The story below & photos above from Ken Rickets is the accumulation of over 65 years of one mans fascination with this vessel. It all started when Ken was 10 years old & saw her on her moorings, adjacent to the huge flying boat hanger & apron, at Hobsonville Air Force base. This one off experience moved Ken enough to see him for the next 65 years constantly making enquiries & researching the vessel. In 2001 Ken meet with a retired WWII air force officer, who was stationed on her during her wartime service, the officer gave Ken many of the photos above. Then more recently chats with Mr Allright Jnr. the second member of that family to own her, they had her in total for 40 years, & Mr Keith Bellingham who owned her from the mid 1990s to early 2000s provided enough additional insight for Ken to put together this wonderful story about a vessel that spearheaded our WWII air force coastal maritime defenses.
(Note: Harold Kidd accompanied Ken Ricketts when he met with the retired air force officer & may be able to add more details from that encounter)
Read below & enjoy. Alan H
THE STORY OF W1 – as told by Ken Ricketts
W1 was one of 2 identical boats ordered by the RNZAF during WWII for coastal defence duties & they were named W1 & W2.
W1 arrived circa 1939 from England, where she was designed & built to a Scott Payne design.
W2 never got here, the ship that was transporting her to NZ, was torpedoed & sunk, on the way out from the UK.
W1 was powered by 3 x W12 x 1000HP (3 banks of 4 cylinders) marinised Napier Lion aircraft engines, marinised by “Power Marine” in UK. — refer photo. The engines were configured with one either side & one in the centre facing forward, & driving through a Vee drive as there was not enough width to have the 3 engines side by side.
Such was the layout, power & performance of this boat, that it required an engineer to be seated in a padded chair in the engine room with massive ear muffs, whenever she went out, with a fire extinguisher in his hand. He also also had to control all engine controls including throttles & reverse levers, which were huge long steel arms standing vertical on the gear boxes of the engines.
On her maiden voyage, after she arrived, it was decided, I am told, that they would go for a run to Tiri, to “try her out,” but such was her petrol consumption that they ran out of fuel at Rangitoto Lighthouse.
While W1 was a “one off” for NZ & in her day, capable of very high speeds (I was told she could do over 50 knots), as evidenced by the photos — not bad for a 64 feet vessel. There were a total of 21 of these craft built & 3 of the early boats went to South Africa & were fitted with 2 Rolls Royce aircraft engines of bigger horsepower than the Napier Lions, but Hubert Scott-Payne had a disagreement with RR & they refused to supply any more engines for the boats, hence the change to Napier Lions.
A smaller 42 foot version was built later & there is one of these in a military museum in the South Island.
She is substantially made of spruce & mahogany & the bridge was more like the flight deck of an aircraft.
I saw her many times after WWII, on her moorings adjacent to the flying boat base & slipway, at Hobsonville airport, when cruising with my parents, Ralph & Wyn Ricketts on their first boat, JULIANA, (1946-49). — I never actually saw her going anywhere, (just wish I had), but obviously she did so, however I think she had almost no use, after the war, until they eventually sold her which I think was circa late 40s or early 50s.
She had a very impressive side exhaust system just above the waterline amidships, with 2 groups of 3 exhaust outlets one side & 1 group of 3 outlets the other side. — Have not seen many boats around that have that layout.
After the war, she was eventually sold in 1955 by tender to Mr Norm Allright, who lived in Mt Wellington, on the banks of the Panmure River, not far upstream from my parents waters edge home, at No 1 Bridge St Panmure, they could see her from their lounge windows.
Mr Allright Snr., refurbished her to a degree, for pleasure use, when he bought her off the air force & called her “CAROMA”, he also replaced the 3 Napier Lions with a matched pair of counter rotating 671 GM Detroit diesels, she still went well, as you can see in the photos. Later Mr Allright Jnr. did a splendid job totally & massively refurbishing her in the early 1960s, see photo.
She was sold in the mid 1990s to a Mr Keith Bellingham, who had intended to do a major refasten of her hull, along with other significant work, which was in serious need of attention, however, it proved not to be cost effective & he onsold her to a man in Tauranga, who in turn sold her later to a Waiheke owner, in the later 1990s & she was moored at Waiheke at that time.
She later still, sat on a marina at Bayswater, looking very neglected & painted purple, with her beautiful cabin top, as per the photo above, removed, & generally in a serious state of disrepair, apparently, & she was there until a couple of years or so ago.
I beleive she was taken to the Silverdale industrial area after that & has been moved now, to a private property, address at the moment unknown.
Any info on her current whereabouts would be appreciated.
