Union Airways Travel Poster - Main Trunk New Zealand - mid 1930s

 

Union Airways travel poster, circa mid 1930s

Union Airways, a subsidiary of the Union Steamship Company, commenced operation on the Main Trunk Route - which left Auckland out off the main trunk! Non-Aucklanders will be appreciative of this, no doubt. Just desserts and all that. Apparently, it was considered that the express rail service on the North Island Main Trunk line meant that air transport could not compete effectively with rail. How wrong they were in the long run. 

Union Steamship, the Southern Octopus as it has been called, extended its tentacles out to regional routes as well but within a relatively few years it was clear that a shipping line had no comparative advantage in operating an air service.

De Havilland airliner Karoro (gull) being loaded at Palmerston North airport, circa 4 November 1936.

  

De Havilland DH86 Express biplane, Kotuku, circa 1939, possibly at Rongotai, Wellington (according to Turnbull library, but I'm not convinced!)

Creasture Comforts...

Interior of an aircraft possibly a De Havilland Express in the 1930s.

The Inter Island Ferry - The Maori

The Maori at the Ferry Wharf, Lyttelton

The SS Maori joined the Union Steamship Co. fleet in 1907 as the first ship in the fleet to be specifically designed and built for the Lyttelton - Wellington interisland overnight 20 knot ferry service.

SS Maori in Lyttelton Harbour

Her carrying capacity was a significant advance on that of the smaller Rotomahana, with normal accommodation for 423 1st class passengers and 130 in 2nd class. A crew of 1oo was her usual complement, with an particular role for stewards and stewardesses to attend to the needs of passengers. The after hold could be converted to carry an extra 50 2nd class passengers in the peak season. History seems to be silent on what they thought of that.

The Maori had a chequered beginning to her career. When launched from the Dennys Bros. shipyards in Dunbarton, Scotland, her anchors failed to brake her and she mounted the far bank of the River Leven, requiring use of the Yard's steel plate rollers to haul her off. Several months later being towed out for trials, two accompanying tugs grounded and the Maori became high and dry on Dumbarton Rocks but was floated off. A couple of days later she hit & sank the Kintyre, a later inquiry ruling the Kintyre had been at fault. Eleven days later, leaving the shipyard she grounded on a sandbar but was refloated 15 minutes later.

Fortunately, the Maori's working career was less chequered and she provided sterling service as an express steamer on the interisland run. In 1913 she was joined by her sister ship, the Wahine, the first of two ill-fated vessels of that name, both shipwrecked, the second most notoriously resulting in loss of 51 lives at the entrance to Wellington Harbour on 10 April 1968.

SS Maori reversing into her ferry berth at Lyttelton, perhaps with the help of her bow rudder.

Converted to oil-burning in 1923, the Maori continued her entire career on the interisland run. In 1946 she was sold to a Chinese shipping company, initially for use on the Shanghai - Australia run and then in the Chinese coastal trade. During a hurricane in 1951 she dragged her anchors, ran aground, and sank.

The Interisland Ferry - The Rotomahana

Postcard view of the Rotomahana at anchor in Wellington Harbour

Built in 1879 by the Dennys Shipyard, the Rotomahana was the first mild steel ocean-going merchant steamer in the world. On its voyage out to New Zealand it broke records for sailing times for various ports. Capable of carrying 195 first class (saloon) passengers and 105 2nd class passengers, its crew complement numbered 53.

Upon arrival in New Zealand, the Rotomahana entered the intercolonial service - the trans-Tasman trade in today's parlance - until it was transferred to the interisland service between Wellington and Lyttelton.

Its speed & reduced sailing times combined with the rakish style of its funnel, sail yards, and its bow figurehead quickly made the Rotomahana a popular vessel with passengers and within the Union Steamship Company. While expensive compared to slower, iron ships it turned in strong profits immediately.

The Rotomahana entered the interisland ferry service between Wellington and Lyttelton in 1899 and stayed on the run until 1910. Subsequently it entered the Union Company's Tasmanian coastal service running to Launceston. It was scrapped in 1926.

According to the electoral rolls, in 1905, Joseph McLean was third engineer on the Rotomahana and was based in Lyttelton. Within a year or two he was promoted by the Union Company to chief engineer on its vessels operating in the New Zealand coastal trade such as the Kini and the Hawea.

In 1908 his skills as a marine engineer were tested to the limit by the Hawea's drifting dead-in-the-water for more than a month in the Tasman Sea before effecting sufficient repairs to the stern shaft to get the Hawea under power to return to port. This was followed barely two months later with the Hawea striking the bar at Greymouth and being dashed on North Head by breakers, eventually breaking apart.