Before safety equipment, mariners relied on skill and experience
Brought to you by the New Zealand Maritime Museum
In the days of wooden boats, there was no backup plan by way of safety equipment or modern technology. You learned to sail in a yacht without an engine, from others who were competent and experienced.
Weather forecasting was non-existent so you used your wits to read the skies and seas. You planned ahead. If you knew you might have to leave an anchorage at night, you took a compass bearing before darkness fell.
Little Jim in the Waitematā Harbour - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1799-332
Kapok life jackets quickly became waterlogged, so if you carried any onboard, you made sure they weren’t needed.
You could cast off or pick up a mooring smoothly and with skill, with your boat under sail.
Wooden dinghies often leaked. One person bailed while the other rowed. They were also often loaded with supplies, had very little freeboard and were in very real danger of being swamped, especially when a boat that threw out a wake arrived in the bay.
Percy Vos’ grandson Simon Ostick completed his apprenticeship at the Vos yard. He describes the process of steaming as ‘brutal’. A timber furnace, which burned shavings, yard waste and other wood heated water and forced steam under pressure onto the planks. The planks were shaped and put into the steam blocks, and were then lifted, by four men with gloves, into place, bent around the shape of the boat.
At some point in each boat build process, a boat would need to be turned by workers man-handling the vessel, up to 60ft in length, using rollers and chocks.
You used your wits, your experience and your knowledge, and you were master of your craft. If you got into trouble, you couldn’t count on someone else being around to help you.
“We were lucky we didn’t hurt ourselves. But when we had to be competent, we were competent.” - James MItchelson, crew of Little Jim (pictured above).
The yard of P. Vos boatbuilders in the 1950s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1730-078