Harold Kidd Update
Ken is substantially right on all points. However there was a W2, a 28 footer that had been built for the NZ Permanent Air Force for use at Hobsonville to service its DH Gipsy Moth and Fairey IIIF seaplanes. There’s a good book on the subject “The Golden Age of N Z Flying Boats” by Harrison, Lockstone & Anderson. The RNZAF’s W numbering really only started after W1 arrived in 1940.
One of her first tasks was get to the NIAGARA which struck a German mine off the Hen & Chickens on 19th June 1940. The Whangarei launches, Florence among them, were on the scene first but the skipper of W1 ordered them by radio to keep away, ostensibly because of the minefield but really because he wanted the glory of getting there first. The Whangarei boats had towed the ship’s lifeboats clear however by the time W1 arrived, leaving her with only 20 people to bring back to Auckland.
Norman Allright bought her in 1948. She is now called CARROMA.
Nobody ever claimed more than 38 knots for her or her type.
Update – 10/08/2014 from Ken Ricketts
In the original post on W1 Ken spoke of the engineer that had to be seated in the engine room with ear muffs to supervise & control the engines & of course to guard against a fire. In the photo below you will see the engineer’s chair in front of the centre engine (3x Napier Lion 1000 HP W12’s each being 3 banks of 4 cylinders).
& the 3 leavers with the black round knobs on each one surrounding the chair. Note the centre engine is sloping forward to drive in to the vee drive unit. The noise must have been unimaginable when they were flat out.
Gearbox photos below show an original vee drive gear box that were fitted to all centre engines with the Napier Lion W12 engines.
Also one photo shows the original engine installation concept of a WI – with the 3 Napier Lion 1000 HP W 12 (3 banks of 4 cylinders) configuration engines.
The photo of the interior of the large boat shed with several boats under construction was taken at Hyde Southampton, U.K. where the British Powerboat Company owned by Hubert Scott-Payne was sited & where all the W1 family of boats were built.
Photo also of Scott-Payne the 1930’s designer of the W1.
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I understood Dicky Coughlan’s 40+ fter Ferro (Portland Cement pilot boat) was claimed to be the first on the scene leaving from Portland wharf, Whangarei… Narratives lost in history mb 🙃😉
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I understand that on the way back to Auckland W1 passed the Navy ML’s still on their way out to the site. Also W1 created a record for Hobsonville to Patea.
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It may well be Harold.
The mane point to Tim would be not to disturb them i think….
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A Pride?
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I heard a tale about three Napier Lion engines lying under a hedge somewhere in Auckland.
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W1 nowIs back on the water and living at Bayswater with new cabin top and looks like a exterior paint job and fittout. I I
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Hi Nigel
W1 has appeared many times on ww, look using the ww search box & you will see all about her. If the photo is the same one you sent Ken Ricketts from Issy Bay – I have it, but its too grainy to use & also shows nothing new 🙂
Any other classics out & about?
Alan
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Hi
I’m moored next to a spectacular W1.
I hope to have a chat with the skipper tommorow.
Who do I email the photo to?
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Anyone got a machine gun?
Its a small world, Paul Beachman was given one of the machine gun mounts off W1’s fore-deck (photo below) & he has very generously gifted it to W1’s current owner.
Paul has also made available to ww readers a journal (50pages) that belonged to his uncle, ‘Borrie Beachman’, that records the 1940 voyage of W1 (named ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’ then) from Auckland to Wellington, its a great read. Should be up on ww in the next few weeks. It might be best if I run it on a wet weekend as it will ruin your day, in terms of doing anything else 🙂
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That would be fab Alan,– must have been having a “senior moment,” when I read it, I was so excited.– Cheers – K
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Ken
Borrie has long ago passed away, if you read the comment you would see it is from Paul Beachman – The log is 48 pages, a tad too many to scan. As the crow flies, Paul lives less than 50 yards from me. If he wants to share some of the the log , I can photograph.
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Borrie, that is fantastic!!!
Could you possibly scan & email the log to me, at kenpat@ihug.co.nz or alternatively, email me with your phone number, so we can sort something out. As you will know, if you have read the story, this has been a lifetime study for me, since I was 10 years old, in 1946, so would be thrilled to see what you have. —
KEN R
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I have Borrie Beachman’s unofficial log written for the crew only, of W 1’s trip from Hobsonville to Wellington from the 8th to the 18th October 1940 where she is named Kathleen Mavourneen. Written in pencil in a “Graphic” school exercise book it is a 48 page saga full of observations of the vessel’s performance, the crew’s antics, and the way they were received at places like the Mercuries, Slipper Island, Tauranga, Hicks Bay, Gisborne,Castlepoint and ultimately Wellington.
