Youth and Age

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 1

Youth and Age

CRUISER TOURVILLE MEETS OLD FRENCH GUNBOAT IN AUCKLAND.

NOW A COAL-HULK Within a few chains of each other they lie—lusty youth and sere old age—but the patriarch, after the fashion of old men, will concede nothing of usefulness to this vigorous and powerful youngster. Since the berthing of the Tourville at Central Wharf all eyes on the waterfront have been fixed on her sweeping lines and “slick” appearance, but a few chains away at the Northern Wharf is the hull of another French fighting boat that still demands respect and plays her part in the life of Auckland's marine community. The Eure looks like any other coalhulk and the casual eye passes over her with indifference, but she was once a trim unit of the French Navy and it is more than likely that, when a gunboat, she cruised in company with one of that long line of warships which bore the name of Tourville. She was built in about ISS3 and for some years at the end of her naval life was stationed at the Tahiti and Noumea Groups watching France’s interests there. She was dismantled in about 1900 and lay at the Islands for a long time until she was purchased by a Sydney firm and towed to Port Jackson,, where she lay anchored in the stream awaiting another buyer. Eventually the Northern Steamship Company bought her and she was towed over to Auckland by the steamer Ihumata, arriving here on the morning of January 26, 1913. An official of the Northern Company said this morning that the Eure is still in a remarkable state of preservation and is good for many years to come. This is attributable to the fact that she is built of English oak. Capable of holding 2,500 tons of coal, she is one of the largest coal-hulks in New Zealand.

Lying so close to the Tourville, the Eure provides an interesting comparison of “the old and the new.”