SHIPS AND THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 120, 22 May 1937, Page 25

SHIPS AND THE SEA

(By "Spi

Today the black hulls, white upperworks, and buff funnels of the steamers and motor-ships of the New Zealand Shipping Company are familiar in the main ports throughout the Dominion, but the great fleet of today was built from small beginnings. The big 17,000----ton passenger liners, and the large, fast cargo boats, were developed; step by step from the white-winged ships that were the forerunners of mechanised ocean' travel.

The company, was founded and registered in Christchurch in 1873. They were not, howeyer, the pioneer line, as the New Zealand Freight Companyhad been founded in 1872, but the later company incorporated the former one, and their flag was then a white ground with the letters N.Z. over S. Co. in'blue; and their fleet consisted entirely of sailing ships trading between England and New Zealand. These ships are now but a memory; yet they definitely founded, a trade that later led the> way to the fleet of today. The early sailing ships transported many thousands of colonists, and records show that in the first three years of their career some 28,500 were carried.

Their first, shipment of frozen, meat from New.. Zealand' was made by one of their sailing ships, the Mataura, in 1883, and the carcasses were brought to the ship and frozen on board, ahd from this little beginning has "grown the immense industry, in refrigerated car-goes-of today. .

Ope,cannot give the histories or even the history of one of these pioneer ships in a short article, but let us take a glance at the Orari later on.

Their,, first ship was they Hindustan, of 830 tons, which arrived, towards the end of 1873. She was followed by other bought-in ships, .which were renamed, such as the Waitara, Waimea, Rangitiki,, and Mataura. The company was by now growing up and other vessels specially built for the trade in Sunderland on the 'Wear were added to the fleet: the Rakaia, Waitangi, Waimate, Orari, Hurunui, Paiko, Opawa, etc. These were augmented by boughtin ships such as the; White Eagle, renamed Pareora, and,: the City of Perth, which became the.-Turakina.,

The Orari was'aniron1 ship built in 1875 by Palmer .iand Co., of Newcastle, .England,' yand she -was-of 1011 tons net and 1051 tons gross. Her dimensions were: dLength 204 ft lin, beam 34ft 2in, depth 20ft. A small ship as reckoned by the tonnage of modern vessels, yet nevertheless a fair-sized ship of her day. After, her, long life with the company she was sold to J. Moran Irvine and Co., of Liverpool, in 1889, and was then shortened down to- a barque. Itn -1906 - was resold to Italian own?H for £2350, and in 1919 was, converted into a hulk and finally was broken up in Italy in 1910. She

THE GROWTH OF A GREAT FLEET

EARLY DAYS IN COLONIAL TRADE

made some 18 successful voyages to New Zealand and served a very useful life of some 35 years. There must be many people in New Zealand who still remember hsving travelled'in her, and who can call to mind such captains' as Mosey, Barclay, Fox, Miller, and Keen, etc. A life she had free of accidents except a small fire in her after section, while in the West India Docks, and she served the company consistently and well. Her best passage was in 1875, London to Lyttelton—pilot to pilot in 84 days.

It was not until the year 1879 that the New Zealand Shipping Company started to use "stedm" with the chartered steamer Stad Harlem. She carried some 600 emigrants, and again in 1883 two steamers were chartered, fhe British King and the British Quean,

both of 3560 tons, and from then onwards a regular service of steamers was maintained, says the "Lloyd Mail." It would be about 1884 that, having secured a mail contract, five steamers of about 4300-4350 tons were built; they were the Tongariro, Aorangi, Ruapehu, Rimutaka, and Kaikoura, all having a clipper bow and being barque rigged and built to carry a good quantity of canvas. The outward journey was made via the Cape of Good Hope and the -homeward one via Cape.Horn. There! followed on these steamers in 1891 the Ruahine, a, brig rigged steamer, with: a straight stem, and from .the pictures of these ships one cari see the gradual change in shape and fig from sail to steam. ■' V • , . :

In; 1899; larger vessels were built and, added; to the fleet, the Paparoa ■' and; Papaniii,. each of. about 6550 tons; thesei in their turn were followed by the Remuera, of 11,159 tons, Ruahine- IL of 11,000 tons, Ruapehu H, of 8907 tons,; and, Hororata, of 11,243 tons. In 1914 the.Panama Canal was opened and was used by the company., Oil: has; now taken the place of coal, and the, recent'motor steamers bring the fleet up to date. „';'"■

There 'were, of course, many other vessels that have not been named, but enough haye- been mentioned-to indicate the gradual transformation from, early sail to the latest model -in'•'■'ocean; liners. ..-.;..•...