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I agree about the speed 50 knots is extremely fast.
38 is still damn fast.
I was Mate on Condor 10 a Cook Strait fast ferry in the mid nineties and we used to fly at about 37-44 depending on the tide.
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Hi the man who had her in Tauranga was Gary Bremer , my Uncle, and I have fond memories of trips on her (and plenty of maintenance on her) in my summer holidays as a teenager and my early twenties.
Dave Mathieson
UK
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My father, Robert Farrell (Bob) served on W1 during the war. He was also the original owner of Maka Maile, which is also featured in Woodys. I also recall him telling me that the boat could do 50 knots. During the war the boat was at one time based in Wellington. My father told me 2 stories about this time. One was that while crossing Cook Strait in rough conditions the skipper of W1 drove the boat too hard for the conditions, leap off a big wave and nose dived into another with such force that the front windows were smashed in. Lots of sea water flooded in and the vessel had to turn around and return to Wellington at much reduced speed. He also told me that the only “action” she saw during the war was to respond to the sighting of a Japanese submarine, which they depth charged. Apparently it was probably unsuccessful as my father reported no debris came to the surface.
Ken Farrell
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W1 back in the water Sunday, 14th December, 2014.
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Ken
The platform the blog runs on is able to track almost everything. Views by day, by country etc. I don’t publish specific data but seeing you ask, see below.
In terms of waitematawoody readers the W1 story was / is very niche e.g. it appeared in Sept 2013 & between then & now it has been viewed 257 times. Todays W1 update was viewed 23 times. As a comparison todays Lady Ava story was viewed by people 2,256 times.
At the end of the day one of the sites success factors is the diverse mix of material, I do not pay much attention to daily stats, its best to view by weekly chunks.
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Allan are you able to tell if the latest chapter & new photos on W1 have been found by many readers yet? — KEN R
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Great to see this latest addition to the W1 story in place — thanks so much for getting it in there Alan, — just hope now the W1 followers will find it ok. — I was certainly most impressed personally with the engine room pic. –KEN RICKETTS
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AN EXCITING UPDATE; I have been in touch with Mr Jeff Hicks the senior officer in Radio Spectrum Management, which allocates all official & special NZ call signs, (some via Coastguard) who has taken on board a search for the original WW II radio call sign for W1, & has co -opted the help of the his counterpart ,the appropriate person in the military who looks after military call signs, & between them & they’re leaving no stone unturned to unearth it. If found Mr Hicks has already pre-approved it;s issue if not at present in use, to W1 for the life of the boat — FANTASTIC — theowner as rapt!! — KEN RICKETTS
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Francis how fabulous — my email is kenpat@ihug.co.nz & my cell phone is 021 988 919 — would really love to talk to you a lot — is she in Silverdale area? — I live in Stanmore Bay. — KEN RICKETTS
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I am the current owner and just finishing a major refurbishment – while not restoring to its original specification I am taking W1 back to a design more sympathetic to its years. I’ll be happy to take you through the boat when it’s completed – let me know your contact details. Cheers, Francis
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Dave Jackson, knows all about these boats at his father was crew – Marine Section at the Hobsonville Apron.
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Last pic (crew standing on deck) was on famous trip from Auckland overnighting in Gisborne. Third from left, Borrie Beachman (a well-known’ mullety’) remembers that on the trip to Wellington they took out Gisborne fishermen, caught hapuka, but only used one of 3 boat’s engines because full fuel consumption was huge.
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Ken is substantially right on all points. However there was a W2, a 28 footer that had been built for the NZ Permanent Air Force for use at Hobsonville to service its DH Gipsy Moth and Fairey IIIF seaplanes. There’s a good book on the subject “The Golden Age of N Z Flying Boats” by Harrison, Lockstone & Anderson. The RNZAF’s W numbering really only started after W1 arrived in 1940.
One of her first tasks was get to the NIAGARA which struck a German mine off the Hen & Chickens on 19th June 1940. The Whangarei launches, Florence among them, were on the scene first but the skipper of W1 ordered them by radio to keep away, ostensibly because of the minefield but really because he wanted the glory of getting there first. The Whangarei boats had towed the ship’s lifeboats clear however by the time W1 arrived, leaving her with only 20 people to bring back to Auckland.
Norman Allright bought her in 1948. She is now called CARROMA.
Nobody ever claimed more than 38 knots for her or her type.
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Looks as if she could give Raindance a run for her money….
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