KURI
photos & details ex Raymond Morey

Previously on ww there was some chat about the an old tug and barge that used to lay in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island. Ray advises the tug ‘Kuri’ & the barge was ‘Waiti’, which was built as the 78′ schooner rigged scow ‘May’ by Davy Darroch in 1898. They both lay at Frank Hooks place, the little brown cottage virtually on the beach, around from the Mansion House & were ultimately sold to Bert Subritzky.
Ray does not know the history of Kuri but in regard the above photo’s, the coloured one Ray took when she first went back in the water after a long rebuild and was running day fishing parties out of Whangaroa some 12 years ago. The white ones are of her in the Marlborough Sounds and in trade-a-boat.
Ray does know that Kuri was in Fiji during the war, her skipper then was Roy Taylor, and she had a direct reversing Fairbanks-Morse engine that was still in her when Frank owned her. She later had an L3 series Gardner.
In Rays eyes the flat white all over paint job does nothing for her looks 😉
What do we know about Kuri & what became of her?

Input from Barry Davis

“I can give some details of this vessel, but there are some gaps.

Kuri was built in 1929 by W. G. Lowe & Sons for Richardson & Co. as a tug towing lighters at the port of Napier. She was requisitioned in 1942 for use by the RNZAF. I don’t know much of her history after W.W.II, I first came across her in 1963 at Kawau when she was then renamed Altona. Sometime in the 1960’s she was acquired by Mc Callum Bros and renamed Kuri, and used as a tug towing their shingles barges from McCallum’s Island to their shingle depot in St Marys Bay. Her dimensions were 38.66’ x 11.4’ x 4.08’.

The b/w photo was taken at Kawau on 27 January 1963, the colour photo of her in McCallum’s ownership has her on Shipbuilders Ltd. slipway and was taken 13 June 1971.”

01–1-2016 Input from Baden Pascoe

Kuri was built by WG Lowe in 1929 for Richardsons of Napier as a lighter tug
(There are two books written about this small shipping company). She was
designed by Herbert Levi.  Her next owner was Frank Hook who used her for
barge work around the Hauraki Gulf. Frank ran the operation by himself and
had a ghost crew member to keep the Marine Dept off his back. He re powered
her with the 6L3 Gardner that she still has. She was sold to McCallum Bros
in 1961 and the photo below is of her with the barge Ann ex scow Havoc.
Havoc was a big scow, not far off 90′ O.L. Alec Pascoe often skippered her
and this photo may have been taken by him. If any Woodies followers have any
photos of her during her working days, Baden would like be keen to view them.