Memory Of 70 Years

Ago

Launching of “John Williams No. 2”

(Written for “Pacific Islands Monthly” by William F. Wilson, P.O. Box 3235, Honolulu, Hawaii.) IN your August issue, in an article headed “Rescued by Bully Hayes—A Long-forgotten Story of Suwarrow Is land,” it is stated that Captain Hayes came along in his brig, the Rona, laden down with the fittings and stores taken from the wreck of the L.M.S. vessel “John Williams No. 2,” which had gone ashore on Niue or Savage Island, and which had been bought by Bully Hayes.

This leads me to say something about this same “John Williams No. 2.”

The first vessel of that name had been wrecked on Pukapuka (or Danger) Island.

W r ith the insurance money, together with the pennies subscribed by Sunday school children throughout the United Kingdom, and in addition £250 received from Samoa (the proceeds of coconut oil), an order was given to Messrs. Hall, the well known Aberdeen shipbuilders, to go ahead with the construction of a new vessel.

When the day of the launch arrived, October 5,1865 —0 r exactly seventy years

from the date on which I write —over six thousand school children, including the present writer and his brother, were drawn up in ranks opposite the shipyard, near the Aberdeen dock gates. When the ship slid into the water, fully masted and rigged, the assembled multitude of chil dren struck up the familiar hymn, “When Mothers of Salem Their Children Brought to Jesus.”

After the launch, five hundred adults were entertained at a luncheon by Messrs.

Hall, the shipbuilders. Those present in cluded George Thompson, founder and owner of the Aberdeen line of sailing ships, trading between London and Syd ney, and now changed to steamers, ply ing the same route; J. T. Rennie, founder and owner of the Natal line; the four brothers Duthie, shipowners and builders, long known in the China tea and Sydney wool-carrying business (one of the last of their vessels being the Port Jackson, sold, I think, to either the City of Sydney or to New South Wales as a reformatory or training ship and anchored in Sydney harbour); and Walter Hood, builder of the Thermopylae, on board of which I have been.

After being fully fitted out, the “John Williams No. 2” was taken round to the Thames, and thrown open to the admir ing gaze of the many young Cockneys who had put up their mites to help to build the ship.

It is related that one gang of boys, after making a critical inspection of the vessel, wound up in the saloon, where they began to clamber over and soil the lovely scarlet plush settees and cushions —the dernier cri in ship’s decorations in those days. One of the officers came along and, seeing what was going on, ordered the youngsters to cease their pranks and to make themselves scarce.

One of the juveniles looked up with an

astonished air and said: “Why, the man must be crazy. He’s ordering us about in our own shipl”

In due course, the “John Williams No. 2” found its way to Sydney, touching en route at Melbourne for show-off pur poses. Sailing from Sydney with mis sionary supplies, it went ashore on the island of Aneityum, New Hebrides, but was got off and taken back to Sydney for reconditioning. It sailed again with missionaries for various stations in the South Seas, one of the reverend gentle men being James Chalmers (“Tamate”), bound for Rarotonga, and afterward favourably known to R.L.S. He, as is well known, was murdered by savages in Papua.

Bad luck pursued the “John Williams No. 2,” for she drifted ashore in a calm, on to the rocks of Niue (or Savage Island) and stuck fast there. Bully Hayes came along in his brig, the Rona, and bought the wreck-hulk and stores; and it was after he had stripped the vessel of all its fittings and stores that he sailed off, with the rescued missionaries and crew, for Tahiti, Rarotonga and Samoa.

It was on this occasion that Bully Hayes called at Suwarrow Island, as mentioned in the Pacific Islands Monthly.

The bell of the “John Williams No. 2” was recovered and is now, or was until recently, in the possession of Mr. Ernest B. Vaile, of Auckland, The “John Williams No. 5” is now going its rounds to the various missionary stations kept up by the London Mis sionary Society. But, although the pre sent writer has travelled a good deal in the South Seas, and was in Sydney in 1879, when the Exhibition was on, he has never chanced (outside being present at the launch of the “John Williams No. 2” on October 5, 1865) to meet any of the L.M.S. “John Williams.”