The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4 (August 1, 1933)
Brave Little Coasters
Brave Little Coasters.
Those little schooners and small steamers that battle sturdily up and down the coast, recall the valour of merchant-adventurers in past centuries. Romantic men are on those craft. They know every nook on the sea-gnawed coast where their vessels may shelter from blustering gales. Sometimes they are caught and sorely smitten, but how seldom any of the bold little coasters meets with any serious mishap! They nuzzle the sea, and glide over the romping billows while larger sisters are pounded till their ribs creak. Those sailors speak of thrilling times in the mouths of flooded rivers with truant tree-trunks leaping at them; of bounds of shallow bars; of pitching at anchor in a roadstead and trying to land or take cargo with a bouncing boat. Anxious watches in the black, stormy night are their portion—but they win through and give no second thought to the peril.