In The New Zealand Trade.

After making several successful runs to Melbourne the Blue Jacket was in 1859 diverted to the New Zealand trade. Her first voyage was from Liverpool to Auckland in command of Captain Hugh Clarke. Leaving the Mersey on November 25th, 1859, she reached Auckland on March 16 the following year—a passage of 111 days, which was unusually long for such a powerful ship, but she struck a succession of light winds, and was also detained on the New Zealand coast nearly a fortnight after sighting the Three Kings. To show what sort of

The White Star Liner Blue Jacket Under A Press Of Canvas.

pssaage it was one may mention that from the day she crossed the equator, 35 days out from the Mersey, she never took in her main skysail until she dropped anchor in Auckland Harbour. the Blue Jacket sailed from Auckland for Wellington with part of original cargo and 22 passengers.

Mr. Frank Hull, of Auckland, who was a passenger by the Blue Jacket on this voyage to the Waitemata, gives me some interesting details about the trip. "We had no sooner been towed out into the Channel after leaving Liverpool," he says, "than it came on to blow a gale, and during the night the tow rope between us and the tug parted. We were then off the Welsh coast, not far from where the Royal Charter had been lost six months before. There was no sail on the ship at the time, so she was consequently at the mercy of the sea, and I well remember the awful racket on deck as the crew made all haste to set some sails—it was a perfect bedlam. When we got out of this tight corner we were soon in fine weather, the Blue Jacket skimming the seas like a yacht, and at times we logged sixteen knots.

"An interesting event in the early part of the voyage was our meeting with a waterspout of great size, which was coming right across our bows. Some of the passengers got out firearms and fired at it, as they were told that this would cause it to burst away from the ship. Fortunately the spout just missed the ship, but while it was passing it caused great excitement among the passengers.