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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 5 (September 1, 1933)

The Schooners

page 45

The Schooners.

The occasional sight of that handsome and speedy topsail schooner the “Huia” in our New Zealand ports, on her business that takes her across the Tasman Sea, is a reminder of the days when scores of sailing craft enlivened the coastal seas and made profit for many besides their owners. The shipyards, the sailmaking lofts, the ropemakers, the ship chandlers, and a variety of other industries and trades throve on the fore-and-afters and the square-riggers that came in and out of every port, from the northern timberexporting harbours to the Bluff.

Despite many inventions, the old ways were the best for business in the shipping trade at anyrate.

The “Huia” is the last of the Mohicans in the topsail schooner class, the prettiest rig ever devised for a little ship. She is, in fact, the only vessel of the type that is ever seen on the Australian coast as well as on our own. She is a Kaiparabuilt vessel, and none more shapely, more sightly, or more swift-sailing has been built on our coast. Like all small craft that still use canvas to-day she has auxiliary motor-power.