The Old “Mariposa”

Memories of Tahiti of 30 Years Ago

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete. Aug. 23.

mHE old ship “Mariposa" h.as become a JL legendary figure in the memory of those who sailed on her. Pevhaps it is because she recalls the gracious, unspoiled life of the islands, that existed in the early years of the century, to which she introduced her passengers in those far past days.

Recently, as the handsome, modern “Mariposa” of the Matson Line was leav ing Auckland for Suva, the purser, col lecting the passengers’ tickets was sur prised to note one reading—“En route to Tahiti, tranship to ‘Hauraki’ at Suva”.

Inquiry revealed that the passenger, Monsieur Barrier—for many years an officer of the colonial government in the Secretariat-General at Tahiti—and the purser. Mr. Dan T. Mehigan, had sailed together on the old steamer, “Mariposa” 30 years ago.

The meeting awakened a flood of mem ories of the old shipmates, skippers of the “Mariposa” who were salty men of the sea of the old school; of old shipmates now' scattered over the seven seas, re tired to the Sailors’ Snug Harbour ashore, or passed to the Beyond; and that Tahiti which, seen through the mists of the years, appears more fascinating than, perhaps, it really was.

Mr. Mehigan has not seen Tahiti since the day, January 12, 1912, when the old “Mariposa” sailed away from Tahiti, never to return. He has remained in the service of the Oceanic and Matson Com panies continuously and has advanced from the position of room steward, when Monsieur Barrier was a passenger in 1908, to be purser of the Matson Company’s swank liner.

But, as his conversations with Monsieur Barrier and his letters to his old ship mates in Tahiti prove, h,is nostalgia for the Tahiti h,e knew, and for his old ship, has never abated.

A sort of halo rests over the old “Mariposa” in the memory of those who voyaged on her; for those were the days when a sea voyage was a sea voyage, and ships were ships; and not a com bination of a circus, a gymkhana and

a honkV’tonk on which something must be going on all the time to save restless passengers from dying of boredom be fore the port of destination is reached.

That abomination of desolation, thg Sports Committee, had not yet been in vented; and that gruesome pest, the man who aims to be the life of the party, and who usually achieves the office of chair man of the Sports Committee, was still on the knees of the gods and had not

The steamer "Mariposa”, with which the Oceanic Steam Ship Co. (Spreckels' Line) ). now the Matson Navigation Co., of San Francisco. U.S.A., inaugurated over 50 years ago a passen ger and mail service to Sydney, via Hawaii and Samoa. Later the service to Tahiti was initiated.

yet been born to add to the tribulations of a tortured world.

On ships like the “Mariposa” wearied bodies and taut nerves were refreshed and relaxed and comforted- by the sooth ing calm of the sea and the gracious amenity of the life on board. She car ried many distinguished passengers. The great Robert Louis Stevenson made many trips on her, and in his “Vailima Let ters are included several that were pen ned at sea on board the ship. Field-Mar shal Lord Kitchener voyaged on her when he came to Tahiti on his return home from Australia, before the Great War.