Dusky Sound, discovered by Captain James Cook on 13th March, 1770, lies about 130 miles from Bluff. Besides being a renowned beauty spot, it is intimately connected with the early history of New Zealand.

In the period, 1792–97, Dusky Sound was the scene of four events of considerable interest to New Zealanders. These were, the landing of the first sealing party to be stationed in New Zealand, the construction (to quote James Cowan) of the first pakeha sailing vessel, the wreck of the Endeavour, and the construction of a second vessel.

The events of this period commence with the arrival of a vessel, called the Britannia, at Sydney in 1792. She was a vessel of 300 tons, commanded by Captain William Raven, and owned by the famous firm of Enderby & Co., and had brought out convicts as well as a general cargo. Captain Raven's principals had been granted a three years' trading licence by the East India Company, who had a monopoly covering the southern seas and elsewhere. It was his intention, after discharging cargo, to proceed to Dusky Sound, and there secure sealskins for the Chinese market. When ready to sail, his ship was chartered by the officers of regiments stationed at the New South Wales Colony to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope to secure supplies, etc. Leave having been granted him to call at Dusky Sound en route and land his sealing party, he sailed from Sydney on 23rd October, 1792.

The Britannia sighted the New Zealand coast on 3rd November, but, due to tempestuous weather, it was not until the 6th that she made Facile Harbour. Immediately, excursions were made to all parts of the Sound to select the most suitable site for the sealing station and eventually the place chosen was Luncheon Cove, Anchor Island. On 14th November a start was made on the erection of a dwelling for the sealers, and this when completed was forty feet long, eighteen feet wide and fifteen feet high. Provisions and stores for twelve months were landed, and on 1st December, 1792, the Britannia sailed from Dusky Sound for the Cape of Good Hope leaving behind the first sealing party to be stationed in New Zealand. William Leith, second mate of the Britannia, was in charge of the party, which consisted of twelve men, one of whom was a carpenter. Leith had also been instructed by Captain Raven to construct a small vessel in the event of the Britannia not returning, and sails, cordage, and ironwork for this purpose were included in the stores landed.

Seven months passed and Captain Raven was then in Sydney. Having discharged his cargo from the Cape, he was extremely anxious to sail to the relief of his party. However, the great necessity of further supplies urgently needed for the colony saw the Britannia again chartered, this time to proceed to India. Once again leave was granted Captain Raven to call at Dusky Sound, and Lieutenant Governor Grose ordered the newly built colonial schooner, Francis, commanded by William House, to accompany him to Dusky. The vessels sailed on the 8th September, 1793, and the Britannia arrived on the 27th of the same month. The Francis met with extremely rough weather and did not reach the Sound until October when the Britannia was on the eve of sailing for India. When Captain Raven arrived, he found that the party had secured 4,500 sealskins in ten months. Between sealing excursions, the party had built a small vessel which, according to Captain Raven, “is a small vessel of forty feet six inch keel, thirty-five feet in length upon the deck, sixteen feet ten inches extreme breadth, and twelve feet hull. She is skinned, ceiled and decked, and with the work of three men or four men for one day should be ready for caulking. Her frame and crooked pieces are cut from the timber growing to the mould. She is planked, decked and ceiled with the spruce fir (rimu), which, in the opinion of the carpenters, is very little inferior to the English oak.

“Her construction is such that she will carry more by half than she measures, and I am confident that she will sail well. The carpenter has great merits, and has built her with that strength and neatness which few ship-wrights belonging to the merchant service are capable of performing.”

During the stay of the sealing, the party experienced severe north-westerly gales accompanied by heavy rain, which frequently interrupted sealing expeditions and other work. Added to the above was a severe earthquake. Under the terms of Captain Raven's charter, he was allowed fourteen days at Dusky Sound, and, after loading stores, etc., he sailed from Luncheon Cove on 9th October, 1793, abandoning the unfinished craft. Bad weather compelled Captain Raven to remain at Facile Harbour, and, having occasion to send a boat back to the Cove discovered the Francis at anchor. She was badly damaged and, after executing repairs, both vessels finally cleared on 31st October; the page 46 Francis for Sydney and the Britannia for Norfolk Island and India.

The next sequence of events is connected with the arrival and subsequent wreck of the Endeavour, which for many years was the subject of controversy in New Zealand. The Endeavour was a ship of 280 tons and arrived in Sydney on 31st May, 1795, under the command of Captain William Wright Bampton from Bombay, which port she cleared on the 17th March, 1795, with cattle and grain for the New South Wales Colony. From 31st May until 18th September she remained in Sydney undergoing repairs, sailing on the latter date for Dusky Sound en route to India, accompanied by the Fancy, a scow, commanded by Captain E. T. Dell. The vessels had just cleared Sydney when forty-six stowaways were discovered on board the Endeavour, forty-five men and one woman. Fortunately out of the number four acknowledged themselves as being carpenters.

During the trip they met with heavy northerly weather of exceptional severity, and, on 3rd October, the Endeavour began to make water. She was leaking so badly that all hands were called on to man the pumps which were kept going continuously throughout the days of the 4th and 5th. The date of the arrival of the vessels at Facile Harbour is unknown, as the log contains no entries from the 5th to the 12th October, on which date both vessels were in Facile Harbour. By this time the condition of the Endeavour was such that an immediate survey was necessary, the result of which was a decision that the vessel should be condemned, it being considered little short of marvellous that she had held together during the stormy weather encountered on the trip. All hands were set to work dismantling the ship, and the supplies and ammunition were placed on board the Fancy, and the rigging, masts (which were cut. out), and cables were removed to the shore. While removing the guns, two were lost through a raft capsizing, and to this day repose at the bottom of Facile Harbour. On 25th October the vessel was unmoored and left to drift at will. On the 27th she struck on a rock and sank; there she lies to this day.

