FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 3, 4 January 1936, Page 23

FIFTY YEARS AGO

THE CRUISER NELSON

H.M.S. Nelson, which was expected here from Auckland under the command, of Admiral Tryon, was described as an "ocean-cruising, broadside, arm-our-plated ship." She was a sister-ship of the Northumberland, was built by John Elder and Co., of the Clyde, at a cost of £403,744, and was commissioned on June 29, 1881, as flagship of the Australian Station. With a displacement of 7986 tons, she had a length of 230 ft between perpendiculars, and a beam of 60ft. Ninety watertight compartments- gave her a fair margin of safety, and, in addition, she had a nine-inch belt of armour-plate.

A stern-wheel steamer, built for the Wanganui River Steamshipping Company, was launched at Wanganui on December 23, 1885. She was designed to carry 60 tons of cargo and to steam at 12 knots. She was christened the Tuhua.

Captain Campbell, of the steamer Kiwi, was presented with a complimentary address and a purse of 50 sovereigns by settlers' on the East Coast. The address praised the long and faithful service of the captain over 30 years, during which time his ships had never suffered harm.

The Shaw, Savill, and Albion ship

Pleione, of 1092 tons (Captain Renaut), arrived from London on the night of Sunday, December 27, 1885. She had left London on September 7 with a large cargo and eight passengers, and had had a light-weather passage, with baffling winds.

When the steamer Rotorua was about to leave Wellington at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 1885, it was discovered that the number of passengers for the excursion trip to Nelson was greater than that allowed the ship by law. For over an hour a manysided altercation ensued, and the intervention of the police had to be threatened before the required 50 returned to the wharf.

Residents of Petone and Lower Hutt noticed in the neighbourhood of the Hutt River on December 28, 1885, that the tide was unusually high when it should have been at its lowest. This was ascribed to the earthquake which took place at Oamaru two days previously.

Mr. Joseph Saunders put in the lowest tender, one of £5000, lor extending the inner north tee of Queen's Wharf. The extension of the tee would increase the berthing accommodation of the wharf by 260 feet, and would relieve the outer tee of

the smaller coasters.