CHARLESTON
Provincial Council praying for compensation for a reduction made, without due notice, in the salary of Harbourmaster. The request was not granted. Owing perhaps to this reduction, he took up an appointment as Harbourmaster at Hokianga on 9th June, 1870.
Some of the disasters and mishaps about Constant Bay were:
17th April, 1867.—Iona, schooner, Captain Smith, collided with the Cymraes, Captain E. Perkins, in Constant Bay. She was driven ashore badly damaged, and considered a total wreck, being sold at auction by Thos. Dwan. However, she was refloated, as is evidenced by The Charleston Herald of 8th November, 1867, showing her as an “expected arrival” from Hokitika. The Cymraes, 28 tons, was wrecked at the Grey River in November of the same year.
26th August, 1867.—Emerald Isle, a schooner of 28 tons with a crew of four was lost with all hands outside the bay, which she had just left. It is believed that she carried insufficient ballast, and that while in the roadstead was struck by a squall, thrown on her beam ends, and foundered. A few minutes before the squall broke, she was sighted by another schooner, but when the squall abated she had disappeared. She was owned at Greymouth. Much wreckage was found about Constant Bay during the next day. The master’s surname was Abe. She was registered in 1866, No. 40175.
2nd October, 1869.—Harry Bluff, a cutter of 11 tons, Captain Frederick Jackson, with a crew of three, and carrying ballast, was totally wrecked on the bar with the loss of two lives. The enquiry found that the vessel was lost through disregard of the orders and signals of the Harbourmaster. The Westport Times’ statement (condensed) was that “she got bilged on the rocks while going out. Three men tried to swim ashore, two of them were successful but the other, Harry Hill, was drowned. Another man, George Bingham, was severely damaged and was taken to the hospital, where he died. The vessel was smashed to matchwood. The master was part owner with Charles Craddock.”
27th December, 1870.—Betsy Douglas, a schooner of 24
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