Minerva (1910 ship)

Last updated
Minerva
Minerva about 1911.jpg
Minerva about 1911
History
OwnerClevedon Steam Navigation Company Limited
Builder Charles Bailey junior
Launched10 December 1910
General characteristics
Tonnage21 tons
Length65 ft (20 m)
Beam15 ft (4.6 m)
Draught3 ft 10 in (1.17 m)
Installed powerTwin 14 hp (10 kW) steam engines by Fraser & Sons
Speed9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Capacity176 in river, 117 in extended limits

Minerva was a 21-ton, [1] kauri-built, [2] steam passenger ferry, launched for Clevedon Steam Navigation Company Limited at the Freemans Bay yard of Charles Bailey on 10 December 1910, to link Auckland with Whitford and Howick. [3] A social for the new ship was held at Whitford on 16 January 1911. [4]

When road competition made the service uneconomic, [5] she was put up for sale in 1921. [2] In 1922 she was damaged when a crane fell on her. [6] Later that year she was sold to Charles West, [7] who owned a sawmill at Helensville and used her to tow logs across Kaipara Harbour. [8] She had a stormy passage to Kaipara and initially had to put in to Manukau Harbour. [9] She was again put up for sale in 1944. [10]

She then became a fishing boat, a houseboat [11] (she was on the Hātea River in 1984) [12] and an America's Cup viewing boat, until, in 2010, [11] she was given to the Kerikeri Steam Trust for restoration. [13] In 2019 she was moved by road from Kerikeri to Opua. [14] 1940s Sisson marine compound steam engines were found to power her twin screws, [15] as her twin Fraser & Sons 14 hp (10 kW) engines [16] were removed when she was converted to diesel after her 1944 sale. [15] W Sisson & Co was a Gloucester engineering firm from 1889 to 1958, when it became part of Belliss and Morcom. [17] A 70 hp (52 kW) Sisson engine, from the minesweeper Oceanid, arrived in 2020 from Seattle. Another Sisson engine (8-inch high-pressure, 16-inch low-pressure cylinder, 8-inch stroke) arrived in 2022 from Lake Constance.

Minerva is currently being restored for use in the Bay of Islands. In April 2024, a 6-tonne boiler, made by Lyttelton Engineering, was delivered to Opua. It is planned that she will provide tourist trips between Russell and Opua, connecting with the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitianga</span> Town in Waikato, New Zealand

Whitianga is a town on the Coromandel Peninsula, in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is located on Mercury Bay, on the northeastern coast of the peninsula. The town has a permanent population of 6,540 as of June 2024, making it the second-largest town on the Coromandel Peninsula behind Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viaduct Harbour</span> Suburb in Auckland, New Zealand

Viaduct Harbour, formerly known as Viaduct Basin, is a former commercial harbour on the Auckland waterfront that has been turned into a development of mostly upscale apartments, office space and restaurants. It is located on the site of a formerly run-down area of the Freemans Bay / Auckland CBD waterfront in Auckland, New Zealand. As a centre of activity of the 2000 America's Cup hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, as well as the 2022 Rally New Zealand, the precinct enjoyed considerable popularity with locals and foreign visitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opua Branch</span>

The Opua Branch or Otiria-Opua Industrial Line, partially still operational as the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, is a former section of the North Auckland Line in the Northland Region of New Zealand, between Otiria and the Bay of Islands township of Opua. The first section was constructed as a bush tramway in 1867 and converted to a railway in the next decade. Today the railway is partially used by the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, which runs tourist services between Kawakawa and Te Akeake. The line's centrepiece is the section where it runs down along the main street of Kawakawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Company</span>

Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer. It was incorporated by James Mills in Dunedin in 1875 with the backing of a Scottish shipbuilder, Peter Denny. Bought by shipping giant P&O around the time of World War I it was sold in 1972 to an Australasian consortium and closed at the end of the twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helensville railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Helensville railway station formerly served the town of Helensville, 60.47 km (37.57 mi) northwest of Auckland Strand, in the North Island of New Zealand. It was a stop on the North Auckland Line, and was the next major station north of Waitākere. Occasionally it was called the Helensville North Railway Station.

