WAIRURU & LADY JOCELYN
Last Sunday I posted a copy of a 1947 trip diary from aboard the vessel Wairuru on its passage to Apia, Samoa. We had no photos of the boat & reading the diary the author (unknown) had made her sound like a yacht / motorsailer, HDK very quickly corrected me on that J
Now thanks to Baden Pascoe & Geoff Brebner we have photos of Wairuru. Baden describes her as a small motor coaster, a friend of Baden’s, Keith Penny, was her skipper for a while. She was powered by a Kelvin K3. Wairuru was designed by Erine Bailey of Charles Bailey in 1937.
In Geoff’s photos, Wairuru is alongside at Waitakaruru, on the Firth of Thames. Geoff lives less than 1 kilometer from the spot. Geoff’s 2nd photo is of the Lady Jocelyn with Wairuru lying ahead of her at Hobson Wharf c.1946. Both ships were almost sister ships, Wairuru was 52’ & Lady Jocelyn being 60’.
Link to the diary mentioned above here https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/10/08/wairuru-auckland-to-suva-1947/
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As a lad I rember the Lady Jocelyn coming to Tiarua on a weekly turnaround. My parents resided next to the jetty. This was in the late 1940s and early 50ss
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Incredible to see the Lady Jocelyn is still here…she used to bring our supply’s into a Tairua when we were kids,great memories of of the whole school [12 in all ] running down to the wharf to see her unload
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Some one told me that either Lady Jocelyn or Wairuru was see in Western Samoa as a floating storage shed in the late 1990’s. One of these boats may still exist. I tried to find out about this with their marine department, but they showed very little interest.
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Going back to the WAIRURU, she was sold up to Western Samoa in 1947, renamed and is recorded as being wrecked in 1953,but I believe that may not have been the end of her.Let’s go back to Shed 26 on Hobson Wharf, she and LADY JOCELYN berthed eastern side and on the western side was Strongman’s COROMEL and astern of her was Thames Sea Service’s MARETANA built by Strongman but replaced on the Coromandel trade by the steel COROMEL.I can recall a conversation with the late Percy Syddall of Coromandel who had worked many years for Strongmans on both vessels.He had family links in W. Samoa and told me he found on a visit to the Apia waterfront the three little wooden ships all tied up together just like in distant Auckland. The LADY JOCELYN went there in 1962 and the MARETANA IN 1963. Which makes me wonder, did the WAIRURU live to fight another battle ?. No doubt they would have now long ceased to exist.
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This has turned into a really good post. Well done, Alan
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my great uncle Harry Carey owned Lady Jocelyn.when he sold her he and Uncle Mark steamed her up to the islands where she was sold too.Some time later after a storm she was found floating upside down with the loss of all crew.
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In the Hobson Wharf image, Capt Harry Carey can be seen driving the cargo winch and his engineer brother Mark Carey is on the wharf sending cargo down. Two rellies of mine both served in the ship, cousins Ray Bronlund and Merv Rix. Three of my sisters at different times all worked in shipping offices in the adjacent Launchmens Building, now part of the Maritime Museum complex.
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This is LADY JOCELYN II, strictly speaking. Capt Carey’s first LADY JOCELYN (ex LOMEN) had been built on the Kaipara by R. Thompson in 1910 and used as a cream launch by the Northern Wairoa Dairy Co until 1933 when Carey bought her.
LADY JOCELYN II foundered off Motuihe when she struck a reef in 1942. She was raised and resumed her service to Tairua, Whitianga and Port Charles.
The first LADY JOCELYN was broken up in 1937 when the Bailey boat was launched.
Both boats were named after the immigrant ship LADY JOCELYN.
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