PRIDE OF THE SEAS

Evening Star, Issue 18093, 7 October 1922, Page 11

PRIDE OF THE SEAS

HISTORY OF WELL-KNOWN SHIPS.

TAKAPUNA, WAKATIPU, AND

ROSAMOND.

[By “ Peter,”... for the ‘ Evening Star.’]

Lyuig snugly at anchor in Wellington Harbor is the Takapuna, an old-timo favorite fast passenger ship which made a name for herself on the New Zealand coast over thirty years ago. Shorn of all her past glory, the old “Tak.,” as she is familiarly called by old identities and the shipping community generally, is now being utilised as a humble store ship. Like many other earlier units of the Red Funnel fleet, her sea-going career has come to an end.

The Takapuna was built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1883, and launched on June 6of that year. She is a Steel screw vessel of 1,036 tons gross register, and is 220 ft in length, with a beam of 52ft and depth of 18ft 6in. Her engines are of the compound surface condensing typo of 2,000 indicated horse-power. She was a speedy ship for those days, being able to steam her fifteen knots. The Takapuna left Greenock on August 17, 1883, for St. Vincent. Her journey to that point was unusually rapid, eclipsing the record of the Cape mail boat; but from St. Vincent to Hobart she steamed at only half-power in order to economise her coal supplies. She arrived at Hobart on October 7, and made her first appearance at Port Chalmers on October 12, 1883. The passage from Greenock occupied fifty days. The Takapuna was the twenty-sixth vessel of the Union Line, and the one hundred and seventh turned out by the builders. It was claimed that she was the smallest but most elaborately-fitted ocean-going passenger ship in the world, having in miniature every comfort, every convenience, and every luxury that the builders could install in the largest and best-appointed ships engaged in the Atlantic trade. She was built as a despatch boat, and was not intended for cargo-carrying. She was constructed specially for the passenger trade between Lyttelton, Wellington, New Plymouth, and Onehunga, and was the first steamer owned by the company not built on the Clyde. The Takapuna left Port Chalmers on her first trip up the coast on November 17, 1883. She made many very smart passages, some of which are well worth recording. The vessel sailed from Lyttelton at' 11 a.m. on November 19 for Wellington, and made the run in thirteen and a-half hours. She left Wellington on November 20 for New Plymouth, where she arrived at 1 a.m. on November 21, and sailed an hour later for Onehunga. The ship was berthed at the Onehunga wharf as the clocks were striking 12 noon on November 21, thus keeping her time-table to the minute. Leaving Onehunga at 1.50 p.m. on November 22, the Takapuna arrived back at Lyttelton at 5.30 a.m. on November 24. She thus made the round trip in forty hours, including four and ahalf hours’ detention at Wellington and New Plymouth. This performance was all the more creditable from the fact that it was made in very rough weather.

Another instance of the steamer’s consistent passages is recorded. An exciting struggle between a. steamer and a hea.vy head sea was witnessed at Wellington Heads on May 30, 1898. The steamer was the Takapuna, and the captain was determined to -put to sea after two postponements. The question was: Could she accomplish the feat? As the result of a three days’ easterly gale a tremendous sea was running in Cook Strait, and right into this turmoil of waters the powerful little steamer directed her bow. Warnings had been sent from the lighthouse at Pcncarrow that the attempt would fail; but Captain Robertson knew what his vessel could stand up to. Having rounded the point and secured a glimpse of the harbor entrance, he was still determined to go on. For (hole who remained on dock the sight was one not soon to be forgotten. But the issue was soon placed beyond doubt. With her engines working under a full pressure of steam, the Takapuna never lost headway. She pitched about in. a most alarming fashion, and tho strain on the machinery was such as only a splendidlyequipped vessel could have endured. But within an hour and a-half of leaving tho Wellington wharf the Takapuna was rolling In heavy seas off Terawhiti. On December 5, 1912, tho Takapuna inaugurated the ferry service between Napier, Gisborne, and Auckland. She continued in this run until replaced by the Arahura on February 19, 1916, when she returned to Wellington, and was placed on the lay-up berth, where she has ‘icon ever since. The old craft was used as a hospital ship during the influenza epidemic in 1918. THE PATRIARCH. The Tfakaltipu, an iron screw passenger and cargo steamer of 1,945 (tons gross register, is known as the patriarch of the fleet. She was built by Messrs Denny Bros., of Dumbarton, in 1876, and launched on May 22 of that year. The vessel is fitted with Compound surface condensing engines of 256 nominal and 1,250 indicated horse-power, and' has a speed! of twelve knots.

The Wakatipu left London on July IT, 1876, for Melbourne, arriving there on September 9, after a passage of fifty days. She made her' first appearance at Port ChaJmers on October 1, 1876, flying the company’s house flag, and under the command of the late Captain Cameron. The steamer was originally built for a private concern, the head of which was Captain Cameron, who retained charge of her in Hew Zealand waiters until she was purdhased by the Union .Company in August, 1878. He (then joined the company as marine superintendent, a position ho retained until his dteath on April 12, 1909. In 1891 the Wakatipu was considerably altered by the erection of a 60ft poop deck.

A groat sensation was caused at the Dunedin wharves on Saturday morning, April 2, 1898, when through faulty steering while steaming up the Victoria Channel the Wakatipu rammed and' sank the barque Laira, which was loading wool at the Victoria wharf. The tables were turned on the Wakatipu five years lator, when she was rammed by the Adelaide Steam Ship Company’s steamer Eurinblain Sydney Harbor. The Wakatipu was holed iSft deep, the gash extending sft below the water line. She had l to be beached quickly to prevent her from sinking. In 1899 the Wakatipu was sent across to Sydney to take the place of the wrecked steamer Tekapo. She was placed in the Sydney-Lannceston trad'e, where she was continuously employed until laid up on September 26, 1921.

KNOWN AS “THE ROSEBUD.”

A once useful unit of Ithe fleet is the Rosamond. This vessel perambulated up and down 'the Now Zealand coast for many years, and is often referred to as the ‘“Rosebud” by those connected with the sea and ships. She is an iron screw Steamer of 721 tons gross register, and waa bnilt by the Nederland Shipbuilding Company at Rotterdam in 1884, for R. Thomson, of London. Her engines are of the compound inverted cylinder type, of ninety nominal horse-power. Shortly after being launched the Rosamond was placed in the trade between Bangkok and Singapore, carrying cattle and rice. She subsequently traded between Chinese ports, and some time later was chartered by the Russian Government as a iipopship, in which occupation she canned troops from VJadivostock to Nidholaskief. After discharging this duty the Rosamond returned to the China trade, and waa then chartered to carry a cargo of tea to Australian and New Zealand ports. She sailed from Hongkong on October 1, 1886. On arrival at Newcastle the New Zealand portion of her cargo was transhipped, and she then loaded 1,000 tons of coal for Wellington, for which port she sailed on November 11, 1886. She arrived on November 17, and after her cargo had been discharged was -chartered 1 hy the Brunner Coal Company for two years.

The Rosamond made her first visit to Dunedin on December 3, 1886, with a cargo of coal to tho agency of Keitli Ramsay. . When the Union Company acquired the interests of tbs Brunner Coal Company in August, 1888, the Rosamond, along with other steamers, passed into the company's bands, -and has flown the well-known house flag of the Red Funnel fleet ever since. The Rosamond is the only boat left of the original fleet taken over from the Brunner Company. Although she is only one of the " small fry” of the huge fleet of steamers, and something of a sluggard, stiil she was very consistent in her coastal passages. _ The Rosamond has ib-sen laid up at Wellington since May 18, 1921. (To bo continued.)