At this time the number of people at Dusky Sound amounted to 244. This, of course, included the forty-six who had stowed away on the Endeavour. Subsequent on the condemning of the Endeavour, Captains Bampton and Dell sailed down to Luncheon Cove to examine the vessel abandoned by Captain Raven in 1793. They found, the jetty was still standing as was the vessel on the stocks. Their examination of this vessel showed that some of her timbers had shrunken and split, and altogether did not hold out attractive hopes of being seaworthy. However, the predicament in which the assembled company was placed did not leave them much choice and accordingly the carpenters with their willing assistants set to work repairing and caulking the vessel as well as their circumstances permitted. Eventually they succeeded in their efforts, and the vessel was duly launched. She was named the Providence. She was rigged as a schooner and proved about seventy tons displacement. The Providence is thus the first vessel constructed and launched in New Zealand and made entirely of New Zealand timber, which was secured at Luncheon Cove, Anchor Island, Dusky Sound.

Captain Dell was appointed to command the Providence, Captain Bampton taking over the Fancy. Plans for evacuating Dusky were now formulated. The results of these were that, as the

(Rly. Publicity photo.) Facile Harbour, Dusky Sound, South Island, New Zealand.

Providence would carry ninety persons and the Fancy sixty-four, another vessel would be necessary to convey the remaining number of Bampton's people. The situation was overcome by claiming the longboat of the Endeavour and stripping it to the framework. In spite of the haste made in rebuilding a suitable craft she was not expected to be ready for three weeks, when Captain Bampton decided to sail for Norfolk Island, and on the 7th January, 1796, the Fancy and the Providence sailed from Facile Harbour. Captain Bampton left Mr. Waine, his first officer, in charge of the boat building operations with instructions that when the vessel was ready he was to sail for Sydney with the remainder of the stranded people, leaving four in charge of the surplus stores until relieved by a vessel which would be sent out from India. As the Providence and Fancy were leaving Dusky Sound, the former, through missing stays, was nearly wrecked on Five Fingers Point. In an ensuing calm she began to drift towards the rocks and disaster was only averted by an opportune puff of wind from off shore.

The vessels arrived at Norfolk Island on 19th January, 1796, where Captain Bampton reported on the loss of the Endeavour, and stowaways from the Port Jackson penal settlement. He also gave information on the uncompleted vessel which he said would ultimately be a schooner of about eighty tons and should arrive at Sydney in about three weeks. In passing, it is worthy of note that after leaving Norfolk Island the Providence made Batavia and there all trace of her ends. She is supposed never to have left the harbour.

The situation of the party at Dusky now warrants our attention. The unfinished vessel was duly completed, and on 17th March, 1796, arrived at Sydney, under the name of Assistance (Captain Bampton in his report called the schooner Resource), commanded by Mr. Waine. The trip across the Tasman was an eventful one, due to the fact that the vessel proved a poor sailor and also they suffered from shortage of provisions. According to the nautical report, she is stated as having been built entirely of timber secured at Dusky Sound and appeared of miserable construction. Her displacement was approximately sixty tons, and she was later sold on behalf of Captain Bampton. The Assistance therefore was the second vessel to be constructed at Dusky Sound. The arrival of the Assistance at Sydney was not the end of the troubles of the unfortunate party left by Captain Bampton, as this vessel proved only capable of taking fifty-five of these people to Sydney. This no doubt accounted for the shortage of provisions during the ship's passage as Waine had to leave supplies for the remaining thirty-five persons. It was page 47 Captain Bampton's intention to have a vessel sail from India to recover surplus stores and to relieve the men who were left in charge of them. Due to the inability of the Assistance to convey the whole party from Dusky Sound those left behind were placed in a desperate situation. As time passed, considerable anxiety was expressed in Sydney as to the fate of this party owing to the non-arrival of the promised vessel from India.

1796 passed, and still no news, so early in 1797 Governor Hunter took steps to relieve the unfortunate men. Apparently at this period shipping masters could not be secured who would face the passage of the Tasman to New Zealand, but whether due to shortage of suitable vessels or fear from shipwreck cannot be ascertained. An American scow, the Mercury (Captain Todd), had arrived in Sydney early in 1797, and it was this captain whom Governor Hunter approached to relieve the men at Dusky Sound. The Mercury sailed from Sydney in the middle of May, and in September, 1797, advice was received from Norfolk Island stating that the shipwrecked party had been landed there twenty months after the wreck of the Endeavour.

The Francis was the first vessel built in Sydney, but came out from England in frame in a vessel called the Pitt and was only completed with Australian timber. The Providence, on the other hand, was entirely constructed from timber secured at Luncheon Cove, and can thus be acknowledged as the first vessel built in Australasia constructed of Australasian timber.

The late G. K. Chesterton, the well-known Journalist and Author, may not have cared much for “cakes and ale,” he preferred tobacco and ale and was a keen judge of both. He loved a good cigar but loved his merschaum no less. His favourite ‘baccy it seems was a blend of his own, doubtless very “grateful and comforting” after a hard day's work. This same tobacco appears to have resembled in some respects New Zealand's famous Cut Plug No. 10, but differed from it, in one most important particular—it wasn't toasted. As to that, the world's only toasted tobaccos are those grown and manufactured within this Dominion—Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Cavendish, Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Riverhead Gold and Desert Gold. Now you can't go on smoking the ordinary tobaccos for any length of time without getting a burned tongue or other ills. But you can puff “toasted” freely as you please; it won't burn your tongue, irritate your throat, affect heart or nerves. Where can you find its equal for flavour, aroma, comfort and enjoyment?*

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