Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/55



ONSTANT BAY was far from being a safe harbour; vessels entering, leaving, and while there took considerable risks. Most visiting craft were sailing vessels of low draught, but occasionally small steamers made trips—the Mullah, Kennedy, Waipara, Halcyon, Bruce, Result, Despatch, and maybe others. The steamer Nile never entered Constant Ray, but her namesake schooner was a regular trader. The Result was stranded there upon two occasions and was, about 1878, damaged on the rocks.

Callers among the sailers were: The ketch Constant from 1866 to 1869; the ketches Brothers and Sister, Standard Heathcote, Excelsior, Amateur, Jane Anne, Flying Squirrel; the cutters Harry Bluff, Elizabeth, Volunteer, Flora McDonald, Wairoa, Joseph Paul, Pearl, Hope; the lugger Star of Buller; the schooners Jona, Emerald Isle, Betsy Douglas, Kate, Flying Cloud, Fairy, Ann, Wild Wave, Shepherdess, Louisa, Fancy, Lizzie, Dart, Rapid, Ada, Mavis, Nile, Falcon, Mary Jane, Mary Ann, William and Julia.

The first steamer to enter the bay was the Waipara on 18th January, 1868, Captain Beveridge, the Harbourmaster, boarding her in the offing and piloting her in. Half the town turned out to witness her arrival.

Advertisements in the Westport Times notified from time to time during 1869 that the Constant would continue to trade regularly between Westport and Charleston. They were signed by E. Suisted and Thos. Allen, of Stanley Wharf.

Large steamers such as the Alhambra and Southland called in the early days, but lay outside and were tendered by the surf-boats or, at times, by any small steamer that happened