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The Donna Anita.

The little 500-ton barque Donna Anita, which in the sixties brought out many people to the South Island, will principally he remembered for an exceptionally long trip she made in 1867 to Nelson, where she arrived oil August 27 after a passage of 211 days. Apparently she was not a particularly seaworthy craft. In command of a Captain Brown, she struck bad weather right in the Channel at the beginning of the trip, and had to put into Plymouth for repairs, leaking badly. When the ship got to the Equator Captain Brown died, and his wife and child, who had been travelling with him, were put on a passing ship and returned to England. As the chief officer, who took command when the master died, could not get on with tire crew or the passengers either, the ship was headed for Rio de Janeiro, where she remained for over a month. While she was in that port a portion of the cargo had to be sold to defray expenses. With a new captain in command the Donna Anita once more took to the high seas, but bad luck dogged her still, and soon after leaving port she sprung her foremast. There were nineteen passengers on board, and by the time Nelson was reached, 211 days after leaving the Old Country, they were all heartily sick and tired of the ocean.

The barque's first appearance in New Zealand was at Port Chalmers, where she arrived on March 26, 1862, having left the Old Country on November 26, 1861—a passage of 120 days. On July 14, 1863, she arrived at Lyttelton after a passage of 105 days; and she was there again in 1865, arriving on January 7. In addition to her long and memorable passage to Nelson in 1867, the Donna Anita was also there in 1866, arriving on February 19, after a passage of 107 days.