Category Archives: 1900’s

Naomi III

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Naomi III

NAOMI III

According to the caption, this her being launched on 2 Sept, 1907 at the yard of Mr. C Bailey Jnr.

photo ex classicgameboatnz

Harold Kidd Update

NAOMI III was the third NAOMI owned by M.A. Jenny of Nelson, Auckland and Wanganui. She was 39’x10’x2’6″ and had a 20hp Gardner 2 cylinder petrol engine. Jenny was a most controversial figure during the years leading up to WW1. Nominally he was Swiss but there were suspicions he was an Austrian and a spy! He was quite a dashing wealthy figure and briefly was Commodore of the North Shore Yacht Club until he resigned in February 1903. He took this launch to Nelson but sold her in 1911 to Downes brothers of Wellington. From there she did the rounds, spending a lot of time in Tauranga game-fishing in the 1930s. I last heard of her she was in Lyttelton owned by John Sole in 2007. Chas. Bailey Jr also built NAOMI I (March 1902) and NAOMI II (November 1902) for Jenny. The latter was until recently to be seen on the hard at Panmure Yacht Club. 

PS Interesting cabin top. Bailey retained the dee-front separate cabin top but put his toe in the water with a raised foredeck as well. Truly a “transitional” style.

Arab

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ARAB

Now the caption says yacht but she looks more comfortable with the launch tag. The under-power photo is dated c.1900 & the moored one 1915.

photos ex ‘Sir George Grey Special Collections (Auckland Libraries)

Harold Kidd Update

You’ve got to worry about whoever wrote the captions to some of these recent postings. ARAB was built by Collings & Bell in September 1913 for John Ayling of Ponsonby and had a 3 cylinder 15hp Doman engine. She was 32’x8’6″. She used to winter at Henry Thode’s slip in Cox’s Creek.

Ayling sold her to W. Grundy of Onehunga in 1918-19 but she was brought back from the Manukau in the winter of 1920 by Bruce, Ferguson and Maude who raced her effectively with Ponsonby Cruising Club (see illustration on p83 of “Vintage NZ Launches”). In 1922 she was sold to Myrhe of Christchurch and shipped down. Later owners included C G Beaumont, under whose ownership she was in NAPS patrolling out of Lyttelton in WW2 as Z 127. In 1953 she was owned by M Cunningham of Lyttelton. She was alive (but not very well) until quite recently.

Grey Witch

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GREY WITCH

Given the budget & a free hand the old masters could create something pretty special, Grey Witch from the T M Lane yard must have turned a few heads + 24 knots. Would have look amazing at that speed.

photo ex ‘Sir George Grey Special Collections (Auckland Libraries)

Update ex Harold Kidd

This image is reversed. T M Lane & Sons built her for C.A. Whitney of the Colonial Ammunition Co in December 1905. CAC had done rather well out of supplying .303 ammunition for the Boer War. She was originally fitted with a single 50hp (rated) Monarch engine but that was replaced by twin Antoinette aircraft-type V8s of 55hp each in late 1907. They were English-made by Adams & Co and were set up in line to drive in tandem, the forward one being de-clutched for economy running.

In the image, Whitney is taking the current Governor-General Lord Plunket for a blast around the Waitemata. She caught fire in her shed at Ngapipi Road in December 1916 and was completely destroyed.

Update #2

She did 17 knots on the Monarch, 24 knots on the two V8s (reputedly). The forward V8 was taken out and kept as a spare but she still did 17 knots with just one. I am sad that there is no recording of the sound she made at max (1400) revs on the two 7 litre side valve 90 degree Antoinettes, 2 V8s wuffling away like caged lions.The Adams-built Antoinettes had a reputation for breaking crankshafts but that doesn’t seem to have afflicted Grey Witch.

PS The Antoinettes had an early form of fuel injection which makes sense in an aircraft engine.

