Mahau: Early Marlborough Sounds Mail Boat

Mahau and the Sounds Mail Run

Eric Jacobsen was one of the earliest mailmen in the Marlborough Sounds to use a motor launch.  Before the 1920s large steam ships were used which proved to be less efficient that employing industrious men and their motor launches.

Jacobsen was based in Mahau Sound in 1919 and this is where he built his 30ft launch, Mahau.  He used Mahau to deliver mail and freight from Tawera Point to the different Post Offices and bays in the area.  One delivery involved meeting Jack Orchard in his boat at the mouth of Kenepuru Sound to exchange mail and freight for their different delivery areas.  But according to Boats for a Lifetime, Orchard didn’t seem to be punctual so Jacobsen quickly stopped this.

Jacobsen and later his sons Sonny, Alan and Kerry provided a mail, freight and later a passenger service in the Sounds for fifty years.   But they eventually sold the business.  A and J Jones brought the mail delivery business in 1972 and purchased two of Johnson’s Barge Service Ltd., launches Ratanui and Kamahi which they used to deliver the mail for the rest of their contract.

In the 1970s and 1980s Dave Hayes owned the Mahau. He used her in the Queen Charlotte Sound for family holidays and trips. Hayes also used Mahau to take Fred Greig the Anglican vicar down the sounds for church services.