Te Aroha

Really excited to have Keith Ingram's kind permission to share this Wonderful article in NZ Professional Skipper Magazine.

COASTAL TRADING SCHOONER TE AROHA,

A WORKING LIFE.

BY

MICHAEL PIGNÉGUY

In May of 1909 the directors of the Wairoa and Mohaka Steamship Company of Napier needed another vessel.

This became apparent after the company’s cargo vessel Tahura

was wrecked at Long Point onthe Mahia Peninsula earlier that month.

But not just an ordinary cargo vessel was required. The
small but thriving shipping company needed a ship
that could handle the sand bar at the entrance of the
Wairoa River and carry cargo from there to the port
of Napier, 46 miles down the coast. So the new vessel had to
be of a shallow draft, be able to sail upwind

and to be easily manoeuvrable in the confines of a river.

She also had to be strong enough for coastal trade.
Discussions were held with the shipbuilders T.M. Lane and
Sons of Totara North in Whangaroa Harbour. A hull design was
finalised, probably in the shape of a half-model as no plans have
ever been found. (Design by half-models was not unusual in
those early days plus, during the building, there was probably a
lot of the ‘mark one eyeball’ talent used.)
Of prime importance was her cargo-carrying capacity which
had to be around 140 tons (weight). This dictated the vessel’s
dimensions, along with the other required criteria. The vessel’s
dimensions ended up as having a LOA of 96 feet (29.3m), a
beam of 24 feet (7.3m) and a light displacement draft of 5 feet
6 inch (1.68m), and with a grt of 106, which later changed
to 114 grt. The hull was to have a sheerline, be round-bilged
but flat-bottomed, and have a fantail stern. To give her some
windward sailing ability, a centreboard would be fitted in a
casing positioned along the centreline in the single cargo hold.
For manoeuvrability within confined spaces

the vessel would

be fitted with two petrol engines:

the port engine being a 30bhp two-cylinder Union O.E. Co,

the starboard engine a 55bhp Standard O.E. Co.

No doubt having engines of different horsepower

probably helped the skipper in deciding which way he should turn her!

The vessel’s rig would be that of a schooner and, unusual for those days,

the masts would have no topmasts, just straight pole type.

A long bowsprit enabled the carrying of two headsails,
although this would have undoubtedly caused some

consternation
for the skipper when turning in a tight space.

By the early 1920s,
the bowsprit had disappeared from photographs of the ship,

no doubt with her skippers saying ‘Good riddance’!
The new vessel was named Te Aroha, a name she still proudly
carries after 105 years.

CONSTRUCTION

In 1909 there was still a fair amount of Kauri growing in

Northland with some not far from Lane’s shipyard.

One tree
supplied enough timber for keel, sister keelsons, all her stringers,

mast, spars and most of her planking.

Horace E. Herring, later of Levin, was involved in

Te Aroha’s construction, and wrote:

“The grandson of great Hongi, with other Maoris,

slipped and slid about in heavy mud holding huge pohutakawa logs,

while I struggled with a bevelstaff on the bandsaw table,

to the accompaniment of much bad language, as we sawed out the

6x6 inch frames for her”.
“Later on, we and others, rushed hot 72 foot lengths of 10x4 inch

Kauri out of the steam box, across the yard and up the staging.

There we desperately cramped, dogged down, wedged and bolted,

these into place, plank by plank.

Golden yellow and lovely solid Kauri it was.”
Her frames were a massive 10x8 inch with about a 12 inch gap between them.

From the sheer strake down to the turn of the bilge,

the hull was double skinned, mostly with 6x2 inch Kauri.

HER FIRST SKIPPER

Te Aroha’s keel was laid in May 1909 and her freshly painted

white hull,

slid into the waiting Whangaroa Harbour in December that

same year.

Captain Adolphus McNabb was the first skipper to take command.

He had started his seagoing career on his father’s fishing boat out of Nelson,

continuing with sailing cargo vessels plying the South Island’s rugged West Coast.
Skipper McNab had the dubious distinction of possibly being the only person to have crossed Cook Strait in an upside down vessel!

This occurred when his schooner overturned in bad weather and most of his crew were lost.

His vessel drifted upside down, with him inside, across Cook Strait until he was rescued!

