Almost Forgotten Shipowners

An almost forgotten shipowner today is the late C. W. Turner, of Christchurch, who, in the seventies and eighties of last century, carried on a world-wide trade with a fleet of small barques and schooners. They brought sugar from Mauritius and Queensland, tea and rice from China and Java, general cargo from London and New York, and cornsacks and woolpacks from Calcutta. They carried grain and produce to South America and South Africa, horses to India, and wool and wheat to England. Turner's little ships made many a voyage round Cape Horn. In later years various small sailing ships, including the barques of J. J. Craig, of Auckland, and A. H. Turnbull, of Christchurch, traded between New Zealand and Australia.