OLD FRENCH WARSHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1939, Page 2

OLD FRENCH WARSHIP

FINE WORKMANSHIP SHOWN. BREAKING UP THE EURE. The quality of construction which made the French among the world’s leading shipwrights early last century is being revealed in the dismantling of the former French warship Eure in Auckland. The vessel, which was purchased from the Northern Steamship Company recently by Mr F. Appleton, of Newmarket, was towed ashore at Shoal Bay. Since 1913, when she was towed across the Tasman, the Eure has been used as a coal hulk and little has been’ known of the days when she proudly carried the French flag. During dismantling it has been shown by a carved date, that she was rigged in 1841. As the ship would probably have taken two years to construct from the time the keel was la'id down, it can safely be estimated that the Eure is now at least 100 years old. A tribute to the workmanship in the French yards was given in the fact that 90 per cent of the timber in the ship has been shown to be almost as good as the day it was first used. An interesting point in the construction of the vessel is that her timbers are riveted together, and an unusual ■ feature is that the rudder is composed entirely of copper, weighing at least two tons. The fighting days of the old man-of-war are recalled by her bulwarks, which are only two feet high, and are two feet in thickness.