RISEN FROM GRAVE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 872, 16 January 1930, Page 1

RISEN FROM GRAVE

WOODEN HULK OF THE CHELMSFORD SQUEEZED UP BY MUD The sea is giving up its dead. In this case the little, old, wooden steamer Chelmsford, for more than 40 years a familiar sight in the lanes of shipping on the East Coast north of Auckland. Today, a skeleton of her former self, her timbers greyed with mud, she is poking her nose through the silt and water, intended to be her grave, at the corner of the western reclamation near Western W h a rf. I AT first the hulk was assumed to be 1 * the Kanieri, which also lies buried there, but the Kanieri was a.n ironbuilt ship, and harbour authorities are emphatic that the wooden prow rising up 6ft. is that of the Chelmsford. Scuttled about eight mouths ago, in the corner of the reclamation she sank to the bottom, but apparently air and the piling up of silt pumped in has combined to squeeze the hulk to the top. Little sign of rotting is shown on the prortuding bow, which will probably be destroyed by fire. The portion below the surface has probably filled with debris so that it will not form a weak spot in the reclamation. A trim little vessel of 122 tons, the Chelmsford was built in Sydney in ISB6, and was later acquired by the Northern Steamship Company, which she served faithfully for more than 40 years, trading between Auckland and East Coast ports to the North. The Chelmsford, an S9-footer , was practically rebuilt three times, and was finally withdrawn from service some time ago. Sold eight months ago to Mr. Wiliam McKay, she was stripped and towed to the reclamation area, where she was sunk to the grave from which she has now emerged.