Description
William McPhee’s Southern-Built Sailing Ships, New Zealand 1860-1870s
In 1856 William McPhee finished his shipbuilding apprenticeship in Canada, signed on board a sailing ship, and set out to see the world. A year or two later he arrived in southern New Zealand and began working his trade. This is the story of the ships he built on Stewart Island and in the Catlins.
His ketches and schooners delivered timber and general cargo to villages and towns around New Zealand. They battled through both Foveaux and Cook Straits; storms accompanied them and dangerous river entrances awaited them. The Nora, Eliza Simpson, Jane Hannah, Owake and Catlin served for years before the unforgiving sea claimed them and their brave crewmen. Two of his smaller vessels, the Anna and the Jane ventured into the Southern Ocean and somehow survived the sub-Antarctic. His biggest ship, the John Bullock, traded regularly from Melbourne to Hokitika and was finally lost in Northern New South Wales.
There were few navigation aids in those days and all coastal vessels had near-misses or strandings; only good luck, sturdy construction and a skilled captain could save a ship that got into trouble – captains like Stephen Tall, Bill Hanning, Daniel Mcphaiden, Edward Tonge, Roert Norman, Alexander Purdie, James Tunbridge, Roderick Currie, Otto Arndt, John Mason and Charles Hayward.
You will meet the ships, and the captains – good ships and good seaman, they knew their business well.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.