Nga Toa & Queenie

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Nga Toa & Queenie

Nga Toa & Queenie

Two old classic’s – only one of which has survived.
Queenie C1 – Logan Bros 1904. Currently moored at Whangaroa, Northland.
Nga Toa A17 – wrecked in Wellington in the 1980’s.

Location – Tauranga?

Harold Kidd Update: 

Probably during the Tauranga Regatta that followed the Auckland-Tauranga race during the 30s.

photo ex Roger Guthier

Elsie Evans

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ELSIE EVANS

details & photos from Bob McDougall & the Timaru Herald

Timaru’s first pilot boat, the ELSIE EVANS, a 1901 Bailey (13m x 2.4m) has been relaunched into the Otago Harbour after a very long $500,000+ rebuilding / restoration project that saw her spend 59 years on land.

The ELSIE EVANS was built by Auckland firm Charles Bailey Jr, as the first pilot boat for the Timaru Harbour Board and as a replacement for its paddle-tug MANA.

It was launched on December 31, 1901, and named after the wife of the harbour board chairman at the time, William Evans.

The boat’s main tasks were to tow small craft, tend the big steamers, take the health officer out to deep-sea sailing vessels and carry the pilots.

Those were roles it continued until 1927, when it was sold to Captain Percy Moss, of the Portobello Railway and Ferry Co.

From 1928, it was used as a launch to tow barges, carry freight, and ferry passengers when the company’s other ferries TAREWAI and WAIREKA were out of service.

In 1944, it took over from the TAREWAI and regularly sailed the 2.4 kilometers between Portobello and Port Chalmers, carrying up to 37 passengers.

It was a role it continued in until 1954.

Life for the old launch took a turn for the worse after that. While several owners had big plans for the boat, nothing happened and it was sitting in a paddock when the South Canterbury Historical Society bought it for $1200 in 1997.

B/W photo above (ex Bob McDougall ) show ELSIE EVANS being brought to Dunedin’s Birch Street wharf from its long-time mooring at Ravensbourne, on 1 September 1962, and taken by road to Waihola, where it languished there and later with other owners/other places, for decades.

It is planed that passengers (exact number subject to a stability test) would be allowed on ELSIE EVANS by January after she has passed her survey

View TV news article on the launching here

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/century-old-boat-back-water-video-5527794

Check out in the posting below this post, of the 2011 mini movie by Simon East backgrounding the history & restoration, stunning footage of the Otago Harbour.

Elsie Evans – Timaru’s first pilot boat

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ELSIE EVANS

Check out this 2011 mini movie by Simon East backgrounding the history & restoration of the ‘Elsie Evans’, the 1902 Charles Bailey Jnr. built Timaru pilot boat. Some stunning footage of the Otago Harbour.

Then read the posting above for more details + relaunch photos.

Rehutai (the steamer)

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REHUTAI (the steamer)
 story & photo ex Russell Ward
Here is a ship with some class.
The steamer Rehutai built for and owned (and I guess engineered) by Seagars. Who built her and when she was launched, I will leave for Harold to advise. There were several Rehutais. Scroll down to the previous post to view another.
I would imagine that she had the old faithful tandem/steeple compound that was Seagars’ stock in trade and they would have been quite capable of doing the boiler too, so I guess they did.
The first of the two pictures show her embarking and taking Lord Plunket for a jolly on the harbor. He was Governor in 1905 so that is as good a date as any. The next shows the container ship Iris moored in the harbour. You can see the craneship Mahua and some good ships around the Iris.
BUT what is this on the foreshore? A steamboat funnel? Is it the Rehutai of my dreams?
A chance glance at one of the pictures in the Matakohe museum revealed that the Rehutai was burned out at Whangaruru and lost. The records show that there was a Rehutai that was diseaslied with 50hp engines in 1934 –not sure if it is the same ship.
Bear in mind that there was an other Rehutai that became the Hauraki –looked a little like the steamer in passing. Again, I will leave to Harold to unravel.
Harold Kidd Update:
There were 3 Seagar Bros-owned REHUTAI steamers. The first was a 36 footer built for them by Bailey & Lowe in 1905. The second was a 45 footer built in April 1905 by Chas. Bailey Jr. (the one in the images above) which was sold the Government in 1910 for work at Thames and the Piako River. She had a 30hp steam engine designed and built by Seagars. The third REHUTAI was a 50 footer built by Chas Bailey Jr in December 1909 with a 35hp compound tandem engine. She was dieselised in 1926. The image on the Devonport foreshore is REHUTAI (II) with the Logan launch KARORO in front of her.

