Dealing With Cook Strait Stowaways - 1882

The SS Penguin Negotiating French Pass. Postcard view early 1900s

Star , Issue 4485, 8 September 1882, Page 3

"A couple of knowing travellers who thought they would get a cheap steamboat trip were very much deceived on the last run to Nelson of the s.s. Penguin from Wellington.

On the purser going his rounds to collect tickets as usual while the vessel was going down the harbour, two individuals, says the New Zealand Times, were found in the steerage who had no tickets, and who told the purser to go to a particularly warm place. He appealed to the captain and the chief officer, and they received from the intruders similar replies.

The skipper wasted no time in parleying. As the men would neither produce tickets nor money, and were still abusive, he slackened speed, put the men in a boat, their exit over the side being expedited by the remark of the burly and muscular chief officer that if they did not look sharp he'd help them along, and they were landed on the rocks at Pencarrow Head, with the cheerful prospect of night closing in, and a thirty-five miles walk before reaching Wellington.

Pencarrow Head, lighthouse on the cliff top (shoreline light built 1906). View looking north up harbour from outside entrance. Wellington city is in the far left top corner direction. Stowaways must walk the circumference of the harbour. Petre, photo, circa 1940s.

How they fared on the journey we do not know, but this effective method of dealing with stowaways seems infinitely better than detaining a vessel in port while the offenders get sentenced to a week's free board and lodging in gaol, after having had a free trip to the port they have desired to reach."

Pencarrow Head Lighthouse, Wellington Harbour entrance with steamer passing through harbour entrance, circa 1920s. Wellington City lies in a direct line beyond the line of sight of the lighthouse in this view but over the headland in the distance. Photographer unidentified. Alexander Turnbull Library collection.

Anyone who knows Wellington harbour, knows that's a very loooooooooooooooong, cold, and most likely windy walk. And that you can see your final destination for much of the way.

Footnote: The Penguin was to have a terrible fate. On 12 February 1909, a hundred years ago, the Penguin on a crossing from Nelson hit Thoms Rock at Cape Terawhiti outside Wellington Harbour. 72 of the 102 persons on board were lost, making the Penguin sinking New Zealand's worst maritime disaster in the twentieth century.

Richard Haydon's Chudleigh

Church Hill, Chudleigh, at the turn of the twentieth century.

Richard Haydon's father, Thomas, moved from Bradninch on the other side of Exeter, Devon, to Chudleigh, sometime between 1851 and 1861 according to England censuses.

In 1861, Thomas was 26 years old, married to Sarah Haydon (nee Ellis) and was living on Exeter Street with their one year old son, William. Sarah's sister, Jessie, rounded out the household. Thomas had been a shoemaker apprentice in Bradninch in 1851 but by 1861 was employed as a gardener in Chudleigh.

Richard was born two years later in 1863, being joined by younger siblings John, Elenor, Peter, and Ann in subsequent years. After basic schooling along with his brothers and sisters, Richard took up a carpentry apprenticeship.

Chudleigh was a small market town that had relied on the wool trade for its livelihood. When the wool trade declined as the demand for substitute fibres such as cotton increased during the industrial revolution, Chudleigh experienced a loss in trade and the population fell from around 2,400 in 1841 to 2108 in 1861.

With the prospects for improving one's standard of living in traditional trades in Chudleigh looking uncertain, one can speculate that a young, unmarried carpenter's imagination and ambition were receptive to the sales pitch of agents seeking new emigrants for Australasia. Thus, in early August 1883, Richard Haydon embarked upon a long voyage to better his circumstances by settling in New Zealand.

But Richard Haydon was never to forget his home town, years later naming his house in Clarence Road, Christchurch, New Zealand, "Chudleigh".

Greetings from Devon postcard.
A type of card Haydons remaining in Chudleigh might have mailed to Richard Haydon in the early 1900s.

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.

Picnic Time in Early New Zealand

With the picnic season well underway in New Zealand, here's a view of early picnicking at Whangaroa Heads during the Northern Steam Ship Company's Annual Summer Cruise that was popular among Aucklanders in the early 1900s.

Most Southern in the World #3 - Pilot Station, Bluff

click to enlarge
The Most Southern in the World Pilot Station, Stirling Point, Bluff NZ

Continuing with our "most southern in the world" series from the early 20th century, here is the pilot's station at Bluff, on the southern shores of the South Island of New Zealand. No doubt the station was a cosy spot for the harbour pilot waiting to go out to board a vessel needing to be piloted into Bluff Harbour.

A view along the shoreline to the pilot's station on the point as a vessel hoves into view.

Pilot station, now disused, in 2007

Standing as testament to those who built her, the now abandoned pilot station still stands on Stirling Point. Those wire guy ropes were there for a reason - the prevailing westerly winds often reach gale force in Foveaux strait, a treacherous, stormy stretch of water between the South Island and Stewart Island. Nevertheless, given its low situation, it's amazing that the station has not been washed away by high seas over the past one hundred years or more.

The Last Voyage of the Loch Lomond, July 1908 - Part 1

The sailing ships Loch Lomond and poop deck of her sister ship, Loch Katrine at Geelong, Victoria, Australia, circa 1887.

The barque Loch Lomond, a three masted sailing ship, was purchased by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand for ₤3,500 in May 1908. The Union Co. planned to either use the vessel as a training ship for its officer cadets or to convert it to a coal hulk to be positioned in Fiji. Determination of its future role hinged upon its arrival in Lyttelton, Canterbury from Australia where it had been berthed, at which time it would be assessed in competition with the Dartford, another sailing vessel the Union Co had purchased with similar intent.

The Loch Line, previous owner of the Loch Lomond, had a reputation as an “unlucky” line: 17 of its 25 vessel fleet over a half century sank in accidents, disappeared, were wrecked or torpedoed in oceans and ports around the globe. The Loch Line ran general cargo schedules between Glasgow and Adelaide, South Australia. By 1908, the Loch Lomond was 38 years old.

Captain C Angus, recently chief officer of the Union Co’s Maheno, was given his first – and as it turns out last – command. The vessel was refitted and sailed from Melbourne to Newcastle, NSW, Australia on June 6, 1908 to load a cargo of coal for Lyttelton.

On July 16, 1908, one hundred years ago today, the Loch Lomond sailed from Newcastle bound for Lyttelton, New Zealand. She and her crew were never seen again.