G'day, me hearties, an interesting thread.

Uncle Jaque - could you provide more detail on your "Capt Bunker", please. The family (both British and American) were involved in whaling here in the Southern Ocean. There's Bunker Islets, here on Stewart Island (NZ) - as well as other places round the world.

Somewhere in this thread (or one of the links) I came across a reference to a boat type I didn't know. Thanks to Goolgle, I know now what a Gundalow is - a great site. Shucks, you can even buy a 3-D Gundalow Weather Vane

It's OK for you folk, who live close to major historic seaports, and get to see tall ships on a regular basis. I've got to be happy with a 'virtual visit' to the Jeanie Johnson Replica.. At least Soren Larsen has visited a few times. Our own sail-training ship Spirit of NZ visits once a year, but seldom berths. Hopefully she still has the Spirit of Stewart Island hanging from the stern davits. She's an aluminium Stabi-Craft dinghy, built just over Foveaux Strait in Invercargill. It was donated by our SI Lions Club - having just come back from a Lions meeting I feel pretty proud of it - there's only 20 of us in the Club.

Last year Endeavour "steamed" into the Bay, sails up, but flapping. She fired a shot, and departed. Quite appropraite, as we were celebrating the formation and opening of Rakiura National Park, which covers 90% of our 640 sq mile Island.

All the above has little to do with your shanty session - blame Uncle Jaque for starting the scuttlebut. To get back to music, I've added some background info to this Davy Lowston thread, which may help those who sing that fine NZ song - our first non-Maori one. The best info is my late-mate Frank Fyfe's dissertaion on the NZ Folk site.

"Take me back to the 60s - I'm LOST" - attrib either Mike Seeger or Tom Paley's guitar case.

Cheers - Sam in NZ