Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/246

the year 1855, was the last owner of the mill, taking it and cutting out all the timber in the bay. Nearly all the old settlers about the Head of the Bay were employed in those times at this mill, and a great quantity of timber was cut annually. The vessels that took away this timber were all built in the bay. Mr. Robert Close first started a boat-building yard, close to where the jetty has been built. He built the vessels Sylph, Sea-devil, and others. The latter is very likely the boat afterwards owned by Mr. Thacker, which came to grief in Little Okain’s. Messrs. Barwick and Wilson afterwards opened a yard in Duvauchelle’s. They had come to the Colony from Tasmania. Mr. Barwick is by trade a shipbuilder, spending nine years at it, the earlier portion at Sunderland and afterwards at London. The partners, before coming to the Head of the Bay, had built the vessel Foam at Red-House Bay. At Duvauchelle’s they built the vessels Vixen, Breeze, Spray, Dart, and the Wainui, afterwards converted into a steamer. They also built the first three boats for Timaru lighterage. The Spray is the only one of these vessels that is now heard of. Messrs. Barwick and Wilson dissolved partnership when they had built these vessels for Mr E. C. Latter, and Mr. Barwick worked the yard himself for two years. During that time he built a large punt, which was afterwards turned into the ketch Alice Jane, that is so well known all over the Peninsula. Mr. Wilson was a very peculiar character, being very mean in scraping together all he possibly could, and very generous in distributing it, “giving the shirt off his back,” as one who knew him well puts it, “to the first man who asked him.” He was the first man to open a store in the bay; but it did not prove very profitable to him, as he gave away most of his goods. While Messrs. Barwick and Wilson worked the ship-yard, they employed over thirty men. After