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 might; they ran upon the beach, and were unloaded into vehicles when the tide receded. A number of surf-boats was at all times, from 1867 onwards, available for assisting in mooring, unmooring, or towing vessels. These boats were privately owned and controlled. The charge for such services, or for tendering vessels outside, was ten shillings per ton, but whether computed on the tonnage handled or upon the registered tonnage of the vessels, is not stated.

In 1868, the Charleston Surf Boat Company operated, also Craddock & Company; and in 1869 the Albion Surf Boat Company. It was notified that inward-bound vessels requiring a surf-boat “must hoist a flag at the main mast.”

It is generally accepted that Charleston was named after Captain Charles Bonner, master of the ketch Constant, the first vessel to enter the bay (1866) and to trade regularly there in the settlement’s earliest days. The place became known as Charlie’s Town, then as Charles Town, and the latter name apparently was accepted by Mr. Greenwood when he made the first survey in 1866-1867, but was amended by him to Charleston.

The Constant was then owned by Reuben Waite, one of the first, if not the first, of the white settlers on the South West Coast, a trader and merchant operating from the Buller to the Grey. He gave to Constant Bay the name of the little vessel in which he first visited there. She was of 13 tons and carried a crew of three, was registered at Hobart Town, and built in 1863. She was totally wrecked on the Grey bar, 24th August, 1870, with the loss of two lives, Peter Shields and James Kern. The master, then John Pascoe, was the only survivor. He was part-owner of the vessel, with John Haye, of Charleston and Christchurch. Both vessel and cargo were uninsured. The ketch was valued at £200. In 1868 she was owned by McDonald Bros., then by E. Suisted, of Westport, who sold to John Haye, on 10th April, 1869.

It was with mixed feelings that men and women first viewed Charleston, their future home-place. Some experienced a faint dismay, it seemed ultima thule; others felt satisfaction, it was a waste to be converted into a land of plenty. Others again, viewed it with mild indifference as a place where a