A scow bibliography

 

Compiled by: R. J. Lowe, Wellington, N.Z.

Revised March 2008

 

 

Ashby, Ted                           1975        Phantom Fleet. The Scows and Scowmen of Auckland, A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington, 167 pages. Based on considerable personal experience of actually sailing and rebuilding scows. Includes sail and side plan, deck plan and bow and stern drawings of Owhiti by Cliff Hawkins, but no illustration of framing and other structural details (however, refer Hawkins 1987).

 

Avery, Max                           1988        The Story of the Whakatane Harbour, Whakatane Historical Society for the Whakatane District Council, 88 pages, including references to scows and  Eaddy Brothers slipway and repair yard at the town during the 1920's with photograph of Vesper on the slip. Edited by Annabel Schuler from a manuscript compiled by Avery, held at the Whakatane Museum.

 

Brouwer, Norman J.             1985        International Register of Historic Ships, Anthony Nelson; includes Echo p 152 and Owhiti p 155.

 

Brouwer, Norman J.             1993        International Register of Historic Ships, Anthony Nelson;  includes Alma p 212, Echo p 212, Jane Gifford p 213 and Owhiti p216. It also includes the Tasmanian scow Enterprise pp 27-28.

 

Chapelle, Howard I.             1951        American Small Sailing Craft. Their Design, Development, and Construction, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, pp 363; especially pp 45-48, 67-80 and 332-36. There are plans of a Texas scow sloop on p. 335.

 

Churchouse, Jack                 1982        Leonard Robertson, The Whangaroa & the La Bella, Millwood Press, Wellington, 162 pages; pp 51-107 deal with the hold scow Whangaroa.

 

Darroch, D.M.                       1934        Shipbuilders of Rodney County, D.M. Darroch, Walsh Printing, Auckland, pp 8.

 

Department of Commerce

and Labour [U.S.]                 annual    List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Government Printing Office. Identifies many vessels as scow/barge schooners or scow/barge sloops.

 

Diamond, John T.                 1977        Once the Wilderness, Lodestar Press, Auckland. pp78. History of West Auckland with many photographs including some scows.

 

Eaddy, P. A.                          1939        ‘Neath Swaying Spars. The Story of the Trading Scows of New Zealand, reprinted Whitcombe and Tombs 1955. The fullest account of personal experience of actually sailing the scows. Also 1943 and 1955 editions.

 

Eaddy, P. A.                          1954        Sails Beneath the Southern Cross, A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington, includes references to scows although mostly about the Pacific and inter-colonial traders

 

Eckford, H. S. (Bert)             1995        History of the Eckford Shipping Co & Blenheim River Traders 1881-1965, the author

 

Hawkins, Clifford                 1960        Out of Auckland, printed by Pelorus Press, Auckland for the author, 199 pages particularly pp 145-64 including sail plan and construction diagram of Zingara (the largest NZ  scow), pp 156-57.

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1965        “The New Zealand scow”, Mariners Mirror, 51, pp 221-31

 

Hawkins, Clifford W. &

W. Darroch                           1966        A Family of Shipbuilders, Shipbuilders Ltd, Pelorus Press,  Auckland. 14 photographs with short history of Darroch family who built half of all N.Z. scows.  Copy in NZNMM library but not National Library of NZ.

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1978        A Maritime Heritage. The Last of Sail in New Zealand, Collins, 132 pages, especially pages 106-33 including same plans of Zingara as in Out of Auckland plus cross-section of construction of Owhiti and reproduction of half model of Owhiti showing bow planking (but not bow framing). Also includes details of two N.Z. round-bilge, shallow-draft vessels of the same period: Edna (full hull plans p 96) and Miro (sail, deck and accommodation plans and partial construction plan, but only midships section pp 93-94).

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1980        Argosy of Sail. A Photographic History, William Collins, Auckland; pp 62-77; includes many photographs of Rangi.

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1983        “The Passage of Sail: European Sailing Ship Building in the South West Pacific” in The Great Circle, October 1983, pp 87-97, includes photograph of Kohi showing side planking  under sheathing.

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1987        “The hard times and romance of the New Zealand scow”, Sea Spray, 42 (5), May 1987, pp 22-28. Includes side profile and sail plan of NZ scow and American Great Lakes scow and two construction diagrams of NZ scow.

