The Ships Of '42 And '43.

After the Lord Auckland, the next boat to arrive was the barque Brougham, Captain Robinson, which anchored in Nelson on March 6. She took the narrow passage known as the French Pass, and had the misfortune to run on a reef. Fortunately she was got off again after a delay of some eight hours, and though she damaged her forefoot so severely that she would not answer her helm, she was brought safely into port by the aid of the Deal boats and those of the Fifeshire. These Deal boats, of which there were two, had been brought out in the expeditionary ships, and very useful they proved. Deal boatmen were renowned wherever the name of sailor was known, and their handy boats were ideal for knocking about the little-known waters of the New Zealand coast. Mr. J. S. Cross and Mr. W. Claringbold, both of Deal, came out with the expedition as pilots, and the former was harbourmaster and pilot at Nelson from a short while after his arrival until he died in 1882.

Other ships that arrived in 1842 were the Martha Ridgway, Captain Webb, arrived April 2; Clifford, Captain Stapp, May 11; Sir Charles Forbes, 363 tons, Captain Bacon, August 22, with 187 passengers, including Mr. Alfred Domett, the poet; Thomas Harrison, 370 tons, Captain T. Harrison, October 25, with 187 passengers; Olympia, 500 tons, Captain Whyte, October 25, with 138 passengers; New Zealand, 445 tons, Captain Worth, November 4, with 137 passengers; George Fyfe, 460 tons, Captain Pyke, December 12; Bombay, 400 tons, Captain Moore, December 14, after a tedious passage of 135 days, with 165 passengers; Prince of Wales, 582 tons, Captain Alexander, December 22, with 203 passengers. All these vessels came from London with the exception of the Martha Ridgway, which sailed from Liverpool. The Clifford, Captain Sharp, after leaving New Zealand for China, was wrecked on a reef at Nissan, or Sir Charles Hardy Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, in August, 1842.

Arrivals during 1843 were the Indus, 420 tons, Captain McKenzie, February 5; Phoebe, 471 tons, Captain Dale, March 29, she being the first vessel bringing immigrants at a reduced passage rate; and the St. Pauli, June 14. The St. Pauli is interesting from the fact that she brought out the first batch of German immigrants. She had a somewhat adventurous passage of 148 days from Hamburg. Three weeks after sailing smallpox broke out, and the vessel put into Bahia, where she remained three weeks, but the page 63 passengers must have been well looked after, as only four deaths occurred—four children. In the following year the Skiold brought a further 140 German immigrants.