EARLY RIWAKA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 30 November 1927, Page 7

EARLY RIWAKA

ITS BOATS AND BOATMEN MANY ADVENTUROUS VOYAGES (Specially written for "The Mail") • (By Robert Pa(tie) No. 11. The first record we have of a boat or boats built and sailed by a Riwaka man is mentioned by Mr W. Pratt in his "Colonial Experiences," where he speaks of Captain Harry Fowler haying built two boats in 1847. It is history that the first boat trading between Nelson and Riwaka was a small open Jtoat owned by the New Zealand Land Company. This boat was engaged carrying stores over the Bay for the Expedition men working for the Company in Motueka and Riwaka. The credit of being the first independent boatmen with headquarters at Riwaka goes to the Askews, George and John, mere lads at this, time. AN OPEN BOAT It is on record that their first boat was. a. small open one. Probably it was the same boat formerly owned by the Company. It proved to be too small for carrying timber and bulky produce over to Nelson, so the Askew boys set to work to build a larger boat. They pitsawed the-timber required and with the aid of their father built a fifteen-ton cutter. It is proof of how the seashore has receded when we now view' the site where this boat was built. It is well up the Valley road above where the hotel now stands. She was launched into the large drain by the roadside. What with springtide water flowing in and drainage water flowing out, this boat was towed along to the end of the road below Goodall Brothers' hopkiln and milking shed. This is where goods used to be landed and produce shipped. For some time the two Askew boys sailed their boat over what is now Goodall Brothers' Tilghly productive dairy farm. The reclaiming of the larger portion of this dairy farm was accomplished by Mr W. Pattie, now residing ! in the Wood, Nelson, who some years ago built a heavy stop-bank across the tidal estuary, thus shutting out the , sea waters.

SIX BROTHERS- DROWNED A'distressing, fatality haunted the Askew family. No less than six brothers lost their lives by drowning, including the two boatmen. First George, and then' John. . This brings us to the time mentioned by Mr Pratt when he and four others joined together to build a vessel of between thirty and forty tons burden, intending to freight her with produce, mainly potatoes, and sail her to Tahiti. This boat was partly built, but owing to the sudden death of the originator of the company, the' enterprise was abandoned and a much smaller boat was built out of the timber, etc., intended for the building of the larger boat. A NEW ZEALAND PROGRAMME Captain Harry Fowler took over the shipping trade in 1847. This enterprising, fearless sailor built two boats, one a schooner and the other a cutter,, both of ten tons burden. He was not content with sailing his toy, boats over'the Bay to Nelson only. What would be thought' now of anyone proposing to start trading with a tiny boat (no larger than some of the pleasure or fishing launches we see to-day in the Nelson harbour) between Nelson and Wellington, Wellington and the Wairau, Wellington and Poverty Bay and Nelson and Lyttelton. This is what Captain Harry Fowler and his assistants really accomplished with their diminutive boats in those far past days when there was neither lighthouse, beacon nor chart to guide them. It| is verv much to be regretted that this intrepid, enterprising young man died at Lvttelton'in 1850. '"

IN STORMY SEAS The next boat trading between Riwaka and Nelson was the Harriet, a ke:cli built for Captain Whent and Frank Callaghan. This boat did the bulk of the carrying trade which by this time had assumed Considerable' dimensions, .till 1864. The Harriet crossed the Bay the night the Delaware went ashore and became a total wreck between Peppin's Island and Wangamoa. About this time Captain James Fowler had a cutter named the Clara, which he traded from Riwaka to Nelson and about the Bay. Captain Whent about this time retired from the* sea, disposing of the Harriet. Captain Frank' Callaghan engaged Robert McNabb as his mate and partner and they built a ketch named the Emily. The late Edward McNabb built a. ten-ton cutter in 1856 and when the Collingwood diggings started shortly afterwards, he traded in this boat between Riwaka 'and Nelson and Nelson and Collingwood. Later he built a 40ton schooner at Sandy Bay, loaded her with timber, sailed her to Charleston and landed the timber, then sailed for Hokitika, where the Alice was driven ashore in crossing the bar and became a total wreck. It is not out of place at this distant date to pay a tribute to the memory of Capt. Frank Callaghan, a quiet, unassuming, strictly honest man, who held the respect and unlimited confidence of the Riwaka settlers for many years. lie carried and sold their produce, handling unchecked sums of money. Frank Callaghan was never known to defraud any man out of one penny. The two mates later retired from the sea, Robt. McNabb going to the Karamea and Frank Callaghan to Reefton, where he died manv vears ago. The Emily was bought and 'sailed by Captain Hamilton, of the Port Kelson, who traded in her about the Bay and Waitapu and Collingwood. She left Waitapu one evening in 18/0. Neither boat nor crew were ever seen or heard' of again.

MAID OF ITALY After the Emily came the Mermaid. Whether she was cutter or ketch I don t remember, but I do remember that she had two stems fore and aft and no stern, but she was a fast sailing boat and was under the command of either Captain J. Fowler or Peter AsW The Mermaia was replaced by the clipper cutter Maul of Italy, bought in Auckland by a company of Riwaka people and sailed from Auckland by the late Captam Ponsonby with J. Fowler as mate and one otnei of a crew. The Maid was a sister boat to the Planet trading between Motueka and Nelson for so. many years, ino Maid of ltalv was sailed by Captain Clark, who came to Nelson as second mate of the barque Adamant fifty or fifty-one years ago. The Maid remained m the iviwaua trada for some, vears an.l was superseded by the first steam boat Hie Elsie, to run between Riwaka and Nelson, l.ie

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Elsie was built by the late C. T.,Pattie, was used by him in the Riwaka trade' for some time and then .sold.to Mi; -Fred. Batchelor, who had at this time entered into the Mbtueka-Riwaka shipping business. He later sold the Elsie and acquired the Lily.

RIWAKA BRIDGE ENDED SHIPPING TRADE Some years before this time the bridge over the Motueka River had been built With the bridge came changing social and economic, conditions."""!. The',; advent of subdivision of farms, also 6t intensive cultivation and less bulky "but far more valuable produce, the shipping trade from Riwaka became more and more intermittent. It was carried on for some time bv the.Tredidga-Brothers in their boats, but it gradually "declined, till the day of the motor-lorry,-wh-m----only a few fishing and pleasure, launches-. visit the port. ■ » ' 'xfA^ There were\some other boats built-in Riwaka or close bv. The ■Rwhforts;Bu' ; lt one in the early'days, and: I'think'.the: Greenwood brothers built one later, hilt these boats, did not'trade from Riwaka About 1872 the late John Mutimer ntirt T Woolf built a nutter . named''-Th* Nautilus. This boat v sailed between Riwaka and Nelson for a short time.- s I have written' this history of the Riwaka boats and boatmen almost entirely from memory and it may not ha mathematically correct, I ask-'my old friend John Dayman*- who. has lived heside the Nelson Port about seventy vears and who has known every boat entering or leaving the port during this long period as well as a mother knows her child, to check thisJhistory of mine and to gc to "The Mail" Office.and correct it should ho think, it necessary to do so But some of'-tln's goes back years bevond the date he and I first saw daylight.