The continuing saga of the 'Black Funnel Line' - Lyttelton ...
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The continuing saga of the ‘Black Funnel Line’
Courtesy: Victor Young ©
Inside the Calm (II) wheelhouse
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006-5094-5
Accident-prone
Built by J.S.White & Company at Cowes, Isle of Wight, in 1920 as the 749-ton s.s. River Wear for United Converted in 1938 from steam to a motor ship with a Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine at Sydney, the Storm
Kingdom coastal shipping, the vessel was purchased in 1924 by the Canterbury Steam Shipping returned to New Zealand with a cut-down funnel, new foremast and larger wheelhouse. However, she
Company and renamed Storm (II). faced another period of accidents, especially to her machinery.
Destined for the South Island-Wanganui run, she was particularly identified by her long, thin funnel. In 1956, the Storm departed Wellington for Japan with a scrap steel cargo to become the Rose Pearl,
Running in competition with Holm and Union Company vessels, the Storm (II) had a catalogue of mishaps then Francoise, for Panama companies. She was subsequently purchased by Singapore owners
at Wanganui and Wellington. She also stranded at Akaroa in December 1931 and struck a submerged Guan Guan Shipping Ltd and subsidiaries to become the Batu Mas, Chevalier, Saffi and King Tiger.
object off Banks Peninsula in 1934, with a further stranding at Wanganui in 1936.
In late 1972, and now over fifty years old, the vessel was sold for demolition.
Courtesy: Victor Young ©
The s.s.Storm (II) in the inner harbour at Lyttelton.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1959-1270-45
Island trader
The m.v. Foxton was the first Auckland-built ship acquired by the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company waiting cargoes from intermediate ports and, in 1939, the Foxton was sold to the Patea-based South
and purchased while still under construction at George Niccol’s yard in Freemans Bay. With river bars Taranaki Shipping Company.
in mind, the builders had provided a wooden, shallow-draught, 224-ton vessel with twin screw
She was re-engined in 1951 with two, eight-cylinder Gardner diesels and, in 1959, was sold to Auckland
Fairbanks-Morse diesels.
owner, Louis Graham, followed by re-sale to Antony Bambridge in Papeete, Tahiti where she was renamed
In August 1929, she went into the Lyttelton-Kaiapoi-Foxton service. However, numerous strandings at the Namoiata in 1960. Sold on to a Chinese-based company in 1969, she was further renamed Tamarii
Waimakariri and Manawatu River entrances meant delayed schedules when cargo had to be unloaded Tuamoto but is said to have sunk off southern Moorea, Tahiti, in 1976.
prior to re-floating. This created opportunities for the rival Holm Shipping Company’s ships to pick up
The m.v.Foxton in the Kaiapoi River heading downstream to take the bar at the Waimakariri entrance.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1980-1210-10
Chartered not purchased
The Canterbury Company’s derelict s.s.Breeze (I) had gone ashore near the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour in the Reese fleet until 1925. On one trip, she brought the salvaged machinery from the Reese Brothers’
in February 1932. A replacement was needed but there was little available tonnage for coastal work. s.s.Opouri, wrecked at Greymouth in 1917, to Andersons Ltd at Lyttelton for repair.
However, the Nelson-based Anchor Shipping Company’s s.s.Orepuki was gaining little work and, in In 1925, the Orepuki was sold on to the Anchor Line for the Tasman Bay-Golden Bay trade but competed
March 1932, was chartered out for a year to the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company. against motor vessels with greater speed as well as hold capacity, and was occasionally laid up.
This was a temporary solution and, during this time, the Canterbury Company invited tenders from British After her charter to the Canterbury Company had extended on into 1934, the Orepuki then returned to
shipyards to build a motor ship specially adapted to New Zealand conditions. the Anchor Company. However, her age and condition told against her and, after being purchased by
Auckland owners, she was broken up at Nelson in 1936.
After launching at Goole, Yorkshire, in 1908, as the Tay I, and owned in Hull until 1913, then in Sydney up to
1916, the Tay was purchased by the Christchurch firm of Reese Brothers. Re-named Orepuki, she remained
The s.s.Orepuki turning in to enter the inner harbour at Lyttelton.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland New Zealand, 1977-83-7Flying the White Ensign
Despite its financial difficulties during the early Depression years, the Canterbury Company commissioned Back in the New Zealand coastal trade in 1945 and needing a refit, the Breeze faced strong competition
Scott and Sons of Bowling (Clydeside, Scotland) to build the steel, 622-ton m.v.Breeze (II). from Union Steam Ship Company vessels.
