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Exert from a publication in our Local Museum


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I love the way they used words in those days.
 
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Nothing could exceed the grandeur of the scene.
On reaching the deck a violent lurch sent me flying leeward .… The sea was running mountains high without exaggeration and it was an extraordinary sight to see the huge waves roll up to the very sides of the ship.
George Coward Journal, 1847
 
George was apprenticed as a Bookbinder in England: "George Coward aged about 16, son of Charles Coward [grocer] of Devizes... apprenticed to Henry Bull, bookbinder, stationer and printer..." signed 1st October 1838.
George and his brother Richard came out to New Zealand on the ship Ralph Bernal. It sailed from London on 23 July 1847, arrived Nelson on 3 December 1847, and continued on to Wellington arriving 11 December 1847. The Coward brothers disembarked at Wellington.
They then proceeded back to Nelson.
In Oct 1849 the Coward brothers drove a flock of sheep through the Wairau from Nelson via the Wairau Pass. Richard owned Erina Run in the Wairau Valley in 1848 but drowned in the Wairau River in 1849 when George took over the Run.
In 1860 he became the co-owner of the Marlborough Press.

A model of the Ralph Bernal was in the MHS collection in a specially built display case and is the oldest model ship in NZ. Unfortunately the lovely display case was destroyed.

 


 
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