Of course it was this launch (REHUTAI II) that became HAURAKI in the ownership of the Government Lands Dept. and got dieselised in 1934.
Update from Chris Leech:
The floating crane picture looks more like the Auckland Harbour Boards floating crane – Hapai. Seen below uplifting the Devonport Ferry Co.’s Ticket office before relocating it to its new home as the Devonport yacht Club , clubrooms. C.1927. photo ex DYC centennial year book
Pages from DYC Cent Club PDF

‘John Doe’ – awaiting more info on this vessel

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Story & ‘newer’ photo ex Baden Pascoe

I have just received a heap of scanned photos from Barbara Weatherley (nee
Walling, yes the famous little Barbara W is named after her). In the album
they say this launch is “Virginia” at Mayor Is. Looks a lot like Rongo
before she was lengthened. I have a hunch the Owens Family (Bob Owens the
Tauranga freight mogul had something to do with her).Very nice looking boat.

Update & ‘as launched’ photo from Harold Kidd

Charlie Millett was a boatbuilder and launch skipper in Tauranga in the 1930s. He specialised in “modernising” launches by building up the foredecks on old low hulls. VIRGINIA started life being built by Tyler & Harvey in Auckland in November 1909 as a 35ft cruiser for the well-known sporting shop proprietor W.H. Hazard. Hazard often took her to the Bay of Islands and was one of the pioneers of big game fishing there. VIRGINIA made the headlines when she was attacked by a swordfish in 1918 and had to be beached for temporary repairs.
In 1925 Hazard sold her to U S citizens (Zane Grey & co?). John Mowlem of Tauranga  had her in 1930 and kept her in service taking out game fishing parties, with Charlie Millett as skipper. It was found that the bash out to Mayor Island made her very wet so Charlie was employed to rebuild her. He did the same to many other launches including the Logan Bros SEVERN.

We have have some confusion – 

After reviewing the photos above HK thinks there may have been a mix up in the caption on the photo/s. Harold has sent in a photo of Virginia taken by Charlie Millett on his slip at Tauranga in 1929. All he’s done by then is to extend the decks with hardwood beltings and install washboards to hold 2 swordfish.

Harold thinks she’d grown the tramtop under Hazard’s ownership and possibly the low bulwarks forward. There’s talk in NZY of Ernie Harvey modifying the cabintop in June 1910.

Baden’s image is very much later and shows that there appear to have been truly major changes since the 1929 pic, not the least of which is that her canoe stern has become a transom stern!

Now that’s all entirely possible, but I don’t have the photo I thought I had of her after Charlie raised the foredeck.

Therefore, logically,

  1. Millett very substantially rebuilt VIRGINIA as above or
  2. The caption in the Barbara Weatherley album is wrong and Baden’s image is of another boat.

Can anyone shed some light on this ??

New Zealand’s Finest Yacht – Rawhiti

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New Zealand's Finest Yacht

Click the link below to view the magnificent restoration of the Logan designed & built – Rawhiti, . Article is as it appeared in the UK Classic Boat magazine. Click bottom left or right side of ‘pages’ to turn. Also clicking on the page will enlarge it (to read text).

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1vnw3/ClassicBoatFebruary2/resources/30.htm

Ngatira

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NGATIRA
Designed & built by Chas Bailey Jnr. 1904

One of the many things I like about Steve Horsley (Ngatira)is he does not hold back on putting his pride & joy into the nasty stuff, but when you have rebuilt her with your own two hands, you can back the workmanship. To view the story of Ngatira’s restoration click on this link, its a great tale.