SIXTY YEARS ON

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 120, 15 February 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

SIXTY YEARS ON

New Zealand Shipping Co. DOMINION-BUILT Story of Unbroken Progress The New Zealand Shipping Company was founded and registered at Christchurch in January, 1873, with a capital of £lOO,OOO. The first ships owned by the company were four it purchased, and whose names were soon changed to Rangitiki, Waitara, Waimea, and Mataura. In its first three years of trading, the company dispatched from London to New Zealand no fewer than 150

chartered ships which carried 28,670 passengers. Before it was ten years old, the company owned a fleet of 16 clippers, most of which had been specially built for the New Zealand emigrant and cargo trade. The Pioneer Direct Steamer. Although the New Zealand Shipping Company was closely identified with sailing vessels for 20 years or more, it pioneered the direct steamship service between New Zealand six years after its foundation. Early in 1879 the following advertisement appeared in the newspapers of the colony: The New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd Steam Direct to England. The magnificent full-powered Clyde-built steamer Stad Haarlem, ” 2729 tons register, 450 horse-power, is appointed to sail from Lyttelton to London on or about April 10 next.. This splendid steamer has superior accommodation for all classes of passengers, having been built in 1875 for the Dutch East Indian Mail Service. She is fitted with every modern improvement. Her route will be via Cape Horn or through the Strait of Magellan, and it is confidently expected she will make the passage in 45 days. The Stad Haarlem arrived at Lyttel-

ton on April 15, 1579, after a passage of 57 days from England, via St. ’Vincent and Cape Town, being unable to get into Port Chalmers owing to the state of the bar at Otago Heads. She was 2729 tons register, 350 feetin length, 38 feet breadth, and 26ft. in depth, and she brought out over 600 immigrants, her total complement, passengers and crew, numbering 763. The Stad Haarlem attracted great public attention at Lyttelton and Wellington, and she carried a full cargo and a fair number of passengers when she flnallly sailed for England in May, 1879. In 1883 the New Zealand Shipping Company definitely established the first direct line of steamships between England and New Zealand, the enternrise

being advertised in the following terms

New Zealand Shipping Company's Line. Steam to London direct. British King. 3550 tons register. This magnificent, full-pow-ered steamer, having been appointed to leave London on January 20 next for Wellington and Lyttelton as the pioneer of a monthly direct line of steamers to New Zealand, will be- dispatched on her return voyage from the latter port on or about March 31, ISS3, via the Strait of Magellan, a most comfortable routfe for passengers. The length of the passage is not expected to exceed 45 days. . . . The British Queen, 3558 tons, will follow the British King from one of the principal ports of the colony on or about April 30. Suitable steamers will follow at regular monthly intervals.

In the meantime the company had contracted with John Elder and Co., Glasgow, for the building of five speci-

ally-designed steamships, but the service was actually started with the chartered ships British King, British Queen, Fenstanton, lonic, Catalonia, and Doric. The British .King and British Queen were sister ships, built in 1881 by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, and were owned by the British Shipowners Company. They were 425 feet in length and 39 feet in breadth, with a deadweight of 5500 tons. They took 50 days on the passage out via Cape Town. It is interesting to note that the adver- • tised rates of passage money to London in those days were: Saloon, 60 guineas and upwards; second saloon, 40 guineas; steerage, 18 to 20 guineas. Company’s First Passenger Liners. In 1884, the New Zealand Shipping Company started to run its own steamers in the monthly service from London and Plymouth, via Cape Town and homeward via Cape Horn. The Tongariro, 4215 tons, Aorangi, 426 S tons, and-Ruapehu, 4219 tons, each 389 feet long and 46 feet breadth, were the first ships and were followed by the Rimutaka and Kaikoura, each 430 feet long and 46 feet beam. All were highclass passenger ships, with extremely graceful lines and a good turn of speed. They had clipper bows and were barque-rigged with a good spread of canvas. The five ships ran regularly

in the New Zealand trade until the late “nineties,” when the mail subsidy was withdrawn. The Tongariro, Ruapehu, Rimutaka and Kaikoura were then disposed of to the British-India Company. Building up a Great Fleet. In 1891, the New Zealand Shipping Company built the first Ruahine, 6127 tons, a new type of passenger ship, and she was followed by the Papanui, 6582 tons, in 1898. and the Paparoa, 6563 tons, in 1599. During the next three years four larger and improved steamers were added to the fleetRimutaka. 7765 tons.. Ruapehu T- 51 tons, Tongariro, 7600 tons, and Turn

kina, 5027 tons. Of these ships the Rimutaka and Ruapehu ran in Hie New Zealand trade for thirty years, and were “scrapped” only last year. The company’s first cargo steamers, built in 1890, were the Otaraina, 3935 tons, and the Tekoa, 4050 tons. They were followed two years later by the Waikato, 4767 tons, which is best remembered by her remarkable drift of five months in the Southern Ocean after she had broken her tailshaft. During the next eight years the Rakaia, Waimate, Makanui and Whakatane. all between 5600 tons and 6000 tons, were added to the fleet. The Mataura, 6888 tons, built in 1896. had a very short life, being wrecked on Desolation Island, at the approach fo the Strait of Magellan, in January. 1898. The cargo steamers Kaikoura, 7000 tons, and Kaipara, 7600 tons, were built in

