✨ Cruise Report
NEW ZEALAND
Government Gazette.
PROVINCE OF SOUTHLAND.
Published by Authority.
All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signatures, are to be considered as Official communications made to those persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.
By His Honor’s Command,
W. H. AYLMER,
Clerk to Superintendent.
Vol. 6.] SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1868. [No. 9.
CRUISE OF THE BRIG AMHERST.
OFFICIAL REPORT.
Invercargill, March 31, 1868.
To His Honor the Superintendent.
Sir,—I have the honor to submit for your information the following report on the result of a voyage made in the brig "Amherst," for the purpose forming depots of necessaries for castaways on the Auckland and Campbell Islands, and of searching on these, the Antipodes, and Bounty Island for survivors from wrecks.
We left the Bluff Harbor on the morning of Saturday, 25th January, with the wind from the W.N.W., there being just enough of it to take us well clear, when it left us at the disposal of the tide. In the Straits we had very light north easterly airs, but by "snubbing" with a boat’s anchor and 90 fathoms small line, we held our own against flood, and then worked down with ebb tide. Whilst brought up abreast of Smoky Cave (Stewart’s Island) a boat’s crew was sent ashore for the purpose of catching some woodhens, the birds were very shy, but the officer, bearing the appropriate name of Anglem, deftly snared two fine ones of opposite sexes; they will I trust rapidly increase their numbers on the Auckland Islands, where we turned them ashore.
A fine breeze sprang up on the 27th from the N.W. and a course was shaped for the "Snares;" believing it to be quite possible that those for whom we searched might have reached those Islands, and by some accident losing their boat, had been unable to proceed further. At noon, on the 28th, when as yet the brig was eight miles distant from the "Snares," the wind headed us, so a boat was lowered into which I stepped, and we pulled away for the N.E. side of the Island, where is a small gulch or cove, the only boat harbor on it I believe. Thousands of mutton-birds, nellies, penguins, &c., heralded our approach, and to some extent prepared us for what we saw on landing. Once on shore our party was divided, and we commenced our search. I and two others made for the west side, where we climbed a high bluff, some 500 feet high, commanding a good view of the whole island. Our progress was painfully slow, the entire surface being literally honeycombed with mutton-bird holes, into which the foot sank deeply at every step, the inmates thereof betokening their dissatisfaction at our presence by giving vent to a half-choked querulous cry. The penguins (ludicrous birds) in hundreds drawn up in rank and file, stood to oppose us on our march, and it required not a little vigorous kicking to force our way through them. We fired the grass on the open, and made a considerable smoke, but during our stay of four hours we had no evidence whatever to show that any one
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Southland Provincial Gazette 1868, No 9
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏗️ Official Report of the Cruise of the Brig Amherst
🏗️ Infrastructure & Public Works31 March 1868
Brig Amherst, Cruise Report, Auckland Islands, Campbell Islands, Antipodes, Bounty Island, Wreck Survivors
- Anglem (Officer), Caught woodhens for Auckland Islands
- W. H. Aylmer, Clerk to Superintendent