GLYN BIRD
photos from Russell Ward, Dean Wright,Baden Pascoe,trademe
details from Russell Ward,Baden Pascoe,Ken Ricketts
Built 1909 by Ernie Lane, 54ft long.
Was owned by Parry Bros the tug & scoria people for many years, from the 1930s through till at least the 1972-73.
She is most likely still powered by a 1956, 150h.p., 8 cyl in line, 8L3 Gardner diesel.
She was originally used for a good number of years as the “rubbish boat” by Parrys, collecting & disposing at sea of rubbish from visiting overseas & coastal ships to the Port of Auckland. She was later converted to a tug in the 1950s & used extensively for towing shingle barges from Kaiawa to Auckland, ferrying shingle from the quarry there.
She was converted to a tug by R Lidgard, who also replaced the original little wheelhouse with a larger replacement in the 1950s, now missing (refer below).
She was eventually laid up at Herald Island for quite a period & eventually sold by Parrys, & was sold either by them, or by others in-between, to Russell Ward, who used her for pleasure use.
In Russell’s words “I salvaged her from Herald Island on a stormy night and got her to Westpark where she was slipped and major hull repairs done. I then did a walking refurbishment over about 8 years but it was not a restoration”. Russell had a long love affair with her that ended about three years ago (2010) when he sold her to a Nelson fisherman. During this period she caught fire (wheelhouse) on the hard at Tarakohe.
Glyn Bird has now ended up in the B.O.I. & is for sale on trademe.
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 