1908 - s.v. 'Benjamin Boyd' of Belfast - A ship with an interesting history - With reference to the article on "The 'Killers' of Twofold Bay," which appeared in our September number, a correspondent writes : " A curious circumstance has recently come to my notice which may not prove uninteresting to Wide World readers. The initiator of the whaling industry in Twofold Bay, on the coast of New South Wales, appears to have been one Benjamin Boyd, and, strangely enough, a small schooner bearing that uncommon name came to grief in Cardiff Roads some few months ago.

Upon looking up this vessel's record I find that she was built at Manning River, New South Wales, in the year 1844, so that little doubt exists in my mind that the Benjamin Boyd mentioned in your article must have been the original owner of this little craft. That a vessel of only ninety-nine tons register should have made the voyage of some fourteen thousand miles to Old England, probably with a valuable cargo of the produce of the cetaceous chase, speaks well for the intrepid navigators. As to when she made this voyage and whether it was repeated, I am unable to say, but for some years she has been sailing around our coasts, picking up a living for her owners and crew. That she was so soundly constructed as to brave the winds and waves for these sixty odd years does credit to her builders —shipwright emigrants, no doubt, who have long since joined the majority. Alas! the career of the old craft herself is now also finished.

Some months ago, whilst off Penarth laden with coals and bound for Ireland, she was run into by a steamer, which tore a huge hole in her side, causing her to sink almost immediately. The crew were saved, and ultimately, through the efforts of a local salvage firm, the vessel was raised and brought into dock and her hull sold for a few pounds.

I send you a photograph of this old craft as she now lies in her last berth outside the harbour entrance, where she has been placed, filled with stones, for the purpose of keeping back the watery elements upon whose surface she has for so long floated. The name 'Benjamin Boyd' can be faintly seen on her stern, over 'Belfast,' her late port of registry. The white patch amidships shows the canvas nailed over the enormous hole made by the steamer, and fixed there by the divers before she could be raised. - The Wide World Magazine Vol. XX No. 117 [1209] [499] January 1908.