AN OLD-TIME CLIPPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 224, 21 September 1928, Page 6

AN OLD-TIME CLIPPER.

1* an article in last Saturday's ''Star" there is a reference to the ship Merinerus in the interesting account of sailing ships that left San Francisco in 1905. The end of this fine vessel is told in Basil Tubbock's book 'Colonial Clippers." The writer served in her under Captain Fife in 1873-4. She was a flyer. I well remember running up the English Channel on the voyage from Geelong to London. There was a strong breeze on the quarter and we passed everything, sail or steam; or, as in those days, sail and steam. She was one of Carmichael's Clyde-built clippers where "you got your whack and you got nae mair." A favourite refrain on board was "There's nothing done aboard the ship contrary to the Act. You get lime juice and vinegar, i tell you 'tis the fact." The house flag was the Scotch thistle, but while the officers hailed frost bonnie Scotland the ten apprentices were English or Irish. Those were the days of musical shantys: "What shall ive do with the drunken sailor? Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound. Tom's gone to Hilo, we're bound to the Rio Grande," etc. The Mermerus had three double topgallant yards and three skysails. She was a beautiful vessel, with painted ports and a handsome iigureliead. The ranks of the sailor men of those days are being sadly depleted. A few remain in our Sailors' Home. One of the last, Charlie Young, was laid to rest last week at Hillsburo' Cemetery. E.C.K.