424 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



edge, and she only shows a little above the water at low water 

 spring tides. She is quite clear of the ocean swell, in a perfect 

 snug harbour, and must have been taken there on purpose to 

 be condemned. Sbe has freestone and chalk for ballast, and 

 has some little bits of bamboo amongst the ballast. She is a 

 good model, and, I think, was a fast sailer, and she must have 

 been between 700 and 800 tons register. I got one of her 

 rudder braces off her. It was composition, and weighed 2001bs. 

 It had the words ' Saville, London,' on it. There are also 

 some pieces of cast-iron amongst the ballast. Her upper deck 

 and beams are all gone, and nearly all her 'tween deck beams 

 have been chopped away by the whalers. The wood is quite 

 sound, and has not been eaten by worms, as might be expected. 

 There is a good deal of fresh water where she lays, which keeps 

 away the sea-worms." 



Captain Fairchild is very desirous of gaining the authority 

 of the Government to raise her. He considers this could be 

 done in a few days, and, if aided by a diver, thinks that some 

 interesting and, perchance, valuable discovery might be made. 

 Certainly, these are not times in which to incur any but the 

 most unavoidable expenses. Still, there would be no harm in 

 bringing the matter before the House, and, if the cost were 

 trifling, of giving effect to Captain Fairchild's laudable sugges- 

 tion. 



When in London, five years ago, I made pertinent inquiries, 

 but with no result. The present firm of Shaw-Savill is no 

 continuation or offshoot of the " Saville" of our inquiry. 



Mr. Ned Palmer, who died last year, and a sketch of whose 

 eventful life will, I hope, soon appear in the " Otago Witness," 

 began sealing on the west and south coast of New Zealand sixty- 

 two years ago. He knew the vessel well, and had cut wood from 

 it. He did not know her name, nor where she came from, but 

 said that Lascars formed part of her crew, and that he well knew 

 a Lascar who had been one of her castaways, and who was also 

 engaged in sealing and whaling in one of the earliest gangs. 

 Captain Stevens, who lives near Riverton — one of the last remain- 

 ing, if not the last, of our ancient mariners — confirms this. He 

 came to New Zealand forty-five years ago, and knew this Lascar, 

 who died thirty years since, at Stewart Island, a very old man. 

 He told Captain Stevens that the vessel sailed from New South 

 Wales for London, and that she sprung a leak, whereupon a 

 mutiny ensued. This scanty but important information was 

 all I could gather from this source. 



Sir James Hector also saw the wreck during his interesting 

 exploration of the West Coast, in 18G3. 



I omitted to mention that in the Wellington Museum 

 there has been lying for many years a curious case, or box, 

 found by Captain Fairchild at the time of his visit. No one has 



