THE WELLINGTON HEADS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 5

THE WELLINGTON HEADS.

AN OLD-TIMER'S REMINISCENCES. WRECKS OF THE PAST. The Wellington Heads, although they do not furnish sensations in the way of wrecks in these onlightcned days, have 011 record numerous grim maritime happenings which still linger in the minds of tho old hands on tho water-front. A representative of The Dominion struck up an acquaintanceship with an ancient mariner who has had a close experience of the Heads from the sixties onward, and gleaned somo interesting information as to the larger happenings of the early days at the entranco when tho pilot reigned supremo ill the midst of a splendid isolation. Tho pilot station ■in those days was tho one sign of white habitation on tho western sido of the Heads. A couplo of Maori families resided 011 the Worser Bay and Karaka Bay Flats, which expanse of ground was otherwise wild, uninhabited, and covered with ti-treo and scrub. - During about nineteon yoars permanent residence at' the Heads the mariner in question saw many wrecks, and tells of tho most important of them.as ho remembers thorn, and not in the order of their happening. A fino sailing ship, the Earl of Southcsk, met disaster at tho entrance—she anchored at tho Heads at night about a mile off Barrett's Roof, with a north-westerly wind blowing. Tho wind veered round to tho south, and -when tho Southesk was getting under weigh,in a light wind and heavy southerly swell sho made a stern-hoard and crashed on the Black Rock, sinking in deep water. When the vessel struck, roost' of the crow went out on to the jibboom. Two of the men, however, rushed below to rcscuo their valuables, and as they came out of the cahiiv a boat that had been 011 the hatchway floated past them. ',Thby got into the boat and were tho moans of rescuing tho whole ship's coirtjiitoy from tho jib-boom of tho vessel just ■before.she went down. .Another.big' wreck was tho barque Carlotta, bound' fron}. Newcastle. The. vessel was: endeavouring to beat in against a hard north-woster,' when she missed stays and v.-ent ashore under the Pencarrow Lighthouse. The pilot staff went down and landed tho captain, bis wife, and the crew in the pilot boat in the face of heavy weather. The Hannah Bloomficld camo to grief tin--dor similar circumstances off Inconstant Point. Tho Maggio Patterson also. left her bones, under Pencarrow, running ashoro during thick southeily weather.'. The steamer Tui struck a : rock in Chaffer's Passage and srnk, and the Willie M'Laron struck off tho Stoeple Rock and sunk in Worser Bay. . The worst disaster at the , Hoads that tho-pioncor could remember was that of tho Colonist, which ran ashoro during a southerly golo, only 0110 man from the ship's company being saved. Tho vessel had lost her rudder, and could not 'je steered. : She struck the reef off tho old pilot-station and-literally , fell to piccrs. There, was a, very heavy sea' at the time of tho accident, and- tho only man who was saved by the pilot staff was pulled through tile- surf on a life line. . Tho ship Halcoine ran ashore at Fitzroy Bay and became a tojtal, wreck. Many schoonors and small fry have been wrecked at tho Heads, and narrow escapes havo been frcqnont, 0110 present day' coaster, the Wakatu, having a narrow eseapo oil one occasion through her engineroom fires being put out by a heavy sea as she was steaming up "tho entrance. A narrow escape of the eighties, which never appeared in print, is worth recalling. A barque, from Liverpool, was, reaching in for Pencarrow just beforo dark in thick southerly weather and drizzling rain. "Die 'pilot staff received a call to go out and bring the vessel in, but 011 making tho oiien water lost sight of tho barque. The pilot rowed about outside tho Heads for a couple of hours, catching an occasional glimpse of the ship between tho rain squalls. Eicntually lie sighted tho - big vessel in Lyoll Bay making toward the entrance. On camo the white-winged flyer, but in the misty weather her captain mistook Chaffer's Passage for the entranco, and but for tho prompt action of the pilot must havo piled the ship upon the middle of Barrett's Reef. Tho gravity of tho situation struck the pilot, immediately, and, urging his crew on, ho set out to intercept tho oncoming sailer, and on reaching her instructed the captain to haul to tho wind as ho' had taken the wrong entrance. Tho instruction was. carried out, but not, a moment too soon. The ship cleared the rocks, but was so closo to tho outer edge of the reef that a lino could havo been thrown on to it. "It was a closo call," concluded tho storyteller, "and reminds me of another case," of which moro anon. '

Of tlio four chief centres'of population, Cbristchui'ch has the,highest number of old afro pensioners, lianiclv, 1525, as against 1342 in Auckland, 1233 in Dnnedin, and 022,111 Wellington. The European population of the old aire pensionage . in Wellington is onlv 2520. as against 415.7 in Dnnedin, 4538 in Cbristchiirch, and 4G13 in Auckland. There are nine pensioners on the roll IMS years and over, and of those three are centenarians.

Quite recently the Exmonth, flagship of Sir A. G. Curzon-Howe, Com-mander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, came near to meeting with a very serious mishap. Just in the. nick, of timo it was found that the fork of the connecting rod was cracked. As a consequence investigation was set on foot, and in the end a new connecting rod had to bo fitted Tt was the lircaking of a connecting rod in this way that causod the Bullfinch disaster, one of the most costly in loss of' lifo that lias occurred in our Navy for some years. Had not the defcct in the Exmonth's engines been discovered thcro might by this time have been another to add to the already too lengthy list of serious naval accidents.