Noelene: 45ft Claude Wells Built Commercial Boat
1932
Build Date
Claude Wells
Boat Builder
45ft
Length
11ft
Beam
Building The Noelene
As a Marlborough Sounds mail boat the Noelene was widely known throughout the sounds in the 1930s to the 1950s. Commissioned by Charlie Jacobson of French Pass, Claude Wells built the Noelene from kahikatea. Jacobson wanted a boat that was able to handle the seas in the outer Sounds and the D’urville Island area where he had the mail boat and freight contract.
The Noelene was built single skinned which was unusual for Claude Wells. They also had to add some extra strength to the hull, when the timber ordered from Rai Valley, arrived rough sawn. After thicknessing the timber, it was thinner than planned.
The French Pass Mail Run
Jacobson installed a 3-cylinder 27hp Lister engine and started work as the French Pass delivery service. One day a week, on a Friday, Jacobson set out at 7am and returned at 5pm,. But if the weather was rough, it might have taken a bit longer. He did this no matter the weather and always had to go through the pass on the way home. There was no picking the tides and the weather for Jacobson.
But there was more to Jacobson’s job than just delivering mail. He also had to use the Noelene to collect the mail from the ferries that traveled through the pass most nights. One came from Nelson and the other from Wellington. They slowed down as they passed the mail across to Jacobson but they never stopped. The Noelene would be tied to the ferry either before or after the pass and the mail exchanged before Jacobson could move the boat and its cargo safely away from the ferry. This was a tricky manoeuvre especially as he also had to safely transport any passengers that were disembarking at French Pass! Add to this the timing of the ferries, one came at about 10pm and the other at 2am, and Jacobson must have been a very skilled skipper.
During the Noelene’s mail boat service, she acquired many good yarns to tell. There was the time she transported a bull from French Pass to Stephens Island. The bull was not keen on the ride and had to be winched onto the back deck where it was penned between the cabin and bulwark. On arriving at Stephens Island, the crew tentatively planned the bulls disembarkation. But the bull was not happy, so it backed up, ready to charge any crew member brave enough to get close and found itself in the drink.
1951 Crossing The Cook Strait
One particularly bad trip in 1951 could so easily have ended in disaster. The Noelene was traveling from Paremata to Picton loaded with 12 ton of Gib board. The gib was tied on the deck and the boat was loaded with other cargo as Jacobson and his crew, including his son Eric and a fisherman called Bill Harvey set out in less-than-ideal conditions. The weather deteriorated as they continued their journey across the straits. About halfway across they decided to turn back as the freight they were carrying could not withstand the waves. After making the tricky turn around in the rough seas they set a course for Paremata but this was not the end of their troubles.
At about 2pm the Noelene was hit by a big wave and strong wind that sent it into a 360-degree spin into the water. The cargo was lost, the bulwarks gave way and Charlie and Eric washed overboard whilst Bill was trapped inside the wheelhouse. Luckily the Noelene righted itself and with the engine still running Bill was able to get the other two onboard. Though this was not easy as the gearbox was jammed in gear. So Bill towed a rope behind him and did a wide circle around the men so they could pull themselves on board. Inside the boat was mess, it was leaking badly, the engine room was awash with water, oil and other debris that was not tied down. The radio was broken, and the batteries were loose and rolling around the pilot house.
With no way to call for help, their engine only limping along and still confronting the rough seas around them, Jacobson set a course for Paremata again. It took them 8 long hours to reach their destination with the men bailing continuously and nursing the engine. Although other boats went past them, they did not know of the Noelenes plight and did not offer assistance. At 10pm they finally made it back to Paremata when the engine finally seized up and stopped.
After this ordeal the Noelene was taken to the Saunder’s boat-building yard at Paremata for repairs and the engine was reconditioned.
Fishing and Rescues
When Jacobson wasn’t handling the mail he was a commercial fisherman. During World War Two Jacobson was contracted by the navy to deliver freight and personnel to Stephens Island where they were building a radar station.
