SALES OF WRECKED SHIPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3759, 5 March 1907, Page 4

SALES OF WRECKED SHIPS.

The Dunedin Star says;— Among those who came to Messrs Park, Reynolds and Co.’s rooms on Friday morning to inquire after the Marguerite Miraband the talk turned upon shipping sales in the good old bustling . times, when money was made or lost quickly, and presently the great sale of the ship Surat was brought up. The Surat was wrecked down south on the coast of Otago abottt Christmas, 1873, and she was' sold by McLandress, Hepburn, and Co., on January sth, 1874, to Mr W. Guthrie for They did not lose much time between a wreck and a sale in those' days, apparently. Mr J. A. Park states that he well remembers the scene when, as clerk, he had to go with .the buyer and get the cheque, Mr McLandress waiting in the box until it was handed up, and ready to put the ship up again it the amount were not forthcoming., The purchaser did well on the transaction. Then came the long list of sales of the cargo, which was largely composed of drapery and boots, and which had to be brough up the coast as fast as small craft could lighter it. A syndicate, managed by Mr Julius Hymen, undertook this part of the salvage, and it proved very successful also, weekly sales going on for months. There were over twenty sales, and some of them brought in large amounts —the second sale, for instance, produced ,£1053. Things were lively right up to the time when the hammer fell on the last lot, and a pretty arduous time must have been that of Mr J. A. Park, who, together with a single storeman, had to handle everything.