HOME AGAIN

The next time Te Aroha was to enter Whangaroa Harbour was
79 years later in 1988 under the ownership of Mike and Dee
Pignéguy (as The Adventure Cruising Company Ltd).

It was our first Northland Cruise with her (having bought her in 1984)
and it was with a sense of history that we sailed through the majestic entrance into Whangaroa Harbour with Thomas Major Lane, a direct descendent of Te Aroha’s builder, at the helm.

Aboard for the trip up the coast was the historian and writer
Vern Sale
who wrote in his NZ Herald column of March 25,
1988 entitled Sentimental Journey Home:

“It is fitting that an early ship from a local European shipyard should return to this coast just over a year after the great canoe

Ngatokima-tawhaorua

made her historic re-enactment of Maori voyaging on these same
waters that we cross today. There is something of a feeling of
homecoming. There is a feeling of fulfilment of achievement
recalled, of values reinforced, in a time from which – 80 years on
from now – tradition may find too little of value to remember”.
The following year we returned to Totara North to celebrate

Te Aroha’s 80th birthday.

Once made fast alongside the old wharf at Totara North
we were given a powhiri by local Maori,
some of whom were descendants of those who
worked on the construction of

Te Aroha.

This was followed by them singing
an especially composed song

“Te Waka Ko Te Aroha”.

At that time the old shipbuilding sheds were
now a timber mill,
but still run by Stephen and Grant Lane
with much of the old machinery still in working order.

Passengers and crew were given a tour of the mill
then,
treated to afternoon tea at the old Lane Homestead.

It was a memorable event which we followed up with the following
day,

by inviting all of Totara North out for afternoon tea,
including,
the cutting of a large birthday cake,
and,
a cruise around the spectacular Whangaroa Harbour.

EARLY WORKING DAYS

Many of the townspeople of Wairoa used to travel on Te Aroha
for the six hour (in good weather) run down the coast to Napier
in preference to slogging it over the hills, as there was
no proper road then.

During the Prince of Wales’ visit to Napier in 1924,
the local Maori concert party travelled on board from Wairoa
for the big day.

On the return voyage however, they were hit by bad weather,
and in addition to having all their gear washed overboard,
they had to endure being on board for a week at sea
before the Wairoa bar was safe to cross!
While mostly employed on the Hawke Bay coastline, Te Aroha
did occasionally range further north. Captain McNabb’s log
book of September 1911 shows that they took from September
13 to 21 to sail from Napier to Whangapoua, and then a further
day and a half to sail to Auckland, berthing at the old Railway
Wharf at 0730 on September 23. She then sailed back to Wairoa,
taking five days, only to find that the bar was closed due the
heavy sea from the south. When this occurred, as it did on many
occasions, it meant they either had to sail up and down the coast
off the port or, if it was calm enough, to anchor and just wait for
the seas to flatten out.

In 1913 Richardsons and Company of Napier bought Te Aroha
for £3500 and continued working her mostly between Waioroa,
Mohaka and Napier.


Stranded Again!

The Wairoa Farmers Co-operative Company built a freezing
works in Wairoa in 1916, and as there were no roads out of
Wairoa at that time, their only outlet was by sea down to Napier
so that their meat could be transhipped on to overseas ships.
Te
Aroha’s
holds were insulated so that she could carry
some 2000 carcasses of frozen mutton.

TO THE SOUTH ISLAND

A shift to the South Island came in 1928 when Te Aroha was
purchased by the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company of
Nelson.
Her duties for the following five years were mostly
involved
with running between the Golden Bay ports of Mapua,
Motueka, Puponga, Tarakohe and Collingwood.
Her cargoes
ranged
from cases of fruit, bales of wool, to cement, coal and
timber, most of which was taken to Nelson to be transshipped into
larger coastal and overseas vessels.
1933 saw another change of ownership to Southern Traders
Ltd of Wellington and became a well-known vessel in the
Marlborough Sounds.
In 1936 the Karamea Shipping Company of Wellington purchased Te Aroha
after the loss of their auxillary schooner Fairburn at Westport.
Te Aroha’s new owners put her into the small ports, on the South Island’s West Coast:
Karamea,
Little Wanganui, Hokitika
as well as the larger Westport and Greymouth.

