GUNBOAT FOR NEW ZEALAND

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 142, 2 October 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

GUNBOAT FOR NEW ZEALAND

(Sydney Herald , Sept. 15.) Some five or six months ngo, when the military commanders engaged in the Maori war had become aware of the necessity or great advantage of penetrating the centre of rebel Maoridom by effecting a passage up the rivers, it became a question of some difficulty as to how a boat capable of withstanding the assaults of the enemy, and at the same time of light draught and easy movement, could be obtained for navigating the tortuous and shallow streams. The New Zealand Government at once looked to New South Wales for such a vessel, and overtures were made through Mr. E. O. Morarity, the Engineers for Hirers and Harbours, who communicated with the Australasian Steam Navigation Company on the subject, and found them prepared to undertake the construction of a gunboat of the required description. Mr. T. Maearthur, the Company’s chief engineer, was entrusted with the work, and in something like seventeen weeks the vessel was afloat; being now ready to hand over to the agent of the New Zealand Government. Leaving out of notice the excellence of the workmanship, it must be a source of gratification to New South Wales that she has a firm capable of building a vessel like this to meet suen an urgent emergency, when we consider that it would take some sixteen or seventeen months to import one from the mother country. The gunboat No. 3, ns she is at present called, pending her formal nomination by the New Zealand authorities, will, no doubt, figure prominently in future contests with the Maoris. A Merrimac or Monitor she does not much resemble, but the Maori warriors will find that against them she is as formidable an antagonist as either of those celebrated ironclads was to the American combatants. She is an iron-built vessel, her length 140 feet, her breadth of beam 20 feet, her depth eight feet. She is flat-bottomed, and her depth of water, with 300 men and stores on board, is only about three feet. But she has centre-boards, by means of which her keel can be deepened to eight feet when necessary. She has non-condensing engines of 40-horse power, with tubular boilers of improved construction, to carry a pressure of sixty pounds to the inch ; and she is propelled by means of a stern paddle wheel, which has feathering floats. To some slight degree her progress is assisted by the discharge of exhausted steam at her stern. On the main deck she is fitted with two iron towers, twelve feet in diameter and eight feet elevation, pierced with slot for rifles, and also with ports for 12lb Armstrong guns. From the one

lower the vessel, if she should be boarded by the enemy, can be raked from the beam forward, and from the other from the beam aft. The engineroom aft is also constructed of iron, affording shelter.to the steersman and accommodation for riflemen. The commander will have a turret above his stern tower. The engines are entirely under deck, and every portion of the vessel can be shut against an enemy boarding her. Between decks there are five watertight compartment, but admitting of communication fore and aft, and accommodation for three or four hundred men. One noticeable peculiarity in her means of defence is that on the enemy attempting to board she can, by means of perforated pipes lying like a moulding along her side, pour upon them jets of boiling water or volumes of hot steam. She is schooner rigged, and does not present an ungraceful exterior —the iron, which is three-eighth inch plate, not being so heavy as to make her look cumbrous. Between decks she lias a patent noiseless fan, attached to a donkey engine, for the purpose of driving tho smoke from the towers. She carries twenty ton of coals in her bunkers, and consumes about three tons a day. She was built entirely under the superintendence of Mr. E. O. Moriarty, acting for the New Zealand Government, and practical men are of opinion that the engineering work is as finely finished as any’ imported from the mother country. Yesterday afternoon she left A.S.N. Co.’s wharf on a trial trip. There were about sixty gentlemen on board, including the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. the Secretary for Works, the Hon. Capt. Ward, the Hon. J. B. Watt, the Hon. C. Kemp, M.L.A., Mr. Dillon Bell (the agent for New Zealand), Mr. Richard Jones, &c. She proceeded down the harbor as far as Shark Point, thence round Cockatoo Island, and during her course attained a speed of nine knots an hour, whilst she turns, with a favorable wind, within her own length. In the handsome little cabin, for tho officers’ accommodation, some slight refreshment was provided, and on the return a few gentlemen assembled, and drank success to the gunboat and the British arms (proposed by the Hon. Mr. Watt) to which a response was given by Mr. D. Bell, on behalf of the New Zealand Government, and he passed some highly complimentary remarks upon the excellent manner in which the gunboat had been constructed.