The Langstone.

In spite of the old adage, "When aloft one hand for the owners and one for yourself," some terrible accidents happened on the sailing ships, and on the other hand there were some miraculous escapes. Illustrative of the latter was an incident that happened on the Shaw, Savill ship Langstone, then making her first voyage to New Zealand, in 1873. When the ship was seventeen days off her destination (Lyttelton), one of the boys fell out of the mizzen-top rigging, a distance of 100ft, right on to the skipper (Captain Mitchell), who was walking the poop. Except for shock

the Langstone At Port Chalmers.

neither the boy nor the captain suffered from this astonishing accident, and the boy did not even have a rib broken.

On this same trip the captain reported a brilliant display of the Aurora Australis on May 30. It appeared in the south, and resembled a great rainbow of a pale yellowish colour, from which shot out long streamers from east to west, the sky being almost as light as day. The day before and the day after this beautiful phenomenon the ship's compasses kept revolving about every hour, showing what a tremendous magnetic influence was at work.

the Langstone was a smart little iron ship of 746 tons, and she had a most successful career. In later years she was rigged as a barque.

When the Langstone was lying in the roadstead at Napier in November, 1888, waiting to complete her loading for London, fire broke out one night between 9 and 10 o'clock. Signals of distress sent up from the ship ashore were thought to be indications of joy over some event, and it was some time before help was properly organised. Eventually hand and steam pump gear was sent out, and after about 400 tons of water had been poured into the ship's hold the blaze was extinguished. Damage done ran into about £5000. About 160 bales of wool were destroyed and some 1200 damaged by water. The ship's hull was not damaged, but the deck over the seat of the trouble was nearly burned through. Repairs were effected locally.

Her record of trips to New Zealand is as under:—

To Auckland.
Sailed.	Arrived.	Captain.	Days.
Apr. 2	July 19, '79	Fergusson	107
May 16	Aug. 22, '80	Fergusson	97
May 27	Sep. 8, '82	Fergusson	103
Apr. 23	Aug. 4, '83	Tonkin	101

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To Wellington.
Sailed.	Arrived.	Captain.	Days.
Sep. 17	Dec. 25, '74	Mitchell	99
May 7	Aug. 10, '81	Fergusson	'95
Nov. 2, '93	Feb. 17, '94	Bate	106
Nov. 24, '94	Feb. 24, '95	Bate	91
To Lyttelton.
Mar. 6	June 17, '73	Mitchell	103
Sep. 7	Dec. 10, '75	Mitchell	94
July 28	Nov. 12, '76	Parker	107
June 16	Sep. 10, '77	Parker	86
June 13	Sep. 19, '78	Croker	98
April 13	July 9, '84	Tonkin	87
Apr. 30	Aug. 3, '86	Tonkin	95
July 15	Oct. 18, '87	Tonkin	94
To Port Chalmers.
Sailed.	Arrived.	Captain.	Days.
May 21	Aug. 31, '85	Tonkin	102
May 27	Sep. 13, '90	Bate	107
To Bluff.
May 18	Sep. 7, '88	Tonkin	122
May 29	Sep. 18, 91	Bate	112
To Napier.
*	Dec. 3, '77	Parker
June 24	Oct. 12, '89	Tonkin	111
August 8	Nov. 28, '92	Bate	112