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

The Devonshire

The Devonshire.

Resented Being Driven.

the Devonshire, a vessel of 807 tons, made two trips to New Zealand under charter to the Shaw, Savill Co., one to Auckland and one to Lyttelton. On the trip to Auckland she had on her passenger list the names of Mr. W. Nelson, now of Tomoana, Hastings, Hawke's Bay, and Mr. Sam Hesketh, now of the well-known legal firm of Hesketh and Richmond, Auckland.

Mr. Nelson has given me some very interesting particulars of this eventful passage out to Auckland. the Devonshire left London on October 26, 1862, and reached Auckland on February 7 the following year. "We went merrily down the Channel in a light wind which just suited the 'old tub,'" writes Mr. Nelson. "Captain Holt was a lad of 24, with a mechanical turn of mind, and as I had tendencies in the same direction we soon became friends. Yarning about the ship, he told me that she had never made a good passage, but that he was going to see what he could do with her. He soon found out! When we entered the Bay of Biscay we struck the proverbial rough weather and the Bay of Biscay sea, which is unlike any other sea I have encountered. Young Holt was carrying every stitch of canvas he thought the ship would carry, and the result was that in due course our maintopmast went over the side, sails and all, and both fore and mizzen masts were sprung as a consequence. The old ship made an uncanny and hopeless-looking sight, I can tell you. I may say that with the exception of the captain's gig the only boat we had was a so-called long-boat. This long-boat was, of course, inspected by the authorities before we sailed from the docks, but the examination could hardly have been what would be called searching. The night before our maintopmast carried away disaster overtook what would have been our only hope in case we had to 'take to the boats. There were twelve live sheep berthed in this long-boat, and during the night they went plump through the bottom, leaving only the bare sides of the boat hanging. I may mention in parentheses that when the sheep dropped overboard there went with them our three months' supply of fresh meat. Disasters never come alone, and the same night our cow was pitched out of her bunk and had her back broken. At one stroke we were robbed of our fresh meat and our milk supply, so you can realise that it did not add to the attractions of our table. I often wish that some of the growlers of the present day could have had a week of our fare. Talking about the commissariat reminds me that the cuddy table ran athwart ship instead of fore and aft, and the result was that when the ship gave a heavy roll from side to side the table was repeatedly swept from end to end. Except for the little incidents I have referred to the trip was uneventful and happy. The net result of Captain Holt's determination to 'see what he could get out of the old ship' was that she rounded the North Head early on the morning of the 106th day, and, much to his disgust, he was reported in the papers as being 'overdue.'"

The passage of the Devonshire to Lyttelton took much longer. She left London on June 25, 1864, and made port 119 days later. Captain Holt was still in command. On this trip she encountered heavy gales after passing the Cape. She was driver to latitude 52deg 45min south, and at one time she was surrounded with icebergs.