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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 5 (August 2, 1937)

Pictures Of New Zealand Life — The Navy At Waireka

page 61

Pictures Of New Zealand Life
The Navy At Waireka
.

News of the death in Auckland recently of an old acquaintance, Mr. George H. Powley, veteran of the Royal Navy, set me looking up some of my notes about H.M.S. Niger, the ship of his fighting youth. The name of the Niger is a notable one in our New Zealand story. She was a squarerigged craft with steam power, and she was a most useful vessel in the West Coast service when the first Taranaki war called for the frequent shipping of British soldiers from the Manukau to New Plymouth. Her captain, Peter Cracroft, was a sailor of the traditional bluff, downright school who won the hearts of the Taranaki settlers by his dashing capture in 1860 of the Maori pa at Kaipopo, above the Waireka beach, a few miles south of New Plymouth. The soldiers had marched back to camp from the battlefield, leaving the outnumbered settlers to fight it out, and Cracroft came in with his bluejackets from the Niger just in time to get the “embattled farmers” out of an awkward fix.

On that thrilling day in New Plymouth's history there were several lads serving in the Niger who had signed on in New Zealand. One of them was George Powley. He was not in the party that stormed the Maori pa, but he was one of the six young sailors selected by Captain Cracroft to carry the war-flag captured there when it was presented to Governor Gore Browne at Auckland, as a trophy of the battle.

The Ballad of the Nigers.

There was a jolly-tar song, one of the hearty “Come-all-ye's,” that some lower-deck rhymester composed in celebration of that set-to with the cutlass in the old Nelson way. It has never been published in New Zealand; my first reading of it was in a copy of the “Nautical Magazine” of the 'Sixties, which Mr. H. E. Fildes, of Wellington, bought in London some years ago, and which he lent me, knowing my interest in the New Zealand service of the Navy. The Chronicles of the Nautical Club included the song. George Powley knew the roughhewn ballad.

* * *

The Nautical Club was in session for story and song, one evening in the early 'Sixties. One of the master mariners begged leave to introduce a young sailor, a comrade of William Odgers, Captain Cracroft's coxswain, who won the Victoria Cross at Waireka, and this son of the sea, being invited to tell his story, trolled forth the doggerel epic of that glorious scrimmage with rifle and cutlass. It is not likely to find a place in our anthologies of New Zealand verse. Still, it has its rugged merits. Thus sang young “Jack Junk,” as the Club Chronicler nicknamed him:

“Now listen all ye Britishers As loves a jolly row, I'll tell ye of the Waireka, When it was fought, and how; And how those great big rascals The Maoris they did run; By Jove! It was a stunning lark, Though not to all good fun; For some they did get wownded And others they are dead, And I myself, to tell the truth, Got a crack across the head.”

The singing sailor went on to describe the march to the Waireka, where the Maoris had built a pa; and the Navy lads' doings when they came within fighting range. He continued:

“Directly that they see'd us Their balls they did let fly, The first one nearly ketch'd me A slap right in the eye; But two can play at that game. So we to fire begins; I saw my very fustest shot Knock a covey off his pins. When we had scrimmaged for a while They hooked it for the pa For all the world like innocents A-running to their Ma.

“No sooner had they done it Than thus the Captain says, 'Run down that Pa, my jolly lads, And mind you don't miss stays; I'll give ten pounds unto the chap Who first that craft will board!' And shiver all my timbers If he didn't draw his sword And run as fast as he could go, Like a ship before a gale, With half a hundred sailors All shouting at his tail.”

The hearty tar, having taken a long breath, proceeded to relate how the sailors scaled the palisade and put the Maoris to the right-about, except for those who perforce stayed there, laid out by bullet and cutlass. Having bawled out his ballad to the bitter end, Jack was rewarded with tremendous applause and a long glass of ale.

“Well done, my lad,” said the Commodore of the Club. “If all the Nigers were of your stamp Captain Cracroft was fortunate.”

“We were fortunate, sir,” the sailor replied, “to have such a captain. He was one of the right sort—a father to us all. I wish I could always sail with him.”

* * *

George Powley and another veteran of the Niger, R. B. Craven, of the Kaipara, from whom also I heard the story of Waireka, cherished a similar high regard for that gallant Captain of the Niger. It was not every Commander who was so admired and beloved by those who served under him.