The Wanlock.

"The vessel is very deeply laden, much too deeply laden, with iron pipes for the Auckland city waterworks, and this prevented her giving a fair account of herself, for by appearance she is as slashing a barque as we have had here for a long time," said the "Auckland Star" when the 745 ton barque Wan-lock, Captain Tilly, reached Auckland on June 30, 1876, after a prolonged passage of 134 days. She left Glasgow on February 16, and the long passage caused much anxiety to be felt at Auckland. Bad weather was struck from the very start, and for sixteen days fierce gales were experienced, during which the iron pipes in the hold caused much anxiety by continually breaking adrift, and giving the crew much hard work securing them again. It took 44 days to reach the Equator, and the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope was not crossed until the eightieth day out of port. During the whole of the remainder of the passage the barque encountered a succession of heavy gales, which tried her to the utmost, and if she had not been exceptionally strongly built and her gear been of the stoutest, she must have sustained severe damage to both hull and rigging. Captain Tilly, who had made over a dozen passages to the colony, said he had never had such a tempestuous voyage, and was never so thankful to reach port.

The following year the Wanlock arrived at Port Chalmers on July 22, having sailed on March 23, 1877, the passage taking 121 days. When the Wanlock made her memorable voyage to Auckland she had as passengers Richard Sinclair, James Russell and family, Jane Watson, and George McFarlane, some of whom are still living.