A few years before the war the •• company made large additions to its fleet, among them being the passenger steamers Ruahine. 10,870 tons; Rotorua, 11,000 tons; and Remuera, 11.383 tons; the cargo and emigrant steamers Hororata and Hurunui, 11,240 tons; and the 8000-ton cargo steamers Orari, Opawa and Otaki. All were very fine ships, embodying the latest improvements, especially for the carriage of refrigerated cargoes. The Rotorua and the Otaki. which were sunk during the war, were the first steamers propelled by a combination of reciprocating engines and a low-pressure turbine to trade to New Zealand. War Service. During the Great War eight of the company’s ships, totalling 73.000 tons register, were sunk by enemy action. The first victim was the cargo steamer Kaipara, which had left New Zealand in July. 1914, and was sunk by the German commerce raider Kaiser 'Wilhelm der Grosse near the Cape Verde Islands on August 16, the latter ship being destroyed by H.M.S. Highflyer eleven days later. On March 10, 1917, the Otaki. armed with one 4.7 in. gun. fought one of the pluckiest actions .of the war against the heavily-armed German raider Moewe, about 350 miles east of the Azores. The Otaki was hit thirty times and set on fire, four of her crew being killed and nine wounded, and had to be abandoned in a heavy sea. her survivors being taken prisoners. Nine rounds from the Otaki’s gun killed five Germans and wounded ten others, and did considerable damage ’ to the Moewe/ Captain A. Bisset Smith, of the Otaki,. went down with his ship His widow received from the King a posthumous Victoria Cross, one of the only two awarded to the Merchant Service during the war. The chief officer. Captain R. L. H. MeNish, received the D. 5.0.. the gunners the D.S.C., other members of the crew being mentioned in dispatches. Progressive Policy. The nAv Zealand Shipping Company was the first to adopt the Panama Canal route between England and New Zealand after the canal was opened for traffic in August. 1914. Since the war the company’s lost and obsolete ships have been replaced by new and up-to-date vessels. During the last three years the company has added to its fleet six great motor-liners aggregating no less than 80,410 tons gross register. These are the splendid passenger ships Rangitiki. Rangitane and Rangitata, each of 16,700 tons, and the three fast 10,000ton cargo vessels, Otaio. Orari and Opawa. They represent the best in their respective classes and an addition of more than 2,500.000 cubic feet of insulated space to the refrigerated cargo-carrying capacity of the fleet, which now numbers 17 vessels, totalling 187.000 tons, with an insulated cargo capacity of over six million cubic feet.

A Veteran Liner Early in December the Shaw, Savill and Albion liner Corinthic reached the Royal Albert Dock, London, with large consignments of meat and dairy produce for- the Christmas market. It was her last voyage before she was handed over to the shipbreakers. Said “Lloyd’s List” on December 1: — “Built 29 years ago in Belfast for the White Star Line,. the Corinthic has sailed between the United Kingdom and New Zealand ever since, carrying mainly New Zealand dairy produce, wool, fruit and meat. During her long career the Corinthic- carried, among other cargo. 1,341.000 boxes of butter, 765,500 cases of cheese, 5,181.000 carcases of sheep and lamb, and 369.000 bales of wool. “From 1902, the year of her commission, until now the Corinthic has run so free from mishap that she had come to be known as ‘the luckiest ship in the world.’ During the war years the Corinthic carried a large number of New Zealand troops to England. successfully running the gauntlet of enemy raiders and submarines on each of her 13,000 miles’ voyages. After the war she transported New Zealand troops back to their homes. Thousands of these ex-servicemen are now engaged in-dairy farming in New Zealand, and many of them were at Wellington to bid the Corinthic ‘good-bye’ when she sailed from that port in October.” On December 9, while the old Corinthic was in the Royal Albert Dock, the ceremony of hauling down the house-flag for the last time took place. The High Commissioner for New Zealand (Sir Thomas Wilford. K.C.) and Mr John MacMillan (chairman. Me---rs Shaw. Savill and Albion Ltd.)