reinsurance market. I The Agnes Oswald arrived off East London, South Africa, after a voyage (of 127 days from Astoria, Washington. She was then blown away and did not (get into port until 31. days later, lafter |SO guineas had been paid on her relinsurance. The Blackbraes in 1901 (took 130 days on the voyage from iTable Bay to Astoria, Whshingtoi, and 1160 days from San Francisco to Leith. iThe following year the Crown of Gerjmanv took 122 days from Table Bay |to Siin Francisco. Two years later she I occupied 214 days between New York land Shanghai. Forty guineas reinsurance was paid on the Ems in 1904, when she took 120 days with coolies from Calcutta to Fiji. The London Hill in 1901 took 150 days on the trip from San Ftancisco to Liverpool, and some years later she occupied 200 days between Vancouver and Dublin. The Samoena, bound from an American port to Buenos Aires, South America, put into BUrbadoes for stiffening when 144 days out, and her reinsurance was at 25 guineas. In 1908 she was 132 days from West Coast of South America to the United Kingdom and two years Hater, when bound from Tquique io the United Kingdom, her reinsurance had reached 10 guineas when she was sighted near England, It 4 days out. The Walden Abbey look 170 c\ays from the Tyne to Portland, Oregon, and the Zenita 212 days from the Tyne to Seattle.

It is a peculiar fact that many vessels which spend months on a voyage are never sighted bv another vessel during that time. That is what MipIppned to the four-masted sailing ship I Afghanistan, which disappeared for seven months. In December, 1900, she loft. San Francisco for Liverpool and nothing was seen or ho*ard of -her until one Sunday night in the following July when she dropped anchor in the Mersey. Such silent voyages, although exceptional, are not unique. On one occasion a vessel, the Pym, was twice in the one voyage on the eve of being posted at Lloyds. Bound from the United States to Japan she took five and a half months to reach the Straits of Anjer and was neither seen nor spoken to by any other ship in the meantime, and her premium had advanced to 60 per cent. Curiously enough a precisely similar thing happened on the second stage of the journey. Nothing was seen or heard of her for the next six months and her premium soared up to 70 per cent. On both occasions the “posted” notice was written out ready to display on the board at Lloyds, and this is done only when all hope Mas been abandoned. . Shipping records are full of such incidents as are quoted above and in all cases the reports of the voyages provide some interesting reading.