The Albatross and the 13th Earle of Pembroke, 1869

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga, Part XIV

Built at the thriving Mechanics Bay shipyard at Auckland in 1861, the 85 ton Albatross, an elegant topsail schooner, was initially owned by Christopher Harris an Auckland timber merchant. In 1864, the vessel was acquired by James Braund a Devonshire master mariner who had sailed the 100 ton cutter Surprise from England to Auckland in 1857.

In 1870, Braund’s Albatross was contracted by Britain’s notoriously wealthy Earl of Pembroke and his companion, the writer Dr Henry Kingsley, for an extended cruise around New Zealand and the Pacific islands (during which they co-wrote the travel bestseller South Sea Bubbles). During the course of its North Island cruise, Captain Braund sailed the Albatross and its two celebrity tourists into Tauranga Harbour.

The topsail schooner Shepherdess off Wellington in 1870

Like the Shepherdess, Captain Braund’s Albatross was among the many smart, locally built, trading schooners that plied New Zealand and Pacfic waters during the 1860s and 70s.

At Tauranga, the visitors were met and accompanied by Major Gilbert Mair, a Colonial Defence Force officer noted for his leadership and courage during the Anglo-Maori Land Wars of the 1860s. Fluent in te reo, Mair, who led the kupapa (loyalist) Te Arawa flying columns Maori style, was on leave at the time from what was to prove a four year pursuit of the ‘rebel’ guerilla leader Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turiki and his Ringatu followers (1868-1872). In his memoirs published as Reminiscences and Maori Stories, Mair described his role in the Earle of Pembroke’s visit in a chapter titled ‘A Visit to Tauranga and the Order of the Peacock’s Feathers’, an experience that left a sour taste, while illustrating his own mana and integrity.

Major Gilbert Mair

“It was my fortune in those days to meet many a celebrity travelling through those parts of the earth… But for a curious incident, or series of incidents, with Tauranga as a locale, I should have accompanied the globe cruising pair on their famous voyage, and maybe have been immortalised, one way or the other, in the pages of "South Sea Bubbles."

It was my ambition from early youth, when the mind was full of longings for adventure, to experience a terrific shipwreck. The idea was ever present in my waking thoughts and in my dreams. I prepared myself to act promptly in every conceivable emergency, always having the comfortable feeling that I should survive after displaying splendid courage in rescuing the loveliest female passenger, unmarried for preference. It was, I think, about the end of 1869 when I received a letter from Wellington, instructing me to place myself at the service of the Earl of Pembroke, who, with Dr. Henry Kingsley, would call at Tauranga in his yacht, the "Albatross."

I was all excitement when a beautiful white painted topsail schooner (a vessel chartered in Auckland by the Earl) dropped anchor in Tauranga Harbour, and I went on board and reported myself. The master of the schooner was Captain Braund, whom I knew very well. He told me that the idea was to cruise around New Zealand, seeing as much of the Maoris as possible, and then I might have to visit the South Seas with the party. It had been arranged that a comrade officer would discharge my military duties in my absence.

George Robert Charles Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke

I was taken to the cabin and introduced to the Earl and the Doctor. Lord Pembroke was a typical young English aristocrat, about twenty-three years old, fair-haired, rather delicate looking, and had a pretty lisp withal. He stood about six or seven inches over six feet in height; he was so tall, in fact, that an oblong hole had been cut in the cabin floor in which he could stand, his head all but touching the companion hatch. A most delightful, genial young chap he was, with a nimble wit, and fond of speaking in a very affectionate way of his mother, the Lady Herbert of Lea.

 Dr. Kingsley, writer of "Geoffrey Hamlyn" and "Ravenshoe," and brother of the even more famous author of "Hereward the Wake," "Westward Ho," etc., was a sturdily-built, self-contained man of about my own height, full of dry humour; a man with a wonderfully well-stored mind, and the pleasantest of companions. I think he was the Earl's trustee or tutor, for Pembroke deferred very much to his opinions.

The young Earl was very rich; his income was reported at something like £60,000 per annum. A good deal of money had been spent in fitting out the "Albatross" for the cruise. She was most comfortably equipped and generously found; live stock was carried for sea food--pigs and poultry galore. The schooner was manned by a picked crew of twelve men.

During a few days we had some very pleasant short cruises about the Bay of Plenty. We never went far along the coast without the Doctor wanting to drop anchor and fish; he was the most patient and enthusiastic fisherman I ever met, and in the wonderful Bay of Plenty he had his heart's desire. I remember the Earl saying one day: "Mair, I believe when Charon is ferrying Kingsley over the Styx, before he gets half-way across the doctor will bait his hooks and ask the old man to give him another half-hour.