 

Hawkins, Clifford W.           1990        A further look at the scow, Bearings [Hobson Wharf Auckland Maritime Museum], 2 (4), Summer 1990, pp 14—21. Includes photographs, half-model of Owhiti showing planking, construction diagrams, some material and two diagrams of Great Lakes scows.

 

Hawkins, Cliff                       1997        “The New Zealand Scow” in Half a World Away. Seventeen papers presented to a maritime heritage conference in Auckland, New Zealand, 1997, edited by David Johnson and Peter Dennerley, 1998, pp 53-60, also includes photograph of Kohi showing side planking  under sheathing.

 

Heath, Eric                             1994        Shipwrecks Around New Zealand, Grantham House, Wellington, includes scale side view plans of

& Gavin McLean                                  Zingara and Rangi.

 

Johnson, David                    1987        New Zealand’s Maritime Heritage, William Collins in association with David Bateman, Auckland, pp 112-15 refer to scows.

 

Johnson, David                    1988        Auckland by the Sea, David Bateman; includes references to scows and photographs of scows.

 

Karamanski, Theodore J.    2000        Schooner Passage. Sailing Ship and the Lake Michigan Frontier, Wayne State University Press, Detroit. Some references to Great Lakes scows especially pp 30-31, 41, and Chapter 5. Copy in NZNMM.

 

Kemble, John Haskell          1978        San Francisco Bay, Bonanza Books, New York, 194 pages, includes a few references to scows and is the source of statements that there were 200 San Francisco scows. However, Olmsted (p 24) indicates that there were more than 400.

               

Kerr, Garry                             1974        Australian and New Zealand Sail Traders, Lynton Publications Pty. Ltd., Blackwood, South Australia, 144 pages, includes chapter by Leahy (q.v.) on scows.

 

Kerr, Garry                             1987        The Tasmanian Trading Ketch. An Illustrated Oral History, Mains’ Books, Portland, Victoria, 179 pages. Refer pp 3, 24-34 for Tasmanian scows  including plans of Enterprise (1902) the first of only a handful said to have been influenced by NZ design but substantially different although also at least as different from the standard Tasmanian sailing barge.

 

Leahy, P. J.                            1974        The New Zealand Scow in Kerr, 1974, pp 62-77.

 

Meiklejohn, Leslie D.           1960        The last landfall : early Big Omaha history, the author, Whangarei NZ, pp 31

republished by Carol Ramage, Warkworth, 2007. Ordering details at http://www.meiklejohn.org/index.php?id=2,46,0,0,1,0

 

Morris, Roger                       1987        Pacific Sail. Four Centuries of Western Ships in the Pacific, David Bateman, Auckland; pp 179-80 deal with scows including painting representing Rangi and Moa.

 

Olmsted, Roger R.                1988        Scow Schooners of San Francisco Bay, California History Center Local History Studies Volume 33, 102 pages, edited by Nancy Olmsted. The primary record of San Francisco scows.

 

Ramage, Carol & James       2008        The Ships of Omaha : New Zealand, 1858 to 1921, C. Ramage, Warkworth, N.Z., pp 165. A record of all ships built at Omaha by the Meiklejohns, Darrochs and Mathesons. Ordering details at http://www.meiklejohn.org/index.php?id=2,34,0,0,1,0

 

Salter, Harold                        1991        Bass Strait Ketches, St David’s Park Publishing,. pp 221-24 deal with Cathkit ex Arrah na Pogue.

 

Simpson, Frank                     1965        The First Century. A Centenary Review of Winstone Limited, Winstone Limited, Auckland. pp 195.  Chapter 5 deals with the company’s scow fleet.

 

Subritzky, M.R.G                  1993        Subritzky shipping : a heritage of sail, 1843-1993,  Publisher: Three Feathers,

Papakura, N.Z. pp 176.     

 

Watt, M. N.                           1963        Index to the N.Z. Section of the Register of British Ships, 1840-1950, N.Z. Ship and Marine Society, Wellington. Includes dimensions, registration and ownership details for all scows.

 

Young, Victor                       1999        Ships of Wellington. The Past 50 Years, Nivic Maritime Books, Wellington. Includes photographs of several scows in their later lives.

 

 

http://www.koekejunction.hnpl.net/Ships/%20scows.htm includes the list of scows in Subritzky’s book.

 

http://www.meiklejohn.org/index.php?id=12,0,0,1,0,0

for the website of the Meiklejohn family reunion with substantial sections on their boatbuilding activities, the (related) Mathesons, the (related) Darrochs (who built half the NZ scows) and all the ships built at Omaha.

 

 

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