Blind bay Hookers by Fred Westrupp

Author:Fred Westrupp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storm Bay Books

Very few images of PS Tasmanian Maid exist, however she can be seen here in the lower right of this painting extract, during the two years she saw active service re-named as the gunboat HMS Sandfly between 1863 and 1865. Like all these inefficient little paddle-steamers, she carried a schooner rig as a back-up.

C-030-013. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand

However paddles were still a preferred option for shoal draft vessels like the little 36-ton paddle steamer PS Emu which also came on the Nelson scene two years later. PS Emu drew under three feet of water and tackled Saltwater Creek as a ‘go anywhere’ publicity stunt. More effectively she ran excursions on the Waimea River, but there was not enough work for both vessels and so Emu left for Auckland where there was a contract offering on the North Shore run. PS Emu was followed by the even smaller 19 ton round-sterned, carvel-built and schooner-rigged PS Undine, built in Nelson. Her steaming arrangements proved so defective that she was soon sent off in 1862 to Otago for sale.

During her five years working out of Nelson, PS Tasmanian Maid tackled the Wairau bar and any other shallow inlet where there was cargo or passengers, even landing sheep ashore at the Waimea estuary. Significantly for the West Coast shipping developments, she was the first steamship to cross the Buller Bar, entering Westport under Captain Whitwell on 29th January 1862 with a cargo of goods and 60 diggers, mainly from Otago, although the subsidy was withdrawn in this year and she subsequently became uneconomic to run, being fitted with two guns and temporarily converted to a river gunboat in 1863 during the Taranaki Land War.

In 1862 and 1864 the Nelson Provincial Council subsidised two larger replacement steamers that were purchased by Nathaniel Edwards & Co of Nelson (later known as the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company): the 74ft paddle-steamer PS Lyttelton, and the larger 103 ton screw steamer SS Wallabi both of which were to make regular passages to the West Coast. Edwards and Co. soon also purchased two more paddle-steamers for the West Coast trade: the 125ft PS Nelson in 1866), and PS Charles Edward which was salvaged from her 1867 stranding on the Grey River bar. The paddle steamer PS Moutua was also subsidised in 1868 to link Nelson and Richmond via the Waimea estuary. Screw steamers were also brought in to serve the burgeoning West Coast trade, including the 137ft SS Sturt (1863), the 136ft Kennedy (a twin screw steamer in 1865), and the 98ft SS Murray (1867).

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