Dr Henry Kingsley

The Civil Commissioner at Tauranga, Mr. Clarke, had suggested to the Maori chiefs that they show these English Rangatiras some attention. Under this arrangement, I got up some good Maori shows for our new friends. One day the principal chiefs of Ngai-te-Rangi requested me to arrange a meeting on board the schooner. These chiefs were Hamiora Tu, Enoka-te-Whanake, Hori Ngatai, Hohepa te Mea, Raniera-te-Hiahia, and Taipari.

They came aboard at the hour fixed, and were ceremoniously received at the cabin. After brief speeches on both sides, each chief divested himself of a splendid woven flax or feathered cloak, which he spread out on the cabin table. Then on the top of the pile of beautiful mats, each Maori laid a greenstone treasure, which included one of the largest and finest "tikis" I ever saw, and there were several ancient carved war clubs, etc. Finally, the crowning gift, the chief placed on the table a carefully drawn and executed document purporting to be a conveyance of the fee simple of Te Ruatuna Island (Mr. Clarke having informed them that it had not been included in the confiscated area.)

The Ngai Te Rangi rangatira Hamiora Tu

After the chief's departure, the matter of return gifts was discussed. The Earl and Doctor had been informed in Auckland that the Maori always refused to accept return tokens. However, I was emphatic that they should be given, as the presents received were of great value. Finally I was requested to select six handsome rugs, which I had sent on board, costing about fifty shillings each.

I was called away to Maketu next day, and on returning in the afternoon, was informed that the chief had been on board, had received their presents, and gone away "highly pleased."

That evening I was requested to guide the Earl and Doctor to the Elms to supper, when a roast snow-white Royal peacock was placed before them as a special mark of honour, at the Venerable Archdeacon Browne's hospitable table. It turned out to be such a wild night, that Mrs. Browne insisted on the Earl remaining for the night. He was given the guest's room, and when asked by the Archdeacon next morning how he had slept, he laughingly replied that the middle part of his anatomy was most comfortable, but a foot or so at each extremity projected. The venerable piece of furniture, imported probably in the 'thirties, is still known as "The Earl's Bed."

Charlotte Brown

The next afternoon he went to Maori gatherings at Matapihi and Maungatapu. The visitors asked me what birds those were that were uttering such discordant noises, and they seemed surprised when I said they were English peacocks; that their cries were a certain portent of rain and bad weather, also that the natives kept numbers of them. The Doctor thereupon repeated Voltaire's description of the bird:--

The plumage of an angel,
The voice of a devil,
And the guts of a thief.

I fancied I noticed a kind of reserve between my white companions and myself. Next day I discovered that the bird of ill omen was the cause. While I was absent at Maketu some officious meddling pakeha, whose name I never could find out, had induced them to discard my advice, substituting for the rugs six peacock feathers, which they had purchased from a barber's shop for a shilling each, and a pound a piece of cheap tobacco.

I had my bag sent ashore, and never went near the yacht again. She sailed shortly afterwards for Tahiti, to be totally destroyed a few months later in Nukumbassanga passage, Ringold Islands, in the north-west of the Fiji group [Wakasamba , Fiji Group, 21 Oct 1870].

In "South Sea Bubbles," the writers lament the destruction of their South Sea treasures in the shipwreck, I only hope that all the Maori gifts went to the bottom with her, too.

So ended the beautiful "Albatross." But for those peacock feathers and an atrocious and insulting return for priceless gifts, I should have sailed with her, and have had the pleasure of adding a shipwreck to my other adventurous experiences.”

The 12 ‘picked crew’ of the Albatross, returned to New Zealand on the schooner Kauri. Earl Pembroke, Dr Kingsley and Captain Braund returned on the steamer Auckland.

References
Auckland Star, 9 February, 1897: 5.
'Gilbert Mair', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/gilbert-mair, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 8-Nov-2017.
Hawke’s Bay Herald, 10 February 1897: 3.
Mair, Gilbert, Reminiscences and Maori Stories, Brett, Auckland, 1923: 111-115.
Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 29 November 1870: 2.

Illustrations
Forster, William, ‘The New Zealand topsail schooner “Shepherdess’’off Wellington in Cook Strait’, circa.1870, C-105-00, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.
Webster, Hartley, ‘Portrait of Major William Gilbert Mair’, circa 1860, PA2-1870, National Library of New Zealand.
Pelligrini, Carlo, Caricature of the 13th Earle of Pembroke, Vanity Fair, 14 July, 1888.
Photographer unknown, ‘Novelist Henry Kingsley’, in Lord, Walter, The Mirror of the Century, John Lane, London, 1906: 200.
Photographer unknown, “Hamiora Tu, Chief of Ngai Te Rangi’, PH-ALB-93-p6-1, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland.
Artist Unknown, ‘Charlotte Brown’, 2003.12, The Elms Foundation, Tauranga.