Launched in August 1933 and equipped with a five-cylinder British Polar Atlas diesel engine, she berthed In 1961, she made headlines with the rescue of the crew of the sinking trawler Endeavour off Kaikoura.
at Dunedin in January 1934. The following year, the Breeze was involved in a collision which sank the However, the arrival in 1962 of the highly-competitive, roll-on roll-off ferry Aramoana saw the Canterbury
Timaru trawler Bessie off Pareora, South Canterbury. Company sustaining annual trading losses.
Requistioned for war service and refitted at Port Chalmers, in October 1942, the Breeze was commissioned By late 1965, the Breeze was sold to the Manila-based Madrigal Shipping Company for the Philippines
as HMNZS Breeze (T02, later T371) and joined the 125 Minesweeping Flotilla. Armed with a four-inch gun
th
islands trade and re-named Balabac. In 1970, she was sold to the Balabac Navigation Company and
and four machine guns as well as depth charges, she began escort and anti-submarine patrols in South eventually broken up.
Island waters. Then, in April 1943, the Breeze began operations in the Solomon Islands in connection with
the United States Navy.
The m.v.Breeze in her wartime role as HMNZS Breeze.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1982-1577-10Prepared to take a gamble on improving trade opportunities during the Depression years, in 1935 the A month later, the Gale rescued officers and men from the sinking HMS Puriri which had been badly
Canterbury Steam Ship Company returned to Scott and Sons at Bowling for its next vessel, the steel, damaged by a German mine in the Hauraki Gulf.
622-ton m.v.Gale (III). Equipped with a five-cylinder British Polar Atlas engine and rated at ten knots, she
Commissioned as HMNZS Gale in October 19141, she subsequently served in Fiji and New Caledonian
sailed for New Zealand later that year.
waters before steaming up to the Solomon Islands. Here, in August 1942, she was commended by the
Hard-pressed financially, the Canterbury Company faced continuing competition from the Holm U.S.Navy Commander South Pacific Area, vice-Admiral Ghormely, after rescuing the aircrew and towing
Shipping Company and the Union Steam Ship Company. However, the Canterbury ships maintained a downed U.S.Marine Corps flying boat back to port.
their share of the trade between Dunedin, Timaru, Lyttelton, Wellington and Wanganui.
Returning to the New Zealand in 1944 for refitting prior to entering the timber trade, the Gale eventually
By 1938, the Canterbury Company was in better position but another world war was brewing. Requisitioned operated from 1962 to 1968 as the Jasa out of Penang. Sold in 1968 to Hong Kong owners, she was
by the Royal New Zealand Navy in late 1940 and supplied with depth charges, a four-inch gun as well as reported as broken up in December 1970.
light anti-aircraft guns, she was commissioned as the minesweeper HMS Gale (T04) in April 1941,
The m.v.Gale (III) commissioned as a minesweeper in World War II.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1976-626-33Lost in the South China Sea
In 1950, the Canterbury Company purchased its third steel motor vessel from Scott and Sons, Bowling. A collision in May 1963 with the trawler Venture in Otago Harbour stranded the Calm briefly before she
The 787-ton m.v.Calm (II), equipped with a five-cylinder British Polar Atlas diesel engine rated at eleven steamed for Wanganui.
knots, berthed at Dunedin in mid-December 1950.
In mid-August 1966, fire broke out in the No.2 hold and the Calm headed for Timaru at full speed to be
In 1951, the Waterfront Dispute saw her with a naval crew operating for some months between Timaru pumped out after her smouldering wool cargo had been unloaded.
and Wellington.
Transferred to Holm Company ownership in 1969, the Calm was laid up at Nelson in 1971 before sale to
North of the Cape Egmont lighthouse which had been blacked out by a power cut, the Calm grounded Singapore where she was named Selamat Datang, later becoming Tanjong Mas for Bangkok owners.
on rocks at Waiweranui Point on 13 July 1956 in huge seas. The crew made it to shore but the damaged
Registered as the See Hai Hong in 1986, Hadyai Union in 1989 and Angkor 2 in 1990, in that year she sank
Calm had to be towed off to New Plymouth for temporary repairs. Expensive work in the Port Chalmers
near Paracel Island in the South China Sea. Her 14-man crew was rescued by the P&O Line’s container
Graving Dock followed.
ship Peninsular Bay.
-The m.v Calm (II) on the beach at Waiweranui Point, Taranaki, in July 1956.
-Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1980-1270-73You can also read
