VANDALS ON REWA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1066, 2 September 1930, Page 10

VANDALS ON REWA

THIEVES DAMAGE OLD BARQUE SHIP TO BE SET UPRIGHT Aggressive vandalism and wholesale pilfering are the indignities which the grand old barque Rewa is suffering in her old age, lying on the beach at Moturekareka Island, near Kawau. She was broken into three times during the early part of last month and a large quantity of valuable property stolen. It was previously reported that the ship’s bell and a number of small aticles were removed from her on the night that she was towed from the Waitemata Harbour to her present resting place. Mr. C. P. Hanson, who owns the vessel now, reports that she has been broken into three times, although securely locked. The marauders got in through the saloon skylight. They stripped all the expensive plush cushions from the saloon, took a wire mattress from the captain’s cabin, removed parts of the wireless set, and made a clean sweep of all the electric light globes in the saloon and the captain’s and officers’ quarters, together with electric light fittings. UNRESTRAINED VANDALISM The thieves demostrated unrestrained vandalism when, in order to take out the contents of the sideboard and a set of drawers in the saloon, all of which were locked, they split off the valuable teak drawerfronts and removed the mahogany doors of the sideboard by the hinges. So little security do Mr. Hanson and his men feel with regard to the Rewa that they are watching day and night for intruders. “We are constantly on tenterhooks,” he said, “and are at a disadvantage owing to small boats being able to creep up on the seaward side of the ship, hidden from our view by the expanse of hull facing landward through the list she took shortly after being beached.” “Gear is also shifting constantly aboard, and gives rise to continual noises, so we do not know whether thieves are at work or not, and have had several false alarms.” Mr. Hanson thinks that the offences must have been committed early in the evening. He says the intruders were "pretty agile” to get into the saloon by the skylight. It seems nothing short of sacrilege that this fine old ship, a noble vessel with a noble record, a link with the days when “sailors were sailors” and not mere seamen, and the largest British wind-jammer left, should be so maltreated in her declining years. Mr. Hanson has placed the matter in the hands of the police. He has been the subject of some brazen and consummate pieces of robbery during his occupation of Moturekareka Island, which is 27 miles from Auckland. Four years ago he was relieved of about 3,000 feet of stacked timber in three nights. In 1923 somebody took a fancy to 200 turkeys of his, on an adjacent island, and forthwith annexed them. Mr. Hanson is taking steps to heave the Rewa back on to an even keel from the present severe list to port. He has attached seven-inch lines to the mastheads and carried them across the beach and made them fast to big trees ashore. A treble purchase operates on each line, and by heaving on them, and also taking up the strain on wire ropes running from the ship’s three capstans to points ashore, he has already raised the hull three feet from her original listed position. With one exception, all the holes that were made in the hull have now been plugged up. The remaining hole is on the seaward side, low down and generally awash. Mr. Hanson plans to set the Rewa upright again by utilising the third tide after a full moon, which tide is the lowest and the highest *in the lunar month. When the tide is at its lowest he will be able to block the remaining hole. Then, when the water is flooding, by heaving on his shore lines and working the capstans while the ship is being borne upward and landward by the most effective tide, the vessel must come up to an even keel again, asserts her owner. The Rewa will then be fixed in a secure packing large quantities of her bilges. The 1,500 Ms of mixed chalk and metal ballast which was placed in the ship to steady her has not moved, despite her lurching to port as she did.