Build Date
1930
Boat Builder
G T Niccol
Length
Beam
Taupata at Anchor Shipping and During WW2
Built in Auckland by GT Niccol in 1930 Taupata was sold to the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company Ltd., before her fit out was complete. But G T Niccol got to use her to make two trips to the Norfolk Islands before she was handed over to the Nelson based company. Tauapata would become one of many trading vessels used by the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company Ltd. She was used to transport cargo from Nelson to several bar harbours around New Zealand. Robbie Williams recalls his father being a ship master for the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company Ltd., and being in charge of MV Taupatat in the 1930s and 1940s on The Prow.
During World War Two Taupata was requisitioned for the war effort much like MV Tuhoe and Wakanui. Officially on 10 November 1942 Taupata was requisitioned by the American Navy from the New Zealand Government under the reverse Lend-Lease arrangement. She was assigned the number YAG 26 and was used by the American Navy. Taupata was registered as USS Taupata YAG-26 in Auckland and assigned to the Service Squadron, South Pacific Force.
Taupata lasted two years in the navy and was decommissioned in Auckland on the 24th April 1944. She was returned to the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company Ltd. and taken off the Naval register on the 16 May 1944.
Taupata After 1949
In 1949 Taupata was sold to another Nelson trading company called the Pearl Kasper Shipping Company. They used her to do the Nelson to Lyttleton trading route. Sometimes this route may have involved some stops at Kaiapoi as her first visit to this area was in 1960. She didn’t last long on this route though as her first visit required the riverbank to be dug out with a dragline for her to be able to turn around and she ran aground in Kairaki in December 1961.
In 1962 Taupatata was sold to Motueka Coastal Services Ltd., but in 1965 she suffered fire damage and laid up whilst listed for sale. From the records it looks like it took a few years for her to find a buyer. In February 1967 she was brought to be a mother ship for a cray fishing operation in the Seychelle Islands. To start this now job Taupata had a complete refit before starting the journey from Lyttleton to Seychelles on the 16 May 1967.
Only a few years later, in 1971, she was sold to the Taupata Fishing Corp., in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. In 1977 she is said to have turned up in Sydney and in June 1980 she is listed as a pleasure craft in the Lloyds Supplement. Where Taupata is today is unknown but the Kaiapoi Maritime Heritage Trust suggest she finished up in Western Australia.
References
To research Taupata we used the Kaiapoi Maritime Heritage Trust website, the NavSource website and The Prow.
Related Posts
M.V. Tuhoe – 97ft George Niccol trading Scow used during World War Two by the US Army.
Wakanui – 45ft launch built by Claude Wells and his son Bernard in 1935. Requisitioned in WW2.
Te Aroha – T M Lane & Sons 86ft trading scow.
Alma – 79 ft deck scow built in Auckland by George Niccol.