CHARLESTON
to be there. Mrs. John Hartill, of Wellington, tells of her arrival at Constant Bay with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. Ballard, in 1866, as passengers by the Alhambra. Mrs. Hartill was then a child of four years of age. The steamer, she says, lay off the port at 11 p.m. and, despite the hour and darkness, the passengers and luggage were transhipped and landed on the beach. By the same steamer came Mr. and Mrs. Kerr. They and the Ballard family camped in tents on the Nile Hill until houses were built.
Mr. Ballard was the first engineer at the Nile Steam Sawmill, later was engineer on the steamers Result and Nile, and finally engineer of the Westport Harbour Board’s tug, the Mana.
The surf-boats were privately-owned, by companies, and worked for hire. Two of these were the Lizzie and the Star of Brighton. Old-timers tell how one of these boats was sailed single-handed from Grey River to Constant Bay by James Parsons, who had travelled on foot to take delivery of it.
Parsons was later landlord of the Welcome Inn at Little Beach, which possessed a more agreeable bar than did the port, though less water passed over it.
These surf-boats had heavy and dangerous work, and many hairbreadth escapes. It is recorded that in 1867 or 1868 one of them, while carrying passengers, including women and children, was totally wrecked on the rocks, and those on board rescued with extreme difficulty. Owing to the bravery of the Harbourmaster and the boat’s crew, no lives were lost.
On 8th November, 1869, the Albion Surf Boat Company wrote to the Superintendent of the Province, concerning another disaster:
Charleston, Nelson, N.Z.,
8th day of November, 1869.
“We, the undersigned, forming the Albion Surf Boat Company, do hereby certify to the truth of the following statement:
On the 15th October, 1869, on entering Constant Bay in the surf-boat a heavy roller struck her, causing the boat to run bows under and capsizing her.
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