Lake Superior: 77ft Callan Sharp Scow

Everything We Know About Lake Superior

Built by George Callan Sharp in in Pakiri, Lake Superior wound have a short trading life.  As only the second scow built in New Zealand she was built like Lake Erie with Leeboards and a blunt bow which made her awkward to maneourve and travel in.  Though unlike Lake Erie, Lake Superior had centreboards fitted in 1878.  She was originally built as a fore-and-aft schooner-rigged deck scow making her a good vessel for transporting timber.

Philip Charles Dyer and Charles Henry Holder were Lake Superior’s first owners and Holder acted as the skipper.  They used her in the timber industry and are recorded as transporting thousands of feet of timber from Pakiri and Whangaroa to Auckland in 1879.  Though Holder would have been an established skipper there is one recording of Lake Superior getting stranded at Pakiri in August 1878 with Holder at the helm.

After Dyer and Holder, David Gouk and George Spencer took ownership of Lake Superior with Gouk owing her until 1880 and Spencer 1883.  In 1885 Pierce Lanigan and Alexander Douglas owned her.  Lanigan was later brought out by David Gouk Jnr in 1889.  This made Gouk Jnr and Douglas, Lake Superiors  last owners. She was broken up in 1891 and her register was closed.

Lake Superior would become one of “lake series” of scows which included Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and Lady of the Lake.