Lake St Clair: 57ft Scow Built in 1876

Everything We Know About Lake St Clair

Built in 1876 by John Darroch, Lake St Clair was a schooner-rigged deck scow.  Darroch built her at Te Kapa Inlet in Mahurangi making her one of only two scows built at Mahurangi.  She was also only the third ever scow registered in New Zealand but John Darroch would not build any more scows.  She would become one of the lake series of scows which included Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, Lady of the Lake and Lake Superior.

Her first owner was John Smythe who kept her until 1881 when John Rawlings and George Tupp took ownership.  Its unknown when Tupps ownership ended but Rawlings owned her until 1887 when Mary Copper took ownership for an unknown length of time.  Her final owner appears to be Joseph Ellis Jones in the early 1900s.

Lake St Clair was used to transport thousands of feet of timber from Orewa to Auckland in 1879.  But in Auckland in 1888 with John Elsworthy at the helm Lake St Clair had a crash with Coromandel a Northern Steamship Company’s steamer.  After this Lake St Clair became a barge used for transporting shingle and cattle.  In the early 1900s Joseph Ellis Jones is thought to have used her as a towed barge to transport stock from Great Barrier Island

In 1909 her register was closed and Lake St Clair is said to have been broken up.  Rumour has it she is the vessel that was beached on mangroves at Matakana around 1934.  But this is not certain and the vessel could also be St Anne another scow whose final location is unknown.