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

A Savoury Derelict — "Scoop" That Miscarried.

A Savoury Derelict.

"Scoop" That Miscarried.

A good yarn, illustrating the keenness for a shipping story scoop, even after I had long discarded the reporter's pencil and had become the head of the "Star" centres round a mysterious derelict that had been sighted floating bottom up off the North Cape. One day in February, 1886, a well known skipper of those days, Captain Savory, then master of the steamer Herald, running coal from Westport and Greymouth, reported that he had seen either a wreck or a new island, and there was much excitement and speculation when the morning paper came out with the report. As soon as I saw the paper I went down to the waterfront, and after some negotiation chartered the Awhina, a wooden steamer of 136 tons, which for a number of years plied as a tug in Auckland, and afterwards was sold to a Fremantle firm. It was agreed that the "Star" should pay £50, and that newspaper and tug should halve the salvage, the vessel to go out under "sealed orders." I arranged with Mr. J. Liddell Kelly (sub-editor) and Mr. A. S. Reid (then shipping reporter, and now sub-editor of the "Star") to join me in the excursion, and went over to Takapuna to pack a few things. The arrangement was for the vessel to sail at 11 a.m. and pick me up off the Takapuna Beach. There was no appearance of the craft until late in the afternoon, and I became suspicious when I saw the Glenelg steaming out of harbour. Knowing it was not her regular day for leaving port, I at once guessed that the "Herald" had also decided to send out a search party.

When I got aboard my vessel half an hour later, I naturally raised a bit of a dust, but Captain Campbell, the skipper, was quite easy in his mind. "Never mind, Mr. Brett," he said. "We'll get there before the Glenelg. Shortly after passing Kawau the Awhina, the boat I had chartered, left the Glenelg behind, and we were well ahead before the night was out. When off Mangonui, early next morning, I decided to go ashore, so as to gather any news which might come to hand during the day from natives and settlers along the coast, while Mr, Kelly and Mr. Reid went on with the Awhina to hunt for the wreck. During the day circumstantial reports filtered in to Mangonui of a wreck having been seen out at sea and of wreckage having been washed ashore further north. It was fine, sensational stuff, and I saw to it that my telegrams made good reading for the patrons of the "Star."

Some time after midnight the search vessels were seen coming round the Mangonui Heads. In those unregenerate days it was first come first served on the telegraph wires, and as I could not be certain in the darkness which steamer was coming in first—the "Star" or the "Herald"—I made up a long message ready to hand in at the telegraph office in order to get possession of the wire to Auckland. In those days the telegraphist used the "tape," and the sending of a message was a much longer operation than it is to-day, so that once a reporter got possession of the wire it was not a difficult matter to keep it and block the other paper. As it turned out, however, this precaution of mine was not necessary. The "Star" steamer was first in after all, but I was greatly disgusted when in answer to my questions I was told that no ship had been sighted but they had discovered a dead whale, "and a very high one at that."

It was a sad end to the elaborate preparations that had been made (not for-page 11getting getting that we had agreed with the owners of the Awhina to share the salvage), but still news is news, and in order to let the "Star" get the explanation first it was necessary to capture the telegraph wires and hold them until it was too late for Mr. W. Berry, of the "Herald," to get his stuff through. As I mentioned my "stop gap" telegram was not wanted, the reason being that Mr. Kelly had sent ashore a long message giving an account of the Awhina's search. I at once made for the telegraph office and handed it to the officer in charge, who began sending it to Auckland. When the "Herald" man saw through the manoeuvre, he was wrath, and at about half-past 1 a.m. he demanded to be put through to Wellington to ask if an evening paper could monopolise the wires when the copy was not needed for several hours to come. Wellington sent through instructions to give the "Herald" preference at that time of night, and the "Star" stonewall broke down.

Captain Savory did not hear the last of his wreck for a long while. It was certainly a very large animal, blown out to the size of a small vessel and those who saw it also reported that it had a fine large smell—in fact it was so high that they did not want to get within quite a long distance of it.

It is interesting to recall that the skipper of the Glenelg on this voyage of discovery was Captain Norbury, who is now on the Manaia, on the Auckland-Whangarei run, and is one of the most capable and popular masters trading out of Auckland.