Ship Building in Colonial New Zealand

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: New Zealand
Surnames/tags: New_Zealand Shipwrights, Boat_Builders

Boat Building in Colonial New Zealand

In 1792, Capt. William Raven, left a sealing party ashore at Dusky Sound where the men erected a house, a wharf and had a vessel of 60 - 70 tons almost completed in the stocks before being picked up again by Britannia in 1793. In 1795 the Endeavour (an old East Indiaman) took shelter in Dusky Sound and was abandoned, her crew finished the partially built ship left by Britannia's sealing gang, rigged her as a schooner they named Providence and sailed to Norfolk Island. See Endeavour; Captain William Wright Bampton for the story of Endeavour and Captain William Wright Bampton.

In 1826 the schooner Herald was launched at Paihia by the Reverend Henry Williams for the Church Missionary Society.

In 1828 a dockyard was established in Hokianga Harbour by David Ramsay, Gordon Davis Browne and Thomas Raine. First named Dept-ford after the Naval dockyard in England (because they became bankrupt). The schooner Enterprise; the brigantine New Zealander; & in 1830, the Sir George Murray were built there. Deptford is better known as Horeke. In 1828, the Wesleyan missionary John Hobbs opened Māngungu Mission at Horeke. A flourishing timber trade was carried out at Horeke by Thomas McDonnell in the 1830s.

In 1831 The first New Zealand registration certificate was issued for the schooner Joseph Weller

From the 1850s, William Paine Brown was building ships in the Bay of Islands.

In the 1870s, William Brown jnr. and Thomas Major Lane were boat builders at Kaeo. Lane & Brown built around 50 vessels at Totora North including the topsail schooner Rainbow and the Pacific Island trader Countess of Ranfurly'.' The Browns also built a shipyard at Te Kopuru, on the Kaipara Harbour.

Many scows were built, wide, flat-bottomed vessels to carry a heavy load in shallow water.

Skiffs were also popular, fast craft to carry fresh fish and produce.

see also -

Encyclopedia of New Zealand : Early Shipbuilding

The Mahurangi Magazine Jade River: A history of the Mahurangi 2001 by Dr Ronald H Locker