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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

Dark Night And Heavy Gale

Dark Night And Heavy Gale.

On another occasion in the same year I had an exciting adventure which began one night, extended into the next day, and finished up by my paper bringing off one of those scoops which were the spice of journalistic life in those days. The ship Scimitar had arrived during the afternoon and reported having passed another full-rigged ship on the coast, so when at sundown "Sail in sight" was hoisted at Mount Victoria I made for the wharf with my binoculars. It was then blowing a snorting gale from the west, and this raised a sea which made a harbour trip anything but a pleasant prospect, especially at night. About eight o'clock a red light showed round North Head and then disappeared in the direction of Rangitoto, and after waiting half an hour I knew that the craft had anchored for the night. There were in those days some dozen licensed watermen, and of that number two were compelled to be on duty at night. Turning into their waiting-room I said: "Come along; here's a fare for you." "Where are you going?" asked the men on duty, and when I said "North Head," they replied with fervour, "No jolly fear; we are not going down there to-night." Even an offer of £3 did not move them, so I made my way round to Wynyard Pier where there were two well known watermen, Strong and Conolly. Mention of Wynyard Pier reminds one how these old landmarks are disappearing. This pier used to run out from the pohutukawa-fringed beach of what was then Official Bay, opposite Short Street, but all traces of it have now been obliterated by the reclamation extending from Beach Road well out to sea.

After a good deal of persuasion Conolly agreed to take me down the harbour. With such a gale blowing we went down with "bare poles," as sailors say, and ran under the lee side of the new arrival. I managed to climb on board, but there was such a howling wind that it was a long while before I could attract anyone's attention. At last the second officer appeared and aroused the captain, when I obtained a full report of the voyage, with passengers' names and a list of the cargo.

We left the Gladiator, for such was the ship's name, at about eleven o'clock and started to pull over towards the North Head, but wind and tide were against us (it was still blowing a furious gale and as dark as pitch), and so we could make no headway. The only thing left for us to do was to try and make for the southern shore, somewhere about Kohimarama. Broadside on to sea and wind we had a terrible struggle, and I thought we would never get over. In order to dodge the Bean Rock reef, which had no light then, we had to keep well down to the eastward. Eventually we did make inshore enough to miss the worst of the westerly, and then began a tedious and exhausting pull along the shore up to town. At last, after a great battle, we managed to make Wynyard Pier which we reached about 4 a.m.—five hours of hard plugging since we left the ship.

But that wasn't the end of it. I at once made for the "Southern Cross" office at the corner of O'Connell and Chancery Streets, and when I got there found that all the compositors had gone home and the machinists had started printing the paper. Telling the manager of the machine room to send up a page I sent word to the foreman, Mr. Gimble (who for many years afterwards was foreman printer on the "Herald"), and in the meantime I got out a pair of cases and started to set up the type. We had to go to press to get off a certain number of copies in time for Cobb and Co.'s coach, which in those days was our only means of communication with the Waikato, and started at about 5.30 a.m. As soon as the Waikato papers were run off we again got the page up, and with the aid of two other "comps" who boarded at the Auckland Hotel only a few yards from the office, we set another half-column, giving a list of the cargo and consignees. In these days every item on the manifest, with consignees' names, was published, as this was frequently the first advice merchants received, owing to the irregularpage 7 mail service. So ended one of the most strenuous days, or rather days and nights that I had ever put in during what was always a more or less strenuous time.