Hooken. — On the Derelict Ship in Dusky Bay. 423 



Maoris and enabled to leave the district, though in what direc- 

 tion is not said. The simple narrator goes on to add that the 

 lucky man who finds that pickaxe will have no further cause to 

 work for a living. 



I tell this wild story not merely because it is exciting and 

 romantic, but as showing on how trifling a foundation a con- 

 spicuous story is too often built, and how flimsy, though 

 positive, may be the information vouchsafed to curious in- 

 quirers after something buried in mystery. Ten years ago, 

 when on a trip to the West Coast, I first saw this mysterious 

 vessel as our steamer passed her. Since that time I have 

 allowed no opportunity to escape of gaining any reliable in- 

 formation of her. My first application was, in 1879, to Mr. 

 William Docherty, who for so many years has avoided the 

 haunts of men, and preferred to bury himself in the wild fast- 

 nesses of the inhospitable West Coast region whilst searching 

 for mineral wealth. In response, Mr. Docherty, in the most 

 obliging manner, made a special trip to the old vessel, and sent 

 me certain articles which he found in her, and most of which 

 are now exhibited. In the interesting letter accompanying these 

 relics, he says : " What is left of her now is but the shreds of a 

 wreck ; yet, putting one thing and another together, one can 

 fasten in his mind that she was once a large, well-put-together 

 vessel. She must have been in a perilous and sinking condition 

 when she came here, because he who had command ran her 

 ashore on the first beach inside the harbour. I travelled 

 through the bush to several of the headlands, thinking that I 

 might see some traces of humanity ; but everything in nature 

 was in situ there." The specimens sent consist of lead and 

 copper sheathing from off what remains of the stern, a rusted 

 iron bolt, and, what is of more importance, pieces of bamboo 

 cane and of stone ballast. This ballast is freestone, and under 

 it, says Mr. Docherty, are lots of cane, which he reasonably 

 concludes to be dunnage — that is loose material thrown into a 

 ship's bottom to prevent injury by water to the cargo. 



Captain Fairchild, of the Hinemoa, has most kindly given me 

 a full account of his visit to the wreck in 1878. He says : " She 

 is in a little nook, or pocket, so small that it was impossible for 

 her to sail in. She must have been hauled in with ropes made 

 fast to the trees. She is 180 feet long and about 32 feet beam. 

 Her outside plank is 5 inches thick, all East India teak. She 

 is sheathed with pure copper, and all the bolts used in buildiog 

 her are pure copper also. She is built about one-third of 

 English oak and two-thirds teak. Her stern is in 20 feet of 

 water and her bow in 5 feet only. She was known by the 

 whalers to be there sixty-five years ago, and was an old ship 

 then. In the early days the whalers used to chop her away 

 for firewood, and they have chopped her down to the water's 



