NZ paddle steamers Waikato River

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi, can anyone out there help with any information at all on the
  ps Pioneer (Rifle Gunboat, 140'x20'x8'6", built 1863 for the NZ Colonial Govt, by Australasian Steam Navigation Co., Sydney Australia, sailed to NZ, paddle re-installed, engaged in Maori War. finally wrecked on the Manukau Bar, 1866}
  ps Koheroa & ps Rangiriri ( River Tugs, 80'x20', designed in NZ, built 1864 for the NZ Colonial Govt, by P.N.Russell & Co., Sydney, Australia, shipped in parts to Port Waikato, reassembled. Koheroa sank 1866, Rangiriri abandoned 1989 at Hamilton - hulk still exists.
 :?  ps Freetrader ( built as barge 1884, engine & boiler from Rangiriri installed 1890, broken up in 1928, some of hulk still exists at Mercer)
 :cry:  ps Cleopatra ( built as barge 1864, rebuilt with engines & boiler from Koheroa into passenger steamer 1867, wrecked near Cape Palliser 1868.)
Information being sort is on the ENGINES, BOILER & Feathering PaddleWheels which may have all been built by P.N.Russell & Co., Sydney from their standard range they developed from 1855 until they closed in 1875. My drawings of the ps Rangiriri are nearing completion, however details of the heart of the vessel are still sketchy.

[Roderick Smith]

NZ information seems to be scattered in many places in Paddleducks.  This article does not answer the technical questions, but does add to the total picture of paddlesteamers in NZ waters.

www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Navy-a1-1.html
ART. III.—The First New Zealand Navy; with some Episodes of the Maori War in connection with the British Navy.
This is a 1919 article, looking at the early days of an NZ Navy.  It has a lot about the Maori wars, with Waikato River in use for gunboats and as a supply line.  There are passing references to five paddlesteamers, three of which have been mentioned in various places in Paddleducks.
The concluding paragraph: 'This covers, as far as I can discover, the operations of our first naval adventures. The vessels seem to have done good work, and all that was expected of them. It is to be hoped that the “Calliope's” gunboat, the schooner “Caroline,” the paddle-steamers “Avon” and “Sandfly,” and the river-steamers “Pioneer,” “Koheroa,” and “Rangiriri,” and the men of the British Navy who manned them, will not be forgotten in our histories'.
* Avon: appeared from nowhere in the text.  The final paragraphs makes it sound like a seagoing naval vessel.
* Sandfly: appeared from nowhere in the text.  Again, it seems to be a seagoing naval vessel.  It did enter the river.  The captain commented 'never again': too little clearance, even at high tide.
* Pioneer: has its own thread in this Research Forum.  It was a sternwheeler, but the wheel was removed for it to sail from Australia.
* Koheroa: is in many places in Paddleducks.
* Rangiriri: is in many places in Paddleducks.

The article is also online at
http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_53/rsnz_53_00_000500.html
I picked up another name on this further reading:
He arrived at Wanganui on 20.1.1865, and on 5.2 moved camp to Waitotara, one and a half miles from the mouth of the river. PS Gundagai entered the river during the evening, bringing provisions for several days. On 16.2, General Cameron marched to Patea River, which had been entered by Gundagai and Sandfly the day before.  [Work now needed on Gundagai, and on Patea River relative to Waikato River.  It was Patea River where the Sandfly captain commented about not to be tried again],

A further addition on Thurs.17.4, based on the discovery further on by 'Kiwi'.
Not only was England distant for supplying NZ in the 1860s wars, communications were slow.  Messages and orders would have to be taken to at least India before reaching the high-speed telegraph network.
The Indian internal network was completed in 1856.  I cannot find the date of linking to England, but it was before 1865 (when the trans-Atlantic cable was completed).  The England - India telegraph line was extended to Singapore and Java in 1870; the onward connection to Australia was achieved in 1872.  This is one more related technology which still makes stirring reading today:
From www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/overland.htm
Connecting Adelaide and the rest of Australia, through Darwin, with England by means of a single wire in 1872, was one of the greatest engineering achievements of the nineteenth century. It was completed by South Australians, under the direction of Charles Todd, in less than 2 years. Today (the noughties) government inquiries, feasibility and environmental-impact studies would take twice that time before the job could even commence.

PS Gundagai, mentioned in the Maori war article has a good coverage in Parsons 'Ships of the inland rivers'.
It was built in Glasgow in 1855, and shipped to Australia in sections, to be reassembled at Goolwa (SA).  It was placed on the Goolwa - Albury run [IIRC it was the first paddlesteamer to reach Albury - checking needed].  Despite having only 18 in [450 mm] draught, it was unsuitable, and from 1859 was on the Goolwa - Port Adelaide run [ie regular use of the Murray mouth?] and in the gulfs.  It went to Auckland in 1864: how? Voyaged? Towed? Conveyed? In sections?  It was wrecked on Patea River bar, inbound from Wanganui with government stores, on 25.6.1866.  There is no photo or etching in Parsons.  I guess that the boat had contemporary European style, not classic Australian riverboat style.  However, the draft is more Australian than European.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Roderick,
The following from " Proceedings of the Institute of Engineers 18??"

