100 Years Of Islands
p. 77 · Read in the full issue
Ships
Famous Builder Passes On
I From Our Auckland Correspondent.
WHEN, on August 27, Charles Bailey Junior died at the age of 87, in Auckland, a family associa tion extending over nearly a century, and of much interest to the South- East Pacific, came to an end.
Up until about 15 years ago, Mr.
Bailey had been actively engaged in ship-building for years—and his father before him. From the Bailey yard, a thousand sailing or auxiliary craft had gone forth, during the life time of Bailey Jnr. alone. Many were Islands traders; everywhere in the South Pacific the name of Bailey stood for a well built vessel. Many are still actively engaged in trade— especially out of Papeete. Others, lost on some reef or other, have been associated with interesting events or people long since dead.
There was, for example, the Strath cona, buiit for the Pacific Cable Board and lost on her maiden voy age; and the 55-foot yacht Onelua, built for King Tubou II of Tonga; or the Vaiete, originally built for that legendary figure, Captain Thomas Harries, of Rarotonga, as the Vaiete —cast up on the same Raroia atoll as that on which the famous Kon Tiki raft ended its Paci fic drift—salvaged, and four years later recommissioned under her present name, still trading out of Papeete; or again the Tereora, lost in a storm with all hands somewhere between Tahiti and the Leeward Is lands, during the late War. One might imagine the late Charley Bailey speculating, each time he sat at the drawing board of a new schooner, just where SHE would end her days.
His death can almost be said to mark the end of the schooner era in the South-East Pacific. The New Golden Hind, though not built by the Baileys, was probably the last Bailey-designed Islands trader to go forth. Actually built as a yacht, she has spent most of her life as a work ing craft, and it seems unlikely that any other trading vessel of this type and size will ever again be built.
Large spreads of sail have probably gone for ever; but Charley Jnr. was responsible for many of the vessels of this type that still are active in the Islands. Wherever there are sailing craft in the Islands, his death will be mourned.