Earlier residents will remember the P.S. Lyttelton, of 48 tons. Her journey from London to Lyttelton occupied 462 days and at one stage it was necessary to utilise the interior woodwork to keep steam up. When at last her destination was reached, nobody expected her .and nobody wanted her. The vessel had been given up for lost and the insurance had been paid, while the compay for whom she had been built, had gone into liquidation. However, the Lyttelton was sold to private owners and later traded out of Nelson where she was well known and very successful. Her end came on the “Beef Barrels" near the French Pass. Her crew escaped but the steamer sank and was finally blown up by dynamite lest she should be an obstruction. The engineer on the first journey was the late Mr Alexander Brown, of Port Nelson. When the vessel was under offer to the Anchor Company in 1861, her chief qualifications, according to the vendors, were that her draught was 3ft 3in unloaded and 4ft 6in loaded, and that she had “immense hatches.”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 April 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

Earlier residents will remember the P.S. Lyttelton, of 48 tons. Her journey from London to Lyttelton occupied 462 days and at one stage it was necessary to utilise the interior woodwork to keep steam up. When at last her destination was reached, nobody expected her .and nobody wanted her. The vessel had been given up for lost and the insurance had been paid, while the compay for whom she had been built, had gone into liquidation. However, the Lyttelton was sold to private owners and later traded out of Nelson where she was well known and very successful. Her end came on the “Beef Barrels" near the French Pass. Her crew escaped but the steamer sank and was finally blown up by dynamite lest she should be an obstruction. The engineer on the first journey was the late Mr Alexander Brown, of Port Nelson. When the vessel was under offer to the Anchor Company in 1861, her chief qualifications, according to the vendors, were that her draught was 3ft 3in unloaded and 4ft 6in loaded, and that she had “immense hatches.”