-"In 1862 the Government purchased the paddle-steamer “Avon” for £2,000. This steamer, which was 60 ft. in length, 14 horse-power, 27 tons register, and drawing 3 ft. of water, had been brought from England in sections and put together at Lyttelton in 1861. She had been engaged in the trade between Lyttelton, Heathcote, and Kaiapoi. On the 22nd November she left Lyttelton in charge of Lieutenant Easther with a crew of fifteen men from H.M.S. “Harrier,” in tow of that vessel. Lieutenant Easther retained command until the close of the Waikato War. Mr. Ellis, who is still living (1920) in Auckland, was engineer. The vessels arrived on the 26th November at Onehunga, where the “Avon” was refitted and armoured for service on the Waikato River. She assisted in the rescue of survivors from the wreck of H.M.S. “Orpheus,” on the Manukau bar, 7th February, 1863, the men being transferred from the steamer “Wonga Wonga,” which happened to be crossing the bar at the time of the disaster.

The “Avon” was towed to the Waikato Heads on the 25th July, 1863, by H.M.S. “Eclipse,” Commander Richard C. Mayne (Plate V, fig. 1). Thirty men were transferred from the “Eclipse,” and Commander Mayne took the “Avon” up the river to the Bluff—a little below where Mercer now stands. On the 6th August Captain Sullivan, H.M.S. “Harrier,” senior naval officer in New Zealand, took the vessel on a reconnaissance as far as Meremere, where the Maori opened fire, which, on completion of observations, was replied to from the “Avon's” 12-pounder Armstrong gun and a 12-pounder rocket-tube.

While the “Avon” was being fitted at Onehunga four large barges were brought overland from Auckland. These were also armoured with an iron-plate covering, and pierced for rifles and sweeps, or oars, this work being done under the superintendence of Captain Mercer, R.A., who was later killed at Rangiriri.

The “Avon” was on service during the course of the Waikato War. On the 18th February, 1864, through striking a snag in the Waipa River, she became partly submerged. She was used for a time as a coal-hulk at Port Waikato, which in those days was a busy place, with building and repairing shops. Later the “Avon” was renamed “Clyde,” and was occupied in mercantile trading in the run between Tamaki and the Thames. In 1876 her paddles were dismantled and twin screws substituted. She was broken up in Auckland about 1883."-

The other early river boats are also mentioned. Will try and find the link
Kiwi

links

rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_53/rsnz_53_00_000520.html

www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-c33.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_naval_vessels_of_New_Zealand

www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-c28.html

The wikipedia is so full of errors as to be un-usable.

[Harold H. Duncan]

ps Sandfly-

"In 1860 a small paddle-steamer, the “Tasmanian Maid,” 53 tons register, 36 horse-power, which had been trading between Nelson, Wairau, and Wellington, was sent over by the Nelson people to bring the women and children from New Plymouth if necessary. She was then used as a despatch-boat between New Plymouth, Waitara, and Onehunga. In 1862 she was engaged in trade from Auckland to Coromandel, and about Auckland Harbour. In June, 1863, she was purchased by the Government for £4,000. She was renamed “Sandfly,” and armoured, being also armed with two 12-pounder Armstrong guns. Lieutenant Hunt, H.M.S. “Harrier,” hoisted the pennant on the 23rd June, 1863, and his crew consisted of twenty-two men from the warships. On the 12th October Captain Marks, of the gunboat “Caroline,” was transferred to the “Sandfly,” while Lieutenant Hunt was transferred to the paddle-steamer “Lady Barkly,” which had been purchased by the Government and partially plated, when it was decided that she was unfit for service, as intended, on the Waikato River. She was used for transport work in and from the Manukau Harbour. The “Lady Barkly” is still (1920) running on the coast as a screw-steamer under the name “Hina.” The “Sandfly” was stationed on the east coast of the North Island, her headquarters being Auckland. She took part in the blockade of the Firth of Thames and the Tauranga campaign. She captured on the 31st October the cutter “Eclair,” a vessel of about 20 tons, owned by the Maori, and loaded with provisions. In 1865 the “Sandfly” was sold by the Government, after a short service about Cook Strait transporting troops to Wanganui, and doing a little survey work for the Cook Strait submarine cable. The new owners changed her name back to “Tasmanian Maid,” and she was wrecked off New Plymouth on the 16th January, 1868."

Your right Roderick, information on NZ paddle boats is scattered everywhere, and very hard to find. We don't have the same interest in general here as you do in OZ, mores the pity

Kiwi

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Roderick,

good find.
I found this one last night also

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6205876/Australia-s-logistical-and-commissariat.html

gives the Australian perspective to the 1860's, most interesting

Thanks

Kiwi