Build Date
1909
Boat Builder
T M Lane & Sons
Length
86 feet 4 inches
Beam
24 feet
Te Aroha’s Early Years
86 feet auxiliary schooner built by T M Lane & Sons of Totara North in 1909. Later Te Aroha was powered by twin 110hp GM diesel engines.
Te Aroha worked as a trading vessel out of Napier until 1928 when she was sold to the Anchor Shipping Foundry Company to replace Fairburn. They brought her to transfer cargo between Nelson and Golden Bay. Te Aroha had a shallow draft and round bilge making her well suited to the shallow ports around Golden Bay and Nelson.
During her years here it is said Te Aroha could carry 3,000 cases of apples, 30,000 super feet of timber or 110 tons of cement. dolomite, lime or similar.
Draft
6 feet 4 inches
Weight
105 tons
Te Aroha’s Trading Days with the Karamea Shipping Company
In the 1950s Te Aroha was owned by the Karamea Shipping Company who kept her until 1976. During this time she was skippered by Captain Ken Wells for twenty years before he became the Tug Master at Port Nelson.
During these years Te Aroha carried cargo between Nelson, Wellington, Motueka, Mapua and Waitapu. She also visited the French Pass community at Emslie Bay at times. It is said that Te Aroha crossed the cook strait 10,000 times during this time!
Robbie Williams was one of Te Aroha’s seven crew members. He started out as deck boy/cook and worked his way up to able seaman. He recalls in Motueka Wharf 100 years by Carold Dawber doing occasional trips into Marlborough Sounds to pick up wool from the farmers there. He says the wives would give them cakes and scones at every stop making his work day like a roving picnic. He also recalls the most awkward cargo he dealt with on Te Aroha was a pre-fabricated school for Catherines Cove on D’Urville Island which had to be lashed on to the decks.
Captain Bob Walling was Te Aroha’s last skipper. In July 1976 he sailed her across Cook Strait from Wellington with general cargo for the last time. On his arrival in town she was offered for sale.
Te Aroha Becomes A Sight Seeing Boat
In 1976 Te Aroha was sold to the Chief Officer on the Rail Ferries Captain Tim Phipps from Governors Bay, Lyttelton. Phipps was one of the first sightseeing and tourism operator owners to start in NZ. He ended her trading days in Nelson and took her to Picton to run harbour cruises. These were less than successful so he moved Te Aroha to Wellington which fared better and Te Aroha started officially carrying fare paying passengers.
In 1979 Captain Tim Phipps sailed Te Aroha to Port Lyttelton for a refit. The Stark Bros, undertook the rebuilding work and turned Te Aroha into passenger vessel that could carry 50 people. They also installed a new steel main mast, new sails, davits over the stern and a new life boat.
With the alterations complete she was sailed to Auckland to provide sight seeing trips in the Auckland region. In the 1980s she was still there doing trips around the Hauraki Gulf from Marsden Wharf.
Sadly, Liam K reports Te Aroha would end up sitting derelict and idle at Whangarei. Although there were plans to restore her she sunk in January 2015 and was raised but never restored. From what he heard she broke her back on some rocks in 2021, and was well beyond repair. Te Aroha would end up being dismantled by heavy machinery.
References
To research Te Aroha we used the book Motueka Wharf 100 years by Carold Dawber with Motueka and Districts Historical Association, The Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982 – The Scows of Port Nelson and the exhibition at the Port Mapua Maritime Museum.
Related Posts
Motu – 99ft trading vessel built by George T Niccol. Coming Soon!
Talisman – 94ft scow built by Lane and Brown in 1897. Used to transport shingle for the Golden Bay Shipping Company until 1930.
Wairau – Started life as a topsail schooner named Ronga but after a few too many disasters she became Wairau.
Orini – 86ft George Niccol scow built in 1918 for the East Coast Co-op Freezing Co. Ltd. Lost at D’Urville Island.