SHIPS THAT NEVER GO TO SEA.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1924, Page 1

SHIPS THAT NEVER GO TO SEA.

In every port and harbour round tho coast there are ships which never go to sea. Year in and year out they lie at their moorings, their only movement ihe idle swing round at. the turn oi the tide, says R. A. Duckworth in the "D.’ulv .Mail.”

At some of lhe ports where there is a miniature licet of these stay-at-home boats the harbour-master has moored them all together out of the way of the traffic. They are of all types and sizes and ages. Although they appear to he utterly lifeless, there is generally a caretaker onboard to trim and set the lamps, open the ports and skylights, do a hit of pumping where it is required, and generally keep things as shipshape as oossilde. At other places or where there arc only a few. a longshoreman will .go the round and have them under his charge. In the docks there are also many of these odd craft tucked away in some remote corner. There are many reasons why these boats are left to lie at their moorings. A number are the victims of the trade •’slump” : there are no markets, and consequently, there is mo use for them. Others are tor sale for various

reasons, while* not :i fow arc old and their classification number—the hall-mark of sea-worthiness—has expired. At the end of the war there were hundreds of ships which, being designed and built for some specific war use, became obsolete on account of their being useless for any other purpose except at a heavy cost of reconstruction. Those which were not bought to he broken up or sold lie at their moorings in various creeks and harbours.

Away out of sight in large ami small boat yards are many yachts which have not. been in commission for years, in many cases long before the war. Their owners have been unable to use them; some have not found new owners, and lay up year after year until thev are of no use for the sea.

The life of a ship is not materially affected by being laid tip if reasonable care lias been taken of the vital parts, such as keeping the bilges clean, ventilating the cabins, and having a coat of paint on now and again. A boat which may look a sad spectacle to the eye will, after lioing through the hands of workmen, look none the worse for years of idleness.

Wooden boats are perhaps the more sensitive to neglect. As a rule the wood to decay first is not that part which is in the water but the inside portion, and particularly that strip of outside planking which sailors call ‘■between wind and water.”