Yesterday I went to see the Spirit of Mystery off from Simon's Town. She's a replica of the 37ft lugger, Mystery, that set off on a heroic voyage from Cornwall in the 1800's, bound for Melbourne. Times were hard in Cornwall, so over a few beers down the local pub (where many good ideas come into being) seven men - all related by blood or marriage and owning shares in the Mystery - decided to try their luck with the gold rush in Australia. One suggested that they sell the boat to get enough for the fare, but the captain decided, with a few beers under his belt, that they'd sail there and he'd navigate! Her hull was sheathed in Zinc, a deck was added, and on 18 November 1854, their voyage of about 11,800 nautical miles began. They only made one stop en route at Simon's Town, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope. They had made such good time that they were requested to carry the royal mail on to Australia, and pulled into port at Melbourne on 14 March 1855.
Now, 154 years later, Pete Goss and the Spirit of Mystery team consisting of his brother Andy, 14 year old son Elliot and brother in law Mark, have built a replica of the Mystery and are following in the wake of their countrymen. Pete has an excellent blog where you can find out more about Spirit of Mystery's story and keep up to date on their progress on the second leg of their voyage: www.petegoss.com/mystery
The very beautiful and rather small Spirit of Mystery sails out from False Bay under a light northwester into the Southern Ocean to catch the winds of the roaring forties!
Coincidently, my quintuple great uncle owned the Star Inn where the seven men first decided to make the voyage, and financed Mystery's decking. The men made their plans over the dining table at Vine Cottage, where relatives of my family lived, who where also related to some of the crew. According to my great-grandfather, some gold did make it back from Australia, and my aunt Pat now has the broach with the gold nugget.
After waving farewell to Spirit of Mystery, we went for a beer afterwards, where Vanessa noticed that the Mystery's story is illustrated on the Hansa Marzen Gold label:
Paul Moody, a friend of the crew who joined them to help out in Cape Town, and his Hansa.
See: it all began with beer, in a pub, and they sailed in a little boat with red sails around South Africa to get to the gold!
For the fandamily, and anyone else who's interested, more pics of Spirit of Mystery are at my flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/girasolista/sets/72157604525089719/
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