Tiroa: 111ft William Hoile Brown Trading Vessel
Build Date
1916
Boat Builder
William Hoile Brown
Length
111 feet
Beam
23 feet
Building and Running the Tiroa
Built in 1916 by William Hoile Brown of Northcote, the Tiroa started life as a steamship registered in the Port of Auckland. From here the Tiroa was owned by the Gisborne Sheep-Farmers Frozen Meat Co. Ltd., in Gisborne. They owned the Tiroa from 1917 to 1934.
In 1934 two Gisborne accountants, Frederick Robert Ball and Charles Alfred Smith purchased the Tiroa and owned her until 1942. At this point the South Taranaki Shipping Co. Ltd. of Patea purchased her. In 1943 the Tiroa was registered as a motor vessel with one mast and no sail, weighing 225.74 tons. The motor was a 6-cylinder Fairbanks Morse diesel engine with 240 bhp which could get the Tiroa up to a speed of 7.5 knots. At this time the Tiroa was used to transport freight including cheese. Her cargo capacity is said to have been big enough for 1800 crates of cheese.
The Tiroa Shipping Company
On the 14 February 1957 disaster struck the Tiroa whilst motoring from Wellington to Patea. At 4am whilst travelling in heavy fog the Tiroa ran aground between Wairoa Stream and Schnapper Point. To salvage the Tiroa the dredge Wanganui, Wellington tub Tapuhi and the trawler Koromiko were used as well as bulldozers on the beach. By February 18 it was decided that if the Tiroa was not re-floated on the high tide at 12.30 they would abandon the salvage efforts. Luckily for the Tiroa, she was re-floated and though leaking badly she was towed to Wellington. On the 21 February 1957 the Tiroa was pulled out of the water on the Patent Slip and assessed. She was a declared a total loss and was sold to Barney Daniel ‘as is where is’ for £5.
Daniel was a shipwright from Wellington. He spent over £12,000 repairing the structural damage, installing electric winches, upgrading crew accommodation, and installing a new a 4-cylinder Lister Blackstone diesel, 270bhp engine in May 1959. He also started the Tiroa Shipping Co. Ltd of Wellington which took ownership of the Tiroa in August 1957 and owned her until around 1965.
The plan was to use the Tiroa for the Wellington to Timaru run but Daniel was warned by Colin Ross of Collingwood Shipping Company Ltd., that he over capitalising on his boat upgrades as well as the potential for the run to be too much for the forty-year-old wooden boat. Sadly Ross was proved right as the Tiroa was difficult in a head sea and although she could go 7.5 knots she cold not be pushed too hard as she was inclined to open up at the seams.
The End of the Tiroa Shipping Co.
The Tiroa Shipping Co. went bankrupt and ceased trading in 1962. After this the Tiroa lay unused in Wellington for several years. George Ree’s a shipwright and boat builder was responsible for checking and pumping the bilges on the Tiroa at this time. He recalls in Marine News, putting his hand through the hull to the sheathing. He blamed the five years of not applying anti-fouling with allowing worms to eat through the hull.
In March 1965 the Tiroa was sold to Alan Rutherford, a fisherman from New Plymouth. He towed the Tiroa to the Queen’s wharf at Shelley Bay in early April 1965. From July 1965 the Tiroa was stripped of parts and fittings including the Lister Blackstone diesel engine Daniel had installed 6 years earlier. Daniel supervised the removal of the engine which Rutherford used on his new boat.
The Sounds Wrecking Company take Ownership of the Tiroa
Rutherford owned the Tiroa for only only one year. In 1966 he sold the Tiroa to David Harrison Jones and Francis Allan Wells for £200. The sale was facilitated by Colin Ross of the Collingwood Shipping Co. and marks the beginning of Jones and Wells partnership in the Sounds Wrecking Company. They owned the Tiroa jointly until 1981 when Jones purchased Wells share for £50.
In March 1966 On the night of the 3rd or 4th April 1966 Wells and Jones towed the Tiroa to Wakatahuri. Whilst towing the Tiroa from Wellington to Wakatahuri they almost had a disaster on their hands. Jones recalls conceding to rules and regulations by placing a navigation light on board the Tiroa. With the cargo derrick still in place Francis tied a hurricane lamp to the solid kauri and lit the lamps wick. With the Valmarie towing Jones recalls watching the Tiroa start to roll in swell rounding Barrett Reef. The lamp broke loose and smashed on the wooden deck sending the kerosene along the deck. There was a flash of orange flame then darkness. Luckily, they did not have a fire to deal with, but they also had no navigation light on the Tiroa either.
Although she was now at Wakatahuri her register remained open and unchanged with the Tiroa Shipping Co. Ltd. Listed as the owner until it was closed in 1987-88. The Tiroa was beached at Wakatahuri in front of the boatshed making a convenient storage shed for her timbers and fittings as well as sheltering the boat shed from the wind.
The Tiroa remains at Wakatahuri where she is slowly deteriorating though parts of her are still being salvaged and used today. This includes the large BBQ table which was cut out of the Tiroa’s hull. Much of her other timber was used in the restoration of the Kelvin and her mast was used to make the bowsprit on the ketch Anna Kristina.
The Tiroa’s brass nameplates are in a private museum in Wanganui.
References
To research the Tiroa we used the NZ Ship and Marine Society entry on the Tiroa, the 2009 anniversary edition of Marine News which outlines the history of the Sounds Wrecking Company and the Patea Historical Society.
Related Posts
Southern Isles – 36ft launch used by Tom Wells in his Sounds Wrecking Company days
Valmarie – 54ft launch built by Francis Wells and used in many a Sounds Wrecking Company mission
Marilyn – 112 ft NZ Navy vessel built in 1943 and deployed during WWII.
Southern Isle – 92 ft Nelson scow built by D.M. Darroch in 1901.