THE ZINGARA’S WHEEL

In 1936 on a visit to Hokitika the skipper purchased from the
Harbourmaster (for the princely sum of £10)
the steering wheel from the scow Zingara.
Zingara had been wrecked on the bar there in 1929.

That steering wheel has served Te Aroha well
and
is still in place after 78 years hard work!

The wheel ranged 15 turns lock to lock, and being attached to
a geared drum that took the end lengths of around 12m of chain running back to the rudder though a series of blocks,
it always
gave me a good workout when manoeuvring!
Te Aroha’s ‘barn door’ rudder was about 5 feet (1.5m) square,
and if it was required to turn her quickly at slow speed it was best
to go hard over with the rudder first on the side of the turn, and
then apply a good amount of throttle to the engine on the same
side. This applied direct thrust from the propeller to the rudder.
The risk was if I didn’t have a firm grip on the spokes of the
wheel it would spin dangerously out of my hands.

Te Aroha’s substantial framing served her well with many
groundings and strandings when crossing bar entrances, and
these continued to be part of her life when loading dairy produce
out of Karamea and Little Wanganui, especially with
groundings in their rivers.

Maurice Tipping of Little Wanganui remembers Te Aroha
grounding at least six times on the river bar which was
only about 20m wide.


Stranded Again. Little Wanganui early 1940s.

On one occasion in 1946, he says,
the vessel was struck by a huge wave and was driven ashore
200m north of the river.
At low water farmers and watersiders, worked around
the clock unloading its cargo of timber, carrying it up to a nearby
paddock.

D8 bulldozers were brought in, taking two days to dig a
channel deep enough to successfully refloat the ship.

One of the skippers in 1942 had a 12 gallon (54 litre) drum
of waste oil lashed on deck at the stern with a tap on it and a
hose sticking out overboard. Doug King, who was then a crew
member said “Going over the bar when it was rough, he would
turn it on to help smooth the sea.

Many a time we would be
surfing without too much water on the bar,
hit the bottom and
you would see the jumper stay between the masts go slack”.

Between 1936 and 1976 Te Aroha crossed Cook Strait around
5,000 times return, managing to survive the extreme conditions the
notorious Strait can dish up.

END OF AN ERA, BUT THE START OF A NEW ONE

By 1976 modern times and costs caught up with Te Aroha and
she was sold to Tim and Meemee Phipps. Tim was, at the time,
a Chief Officer on the Cook Strait ferries.
An expensive refit in Lyttelton in 1979 saw a
new wheelhouse installed
which
was followed by a couple of seasons of
harbour cruises in Wellington.
The financial return just wasn’t there
and so Tim brought her north to Auckland in 1981
and commenced a cargo/passenger service out to
Great Barrier Island.

Car being offloaded at Whangaparapara Great Barrier Island

This service was well received on the island and early in 1984
the Phipps sold Te Aroha to the partnership of Mike and Dee
Pignéguy and Tom (Twiggy) Schmidt. Together we formed the
Aotea Shipping Company Ltd,
continuing the service that the Phipps had started.

PEOPLE NOW THE CARGO

Modern competition in the form of MV Tasman, a motorised
barge, put the writing on the wall for Te Aroha,
so in 1986,
the Pignéguys bought Tom Schmidt’s shares and formed an association with Rope Shipping who took over Te Aroha’s cargo
business.

The vessel then underwent a major refit with the cargo
hold being converted into cabins for 22 passengers and two
crew. A skipper’s cabin was built next to the galley and by the
wheelhouse.

The old crew cabin at the stern was transformed
into a comfortable bar that could seat 16 passengers,
many of whom told some greatly exaggerated tales!

A company name change to the ‘Adventure Cruising Company
Ltd’ and Mike and Dee were off on their own
with day trips around the harbour and Inner Gulf Islands.

There followed three-day trips
to Tiritiri, Kawau and Little Barrier Island
(landing allowed with permits obtained),

and five-day trips
to Great Barrier, Arid Island and the Mokohinua Islands.
These were ‘soft adventure’ trips with
an accent on the endangered flora and fauna on our islands.