Henry Niccol was probably the first shipbuilder in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born in 1819 in Greenock. He was the father of George Turnbull Niccol and Malcolm Niccol (1844-1925).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otiria railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Otiria railway station was a station on the North Auckland line in New Zealand, at its junction with the Ōkaihau and Opua Branches, at Otiria. It is now KiwiRail's most northerly station, though mothballed since 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Akeake railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Te Akeake railway station is a station on the Opua Branch in New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kawakawa railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Kawakawa railway station was a station on the Opua Branch in New Zealand. and is the terminus of the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway (BoIVR) in the small town of Kawakawa. It was also the terminus of the oldest railway on the North Island, opened in 1867, before being joined to the rest of the North Auckland Line in 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taumarere railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Taumarere railway station was a station on the Opua Branch in New Zealand and is a stop on the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway near Taumarere village. It is on the oldest railway built on the North Island, which opened in 1867. Taumarere station has had three locations, east of the village, west of the village and at the rugby ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moerewa railway station</span> Defunct railway station in New Zealand

Moerewa railway station was a flag station at Moerewa on the Opua Branch of the North Auckland Line in New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Steamship Company</span> New Zealand local shipping and transport company

The Northern Steam Ship Company Ltd (NSS) served the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand from 1881 to 1974. Its headquarters, the Northern Steam Ship Company Building, remains in use on Quay Street, Auckland as a bar and is listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I Historic Place.

SS <i>Rotomahana</i> (1876)

SS Rotomahana was an 1876 harbour steamer and the first iron vessel to be built in Auckland, though launched only 28 minutes ahead of another, though smaller, iron ship. Rotomahana was a name used by at least two other ships of the era, presumably because Rotomahana and its Pink and White Terraces had become better known after the Duke of Edinburgh visited in 1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Foundry, Auckland</span>

Phoenix Foundry, often printed as Phœnix, was an engineering company in Auckland from 1861 to 1952. By 1900 it was on the verge of bankruptcy, but also Auckland's largest engineering works, supplying a wide range of goods and often leading in the design of equipment used to exploit the country's resources, such as timber and flax mills, crushers for gold ore and locomotives, pumps, cement and gas works and steamers. The foundry started with engineer, George Fraser, and a handful of employees, but grew to employ hundreds and operated under several names, including Fraser and Tinne and George Fraser & Sons Ltd.

PS <i>Governor Wynyard</i>

PS Governor Wynyard, was a small steam ship, the first to be built in New Zealand, and was launched in 1851. She was a paddle steamer schooner, built of pohutukawa, with kauri planks. In 1853 she left her Tamaki River service in Auckland and was sold in Melbourne in 1852 during the gold rush, but was soon serving as a ferry in Tasmania, until she had her primitive engines removed in 1858. She sprang a leak and became a beached wreck in 1873.

SS Tauranga was the first coastal trading steam ship to be built in New Zealand, though a harbour steamer, Governor Wynyard, had been built at Auckland in 1851.

SS <i>Go Ahead</i>

SS Go Ahead was a twin screw-steamer, launched on the afternoon of Saturday 20 April 1867 by Seath and Connell, of Rutherglen, for the Clyde Shipping Company, with a plan to use her in New Zealand coastal trading. She had 30, or 35 hp (26 kW), high pressure engines, and tubular boilers from Campbell & Son's foundry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Holdship</span> New Zealand timber merchant

George Holdship (1839–1923) emigrated to Auckland in 1855 and became a businessman, mainly involved in timber logging and sawmills. His companies removed much of North Island’s native forest, initially kauri and later kahikatea. He moved to Sydney in 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company</span>

The Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company linked Nelson with other parts of New Zealand from 1870 to 1974. The company's former office remains on the quay at Nelson, as do steps of their foundry, which built one of their ships, repaired their fleet and made other machinery.

SS <i>Wiltshire</i> British steamship (1911–1922)

SS Wiltshire was a passenger ship built for the Federal Steam Navigation Company by John Brown's of Clydebank in 1912 to run between Britain, Australia and New Zealand. She was wrecked when she ran aground in 1922.

References

  1. "Return of Steamers and Oil-engine Vessels to which Certificates of Survey were issued". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1911. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  2. 1 2 "New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 6 August 1921. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  3. "Auckland Star". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 10 December 1910. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  4. "Country news. New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 23 January 1911. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  5. "Clevedon steamer service. Auckland Star". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 17 June 1922. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  6. "Wharf crane capsizes: accident at the Hobson Wharf, Auckland". kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz. 13 April 1922. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  7. "Ceasing operations. New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1 September 1927. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  8. "N Wairoa bridge. New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 15 April 1924. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  9. "Minerva's rough trip. New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 10 November 1922. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  10. "Auckland Star". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 8 September 1944. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  11. 1 2 "SS Minerva set to sail again. Stuff". www.stuff.co.nz. 7 April 2010. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  12. "Kerikeri Steam Trust". www.facebook.com. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  13. "The country's oldest ferry set to be restored in Northland". 1News. 6 July 2019. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  14. "Steam ferry hits the road to new home". NZ Herald. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  15. 1 2 "Steam engine find brings ferry restoration a step closer". NZ Herald. 22 May 2020. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  16. "Minerva Article". waitematawoodys.com. 2015-03-03. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  17. "W. Sisson and Co". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  18. "New boiler for 114-year-old Bay of Islands ferry Minerva brings unique steam experience closer". NZ Herald. 2024-05-27. Retrieved 2024-05-27.