Build Date
1900
Boat Builder
Lane and Brown
Length
98.5 feet
Beam
13 feet
Wairau’s Unfortunate Beginnings
Wairau was originally a topsail schooner named Ronga. She was built in 1900 by Lane and Brown at Whangaroa. Presumably her first owner was T H Kerr of Christchurch and whilst she was owned by Kerr her skipper was E O Petersen.
Only one year after her launch Ronga/Wairau capsized in the Pelorus Sounds in September 1901. This happened again a year later and not surprisingly the place was called Capsize Point.
Some time later her mast was cut shorter and the sails were reduced. This may have not helped Ronga/Wairua when she struck her next disaster.
On the 21st April 1906 Ronga/Wairua left Lyttleton for Havelock with a load of coal. Only the next day she was found floating upside down off Cape Campbell. All six of her crew had tragically drowned.
Weight
93 tons registered weight
Draft
7.1 feet
Ronga Becomes Wairau
The sea took her to Kapiti where she was towed to shelter and salvaged. This is when she was renamed Wairau.
She was converted to run a steam engine and was put back into service. Sadly a new engine and a name change didn’t improve Wairau’s luck as she was wrecked in Whanganui in 1910 and again in the Manawatu River in 1911.
From 1912 until 1961 she was owned by Eckford Shipping Co. This company was based in Blenheim and also owned the Kohi, MV Tuhoe and Echo at different times. They used Wairau to work the trade routes at Hokitika, Nelson, Whanganui, Picton and Puponga. Luckily the new owners seemed to have better luck than the last and Wairau’s years here were fairly uneventful.
For some time during these years she was skippered by Tom Sawyers who also skippered Kohi. Don Vass also worked as chef on Wairau in 1954 which would become Wairau’s last year of trading as she had become uneconomical. Following this year she was laid up in the Wairau Bar for several years.
in 1961 Eckford Shipping Co. sold Wairua to the Sullivan Shipping Co. and she was moved to Motueka in 1964. She was skippered by Bruce Wratt with the help of an escort vessel. They drove Wairau up onto the hard for repairs but they were never completed.
In 1966 her owner was recorded as K A Bradford by the Motueka Harbour Board.
Wairau ultimately was slowly demolished for scrap and was burned in the 1970s.
References
To research Ronga/Wairau we used the book Motueka Wharf 100 years by Carold Dawber with Motueka and Districts Historical Association.
Related Posts
Kohi – 91ft. trading scow that became a floating Crayfish freezer in the 1960s.
M. V. Tuhoe – 97ft George Niccol trading Scow used during World War Two by the US Army.
Echo– 104ft William Brown & Sons Scow that would become the star of a Hollywood movie.
Gael – South Westland Shipping Company trading vessel skippered by Albert Tregidga for a time.