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"Solway Lass"
David R Collin - March 1987
This article was published in the Galloway News on 26th
March 1987.
I read with great interest of the history of "Solway
Lass" in the Galloway News and the longer I looked
at the photograph of her tied up near Palnackie, the
more certain I became that I had seen her before, A
brief check provided me with evidence to fill a gap
in her long career.
I left Kirkcudbright in 1974, to live and work in Fiji,
and was quickly drawn to the waterfront in the capital
city of Suva, where a colourful and varied fleet of
trading vessels is based.
Fiji is a group of several hundred islands, most of
which are served by the Government of Fiji's fleet of
locally designed and built ships and a great array of
privately owned trading vessels, which carry cargoes
and passengers of every kind to some of the most idyllic
places in the world.
Among these ships were several sailing vessels, and
one in particular, called "Sundeved" caught
my eye with her rakish sheerline and minimal deckhouse.
She had recently arrived from what were then the Gilbert
and Ellice Islands, via Wallis and Fotuna, and had begun
to trade in Fiji's waters with an English master/ owner
and a Fijian crew. Her Danish name of "Sundeved"
was soon painted over and she was given the Fijian name
of "Lawendua"
Lloyds register of shipping for 1968/1969 reveals that
"Sundeved" (Register no 534473) was formerly
named "Bent", and "Bent" was formerly
none other than "Solway Lass"
In 1976, I was sent by my employer,
the Government of Fiji, to the island of Kandavu, 65
miles south of the main island of Viti Levu, to arrange
the siting of six new houses at the government station
of Vunisea. "Lawendua" was chartered and we
sailed at 5.00 am on November 4th with a Public Works
Department supervisor called Motufanga and all the necessary
materials, including six kitchen sinks! As we motored
out of Suva harbour through the main passage in the
protecting coral reef, we met the long swell of the
Pacific Ocean and even our cargo of concrete blocks
and cement could not prevent us from rolling heavily.
Breakfast consisted of an animated fried
egg, which the cook had intended to nestle in a bed
of tinned spaghetti. A commotion broke out when a lee
rigging screw came adrift and clanged against the wheelhouse
before disappearing over the side. The cook's best endeavours
followed the rigging screw shortly afterwards.
By lunchtime, we were in the lee of
the Great Astrolabe reef, which is said to have some
of the clearest water and most beautiful fish and coral
anywhere, except of course for Palnackie! Lunch of mutton
curry, dalo and cassava was eaten on deck, as the beautiful
islands of Dravuni, Bulia, and Ono were left to port.
Before the sun had gone down we had steered cautiously
through the jagged coralheads of Namalata reef, guided
by a Polaroid bespectacled lookout aloft, and anchored
at the tiny settlement of Vunisea. . Motufanga and I
went ashore to hire men from the village to unload our
cargo into a fleet of canoe-like smallcraft, known in
Fiji as punts, and work began immediately.
Three days later, on completion of unloading
and our work ashore, we set sail for Suva with an empty
hold, but one extra passenger in the form of a very
excited pig. The sails concerned consisted of a brand
new mizzen and two elderly staysails, which the skipper
hoped would add a knot or two to our leisurely pace.
Due to the power and enthusiasm of the crew however,
she was sheeted in far too hard, and with the wind on
her beam, made nearly as much leeway as headway. We
arrived at Suva wharf in the small hours of the morning
on November 7th, and Motufanga, the pig and I walked
into town to find a taxi. A few days later, the pig
was eaten and Motufanga was sent to prison, but that
is another story! All three of us had good reason to
savour our freedom and adventure aboard "Lawendua"
"Lawendua" was at that time
the Cinderella of the waterfront, and went unnoticed
by the throngs of tourists. She was a hard worked vessel
whose master and crew struggled to compete for cargoes
in a difficult market. I feel privileged to have had
the opportunity to travel in both distance and in a
sense in time to experience the lifestyle that has been
hers and that of her crews for so many years. She was
still trading in Fiji when I left there in 1980.
"Solway Lass" is now restored
as a historic sailing vessel, and is based in Sydney,
Australia. Visit the website of Southern Cross Sailing
Adventures, who offer adventure cruises on her. The
site also has some photos of how she looks today.
To book a sailing holiday on Solway Lass click
here >>>>>
Source http://www.buittle.org.uk/solway.htm
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