EVOLUTION OF SHIPPING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1069, 5 September 1930, Page 16

EVOLUTION OF SHIPPING

HARBOURMASTER’S ADDRESS TO YACHTSMEN

SHIPS, PAST AND PRESENT

A large attendance of members of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron listened with great interest to an address last evening by the harbourmaster, Captain H. H. Sergeant, on the progress of shipping since the earliest days, when men ventured upon the

Tracing the development of vessels from the beginnings of history. Captain Sergeant described the. evolution of the ship of commerce and the vessel of war. He illustrated the types with a series of pencil drawings and photographs depicting strange craft in which men had ventured upon voyages of discovery or piracy or war. The first compass, said Captain Sergeant, was a magnetised needle set in a cork to float in a bowl of water. It was a tremendous step forward in navigation when something like the existing form was evolved. Captain Sergeant told of the voyages of Portugese seamen, of the clashes between Christian and Turk, the ascendancy of Britain as mistress of the seas, the coming of steam, the heyday of the tea and wool clippers, and the coming and development of the steam gianls in the transatlantic service exemplified in the Majestic, the 5G,000-tonner belonging to the White Star Line. On the motion of the vice-commodore, Mr. X. L. Macky, tlie Squadron accorded Captain Sergeant a hearty vote of thanks.