The Bay of Plenty beckoned and a five-day trip south to
Tauranga took in the Mercury Islands, Whitainga, the Aldermen
Islands and Mayor Island.
Once a year, a five-day trip north was held, calling in at most of the great anchorages on the coast and the Poor Knights
on the way to the Bay of Islands.

Always keen to try something different, on a couple of
occasions the tides were just right to take then old girl right up
the Keri Keri Inlet to the Stone Store. We would then have to
stay alongside the wharf there until high water the following day
as there wasn’t enough time to get up and back on the same tide.

She was the largest vessel that had been up as far as the Stone
Store for a very long time, the locals said.

The islands of the Cavalli group were always favourites, and
then on to the just spectacular Whangaroa Harbour.

A dive bottle air compressor was fitted to service dive club
trips. With 22 members of a dive club there would be up to 90
dive bottles on board, and the poor compressor worked its heart
out. Te Aroha’s three inch decks took dropped bottles in their
stride with hardly a mark!
Party cruises on Auckland Harbour during the crazy months of
November and December were unfortunately a necessity as they
provided around 30 percent of the boat’s income.

A Near Loss
We nearly lost her in 1993 when the coupling between the
intermediate and tail shaft on the starboard engine failed. As the
engine was in reverse at the time, the propeller just pulled the
shaft out of the stern gland allowing a lot of the Hauraki Gulf to
enter the engine room through the three-and-half inch opening!
The pumps couldn’t cope, so I ran her ashore on the northern
side of Moturekareka – just in time as the engines were about to
disappear under the water! Luckily HMZS Monowai was nearby
and came to our rescue and organised a tow back to Auckland.

Sunk Again!

THE END OF ANOTHER ERA
But all good things come to an end it seems. With the hysteria of
the impending America’s Cup in 1999 (when every charter boat
was going to ‘make a fortune’), berthage charges skyrocketed in
downtown Auckland. Te Aroha’s charges went from around $250
a week to $1000 a week. Upon complaining that this charge was
not sustainable for local operators....

We were told that:There were Americans coming who could pay that!

And when reminded that we had been there for the past 15 years,
the answer was,

“So what? If you can’t pay, go away!”

So in August 1999 Te Aroha was sold to Curel Cruises of
Dargaville, and she spent the following two years on the Kaipara
Harbour.
She was then sold to Gordon Snowden who brought her
back to Auckland for the 2003 America’s Cup, but with berthage
still being so expensive, she had to be moored to a buoy in Shoal
Bay. It was difficult running a charter boat like Te Aroha from
a buoy, and for the first time in her career she was taken out of
survey. In 2012 Tex McGoram and Yolande Oversier bought her
and took her up to Whangarei where they intend to restore her
to her former glory.
Te Aroha is a historic vessel and the last of her kind. Even
though ships like her played a vital role in the growth of our coastal
communities for over 100 years, there seems to be little recognition
given to them.
These boats all seem to end their days quietly rotting
away up some creek. Let’s hope that the current restoration
project will inject some life back into the well loved old vessel.

Stranded again A tractor is
interesting cargo


Stranded Again!

Theres an amazing history when you look into the history of this ship and other simular ones that used to share the task of connecting our coastal communities. This piece has lots of info and is well worth reading: Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982 The Scows of Port Nelson.

Its readily apparent that this being the last authentic wooden sailing ship in existence this has to be preserved, and what is remarkable is that Te Aroha had an unbroken 100yr working history until 2007 when her 97 person commercial survey expired.

This is Te Aroha last time she was slipped.

This was in Tauranga in the late 90s, I've been getting lots of detail on what they did here from Mike Pigneguy and Charlie the manager at a local travelift facility who was part of that job. Charlie has been very helpful with feedback on how we plan to do it this time. 120 tons of ship sounds daunting if you are not used to it, but lets remember these were built to be driven up onto shingle beaches and loaded with logs and boulders in the average working day. After cad modeling and doing the engineering numbers on all possible ways of setting up Te Aroha with an inexpensive landing system that is car trailer portable weve pretty much decided that a multi-airpillow skid system is best. It will run at about 5 psi and have 6mm thick HDPE low friction skidplates. the low surface loading and contour adjustment will make them very versatile.