Issue date
At the opening of the 2012-13 Summer Sailing season recently the Port Chalmers Yacht Club was able to display some yachting history, both of regional and national significance.
Two miniature trophies awarded by the late Mr George.A.Wiseman were shown to members for the first time in many years. The trophies date back to 1925 and are exact silver replicas of the actual trophies that Mr Wiseman won that year.
Mr G.A.Wiseman was one of the founding members of the Port Chalmers Yacht Club in 1892, he went on to national fame when in 1921 he skippered the first yacht to win the inaugural Interprovincial yachting contest - the Sanders Cup - in the X Class yacht 'Heather'. Heather was the Otago boat put up to challenge the Auckland yacht 'Iron Duke' skippered by the Governor General Lord Jellico.
The challenge was contested by these two yachts on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour under much public attention and interest. Despite skippering the winning yacht in 1921 Mr Wiseman's name does not appear on the Sanders Cup until 1925. The 1921 win for Otago was under the name of Mr W.J.P.McCulloch who was the original skipper of the Heather and skippered her in the first two races before being replaced by Wiseman.
In 1925 Mr Wiseman, skippering his own X Class the 'Iona', won the trophy for the second time for Otago and this time his name was recorded on the Cup.
The Sanders Cup is a memorial trophy to the Late Lieutenant Commander W.E.Sanders V.C, D.S.O, R.N.R. killed in action on the 14 August 1917 when he took his Q ship Prize, again, into close combat with a German U boat. Previously that year he had been able to withstand tremendous salvos from a U-boat so as to lure the U-boat close enough to open fire and disable her. For this action he received posthumously the V.C. Lt Com Sanders was from Devonport Auckland, hence the naming of the Cup in his honour.
THE silver Sanders Cup was produced by Messer's Walker and Hall who also produced exact miniatures for the winners each year until the depression of the 1930's stopped this practice.
The two miniatures pictured are of the Sanders Cup dated 1925 and the other is a miniature of the Oliphant Cup also won by Mr Wiseman in 1925 in his Jellico class yacht 'Iona' in which he also won the Sanders cup that year. Not so much is known of the Oliphant Cup but it is believed it originates from an old established family of the time, the Oliphants. A Mr R Oliphant owned a Bailey designed yacht, Janet, in Dunedin in 1910. Research of the Port Chalmers Yacht Club minutes show that in December 1924 mention is made to the X Class (Jellico's) sailing for the Oliphant Cup later in that season.
Both Miniatures were kept within the descendent family of Mr G.A.Wiseman for many years until being given to the yacht club in the early 1990's and have been kept in safe keeping at the Port Chalmers Museum until now when the club is in a more secure position to display them.