With its rugged, rocky coastline and exposure to the sea and rough weather D’urville can be a tricky boating spot so there were several occasions when Jacobson, Noelene and his crew (often including his daughters) would head out to help a boat in distress. Including rescuing the crew of the Silver Dawn.
One particularly bad time a coaster towing a large barge got into trouble when the barge broke its tow rope. Deciding it was too dangerous to attach a new tow rope the skipper carried on without the barge and radioed the hazard warning of a rogue barge across the marine radio. Hearing this, Jacobson decided to head out and get the barge with his daughter Phyllis and two crew members. But just as they were preparing for one of the crew to board the barge, a wave rose up. Jacobson was unable to move the Noelene out of the way fast enough and the barge crashed down putting a hole in the Noelene.
They retreated to Putuki but it took half an hour to get there with the boat flooding with water and the bilge pumps going full bore. At putuki they made temporary repairs and headed home. Though Jacobson had been keen for another go at the barge his crew were definitely not. The barge then drifted out into cook strait where it was picked up by another vessel when the weather improved. This was not the first time the Noelene was holed during Jacobson’s time, but the holes were always repairable.
After Jacobson
In the early 1950s Jacobson took on the mail service to Queen Charlotte Sound. He did this run until 1954 when he gave it up, sold the Noelene to Mr H Kenny of Queen Charlotte Sound and moved his family to Picton.
Some time later Noelene was sold to the United Fisheries of Picton for commercial fishing with Tom McManaway as skipper. However, the cost of getting the Noelene ready for survey proved too much. They sold the Noelene to a person in Wellington who moored the Noelene in Evans Bay. During an awful storm the Noelene broke her ropes and was blown into the Evans Bay jetty where she sank below the jetty.
Whilst salvaging another vessel Bill Brambleby was offered the Noelene for sale as is and without insurance. Brambleby brought the Noelene for £100 and towed her to Evan Bay Yacht Club to be hauled out. When he got the Noelene on the slip, he couldn’t see any damage or what had caused the Noelene to sink. Brambleby delivered the engine to Norman Tacks for reconditioning, stripped the boat back to its hull, laid a new teak deck and added a new wheelhouse and interior.
Branmbleby went onto buy shares in the Shelley Bay slipway from Gordon Cooper and moved the Noelene and his business to Shelley Bay. Brambleby and Cooper went halves on the Noelene and Cooper completed the work needed to get the Noelene going again. They eventually resurveyed the Noelene with the new registration number 5945 and put her back fishing with the Wellington Fishing Company for a couple of years.
Around 1975 the Noelene was chartered to Japan and New Zealand investments in Nelson to investigate squid fishing grounds. When the charter expired the Noelene returned to Shelley Bay, where she was later chartered to the Ministry of Agriculture at Somes Island Quarantine Station whilst their own boat was on for slip for several months.
Brambleby and Cooper eventually sold the Noelene to Ivan Tomson of Takaka where the Noelene was used for fishing for several years. Thomson repowered the Noelene with a 571 GM diesel which made her much faster. After this time not much is known about the Noelene except, she was seen at Oamaru Harbour around 1995.
The Noelene’s Untimely End
In October 2011 it was reported that the Noelene had sunk on its mooring in Port Taranaki. It is unknown what caused the Noelene to sink or whether the bad weather contributed to it.
The owner of the Noelene at this time was a Mr Riley who did not comment to stuff about what happened. However, Stuff reported comments from Brayden Kidd the owner of Chaddy’s Charters in Taranaki who took his barge over to help Riley recover items from the boat including the life raft, water tank, nets and buoys. Kidd told Stuff the Noelene went below the water in minutes.
The next day divers went down to assess the boat as there were concerns about oil and diesel leaks. After this it is unknown what happened to the Noelene.
References
To research the Noelene we used the book Boats For A Lifetime by Yvonne M Fell and the Stuff articles about the sinking of the Noelene.
Related Posts
Majestic – Another commericial vessel used during WWII to deliver freight
Silver Dawn – Fishing boat rescued by the Noelene and Jacobson in Stephens Passage
Glen Lee – Passenger boat built by Claude Wells for the the Glen Lee guest house
Pearl – Claude Wells built launch that he made for himself