New Zealand heritage ships

preserved outside New Zealand

Various individuals and institutions are progressively compiling lists of heritage ship remains within New Zealand but some surviving heritage ships outside NZ have significant associations with New Zealand and are every bit as relevant to developing local historical maritime knowledge - and other people foot the bill. Four are at or within reach of overseas destinations visited by hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in any year who could easily include them in their itineraries but who are mostly unaware of their NZ associations. All have iron hulls which is one major reason they have survived. There’s also a survivor of the wooden whaling ship fleet that visited NZ that can be seen, fully restored at Mystic, Connecticut.

The prime candidates are the Polly Woodside in Melbourne (648 tons register, ON(Brit): 90129, built at Belfast in 1885) which sailed under NZ ownership as the Rona from 1904 to 1922 and the James Craig in Sydney (646 tons net, ON(Brit): 68086, built at Sunderland in 1874 as the Clan McLeod) which was part of Auckland’s J. J. Craig fleet from 1900 to 1911 and which made at least one prior visit to NZ (in 1877 as the Clan McLeod). Both provide good examples of vessels of their type engaged in the local and Trans-Tasman trades into the 1920’s, which is how they wound up in Australia. (You’ll find fragments of the local might-have-beens out the back of Rangitoto and at the bottom of Cook Strait.)

http://www.australianheritagefleet.com.au/index.html takes you to Sydney heritage ships with a link to the James Craig site

The Euterpe (ON(Brit.): 47617, ON(US): 136801, built at Ramsey in 1863) which made 12 immigrant voyages to NZ between 1872 and 1888, survives as a museum ship in San Diego, California, under her US name of Star of India. Refer http://www.sdmaritime.com/contentpage.asp?ContentID=48 San Diego is some way from Los Angeles international airport but if you can take a day tour from there to Mexico surely you can visit San Diego also. Your best, in fact only, opportunity to experience close-up how your great-grandma migrated to NZ. Make sure you visit the Edwin Fox at Picton as well of course but the Star of India is fully restored. Euterpe’s tonnage varies through time. In 1888 the register tonnage was 1,197. In 1913 after American re-registration her tonnage was measured as 1,318 gross and 1,247 net, which may or may not reflect actual changes to the structure.

NZ organisations and museums should be promoting these three ships to the many New Zealanders who visit Sydney, Melbourne and Los Angeles in a year with as much enthusiasm as they promote anything local and they will be repaid through the improved local understanding of maritime history spilling over into interest in their own activities. Sail plans of James Craig and Polly Woodside have been published (?Euterpe) and which, together with photographs, could be the basis for small permanent poster displays to draw attention to them. Books on all three are available. We’re cutting off our short-sighted noses to spite our nationalistic faces if we don’t promote these ships as honorary New Zealanders.

The Falls of Clyde (1,741 tons register, ON (Brit.): 80436, ON (US):121138, built at Glasgow in 1878) preserved at Honolulu, represents one of the earliest four masted iron sailing ships (the first was built in 1875 and steel construction largely replaced iron for large sailing ships during the 1880’s). Her one(?) visit to NZ in 1886 doesn’t constitute a strong local association but she adds to local maritime understanding by providing an example of sailing ship development intermediate to the smaller cargo ships of the 1870’s and 1880’s (such as the James Craig and Polly Woodside) and the later, larger steel sailing ships such as the Pamir, of which Moshulu, Passat and Pommern and one or two others survive and can also be incorporated into your world tours. Stopovers at Honolulu are common en route to Los Angeles, so don’t miss the opportunity to see Falls of Clyde while you’re there. However, the current owner, the Bishop Museum, has plans to sink her by the end of 2008 unless private funds are raised for an endowment for her perpetual care. ^{http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4297/40/}

The Charles W. Morgan (313 tons gross, 298 tons net, ON (US) 5380, built at New Bedford, Mass., in 1841) was never under the British flag or owned in NZ but is the sole survivor of the huge American wooden whaling fleet of which some dozens per year called at NZ ports over an extended period and 26 of which were still whaling under sail as late as 1912. She made a visit to Auckland, arriving on 31 December 1894 with a crew of 37 and probably made some other visits to NZ as well. The Charles W. Morgan may still be seen, fully restored, at the Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut. Refer http://www.kelseypub.com/ct-guide/museums/chmorgan.shtml and http://www.mysticseaport.org/home.htm but a google search will turn up many more references.

References

Churchouse, Jack, Sailing Ships of the Tasman Sea, Millwood Press, Wellington, 1984, pp 164. Extensive coverage of the J. J. Craig fleet including the James Craig (pp 64-75)

Darroch, Vin, Barque Polly Woodside (Rona), Lowden Publishing Co., 1978. pp 141.

Gibbs, Jim, Pacific Square-riggers, Bonanza Books, New York, 1977, revised edition Schiffer Publishing, Pennsylvania, 1987, includes some material on the Falls of Clyde.

Leavitt, John F., The Charles W. Morgan, Marine Historical Association Incorporated, Mystic Connecticut, 1973, pp 136.

MacMullen, Jerry, Star of India. The Log of an Iron Ship, Howell-North, Berkeley, California, 1961. pp 133. The story of the Euterpe.

National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Polly Woodside, 1978, pp 15. Many of the photographs are from NZ sources and include her aground on Barrett’s Reef and on the Wellington Patent Slip.

Savill, David, Sail to New Zealand. The Story of Shaw Savill & Co 1858-82, Robert Hale, London, 1986. covers the Euterpe within the context of one of the two main NZ immigrant lines.

Toghill, Jeff, The James Craig. Her history, recovery and restoration, A. H. & A.W. Reed, 1978. pp 33.

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