The saga of the 'Black Funnel Line'
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The saga of the ‘Black Funnel Line’
The s.s.Breeze in the Lyttelton Graving Dock
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 2003.4800.1294
Storm on the New Zealand coast
The arrival during September 1904 of the 405 (gross) ton, s.s. Storm from London via the Suez Canal and Stranded but refloated at Wanganui in 1907 and 1923, and on Farewell Spit in 1915, with a machinery
Edithburgh, South Australia, was not well-received by the Union Steam Ship Company in Dunedin. Classed breakdown in 1921, the Storm was renamed Ripa in 1924.
A1 at Lloyds, the Storm was a competitor in the cut-throat coastal carrying trade.
Purchased by Burns, Philp of Sydney in 1925 and renamed Malanta for its North Australian service, she was
She had been built in March 1904 by Langveld & Van Vliet of Hardinxveld, Holland for shipping managers deemed obsolete by 1931 and was scuttled in Indispensable Strait, Solomon Islands, in October that year.
Pile & Company and was apparently intended for the North Sea trade. However, she was available for a
New Zealand owner and was towed to Sunderland (UK) to have her boilers and engines fitted.
The 140-foot steel steamer went initially on the Dunedin-Wanganui run with calls to Oamaru, Timaru,
Lyttelton and Wellington when cargo was available. Farm produce, foodstuffs and manufactured goods
went north and the Storm usually returned with coal from Greymouth.
The s.s. Storm (I)
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 2003. 4800, 1325
Lost at Sea
The initial success of the s.s.Storm encouraged the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company directors to Re-engined in 1908, the Ripple was sold to Richardson & Company of Napier in 1910, retaining her name.
purchase a second ship. In order to do this, the Union Steam Ship Company provided finance by buying
Sadly, on 7 August 1924, the Ripple foundered off Cape Palliser on a passage from Wellington to Napier.
into the company and the s.s.Ripple berthed in Dunedin in March 1906.
Caught in a heavy south-east gale, she signalled for assistance but sank about 2am. The fifteen-man
As with the Storm, the Ripple at 413 (gross) tons and just over 141 feet, came from the Hardinxveld yard of crew and the master had taken to the boats but were assumed to have drowned. Insured for £7500 on her
Van Vliet & Company. Towed to Sunderland to have her engine fitted in 1905, she had been intended for final voyage the question was: had her engine failed? Had her 500-ton cargo shifted in high seas, leading
the Chatham Islands passenger and stock trade. However, her main run was between the South Island to a capsize? The Maritime Court of Inquiry could not come to a definite conclusion.
ports and Wanganui, as well as to Napier and Gisborne, with a return to Greymouth for coal cargoes.
The s.s. Ripple
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1979.1226.103
Chequered career
Some ships leave their bones onshore. Such is the case of the 547-ton s.s.Breeze. While steaming from Wellington in fog in December 1931, the Breeze grounded on a rock off the old Port
Robinson jetty in North Canterbury. Refloated, she limped down to the Lyttelton Graving Dock but this was
With the Ripple about to be sold to Napier owners and the Storm too small for the available trade, the
the decade of the Great Depression. After marine surveyors considered she would require major repairs,
Canterbury Steam Shipping Company purchased a new, larger ship from the Van Vliet yard in October 1901.
the Canterbury Company demurred and the Breeze was declared a constructive total loss.
After receiving her engines at South Shields, England, and named Breeze, she berthed in Dunedin in
Stripped out prior to scuttling, on 11 February 1932, she was towed to sea to become a practice naval
February 1910. Fitted out that year for refrigerated cargo, she was largely trouble-free for over a decade.
target by HMS Wakakura, assisted by HMS Laburnum and the tug Lyttelton.
However, she stranded in Otago Harbour in 1922 and, with a broken tail shaft off Moeraki several months
later, was repaired at Port Chalmers. The towline broke and the Breeze drifted into a cove near the Lyttelton Heads. Finished off with explosives,
the hull lay in what later became known as ‘Breeze Bay’.
In early May 1928, the Breeze caught fire en route to Wanganui and also grounded at Little Pigeon Bay that
year with her master subsequently dismissed. In July 1931, she stranded at Wanganui and then entered a
further period of disaster.
The s.s. Breeze in the inner harbour at Lyttelton.
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1980.270.19
War casualty
During the first decade of the 20th Century, improving trade between Wanganui and the South Island However, with a reputation as a ‘coal-eater’, the Petone was sold in 1916 to Todhunter & Montgomery of
ports led to the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company’s purchase of the 708-ton s.s.Petone in July 1910. Christchurch. She was sold again that year to Cunningham Shaw & Company of London and then to the
Petone Steam Shipping Company in Cardiff.
Larger than the Company’s previous ships, the 185-foot Petone had been launched as the Gresham at
Greenock, Scotland, by Taylor & Mitchell in 1900. Following a further sale, the Cardiff-based Zenith Steam Shipping Company ran her between 1917 and
1921. While on a passage between Blyth (Northumberland, UK) and Rouen with coal in October that year,
Purchased by the New Zealand Shipping Company as a collier and named the Petone, she was sold to
she went ashore to the east of Fécamp (Normandy). Refloated, she was quickly sold on to the Bennett
the Blackball Coal Company in 1903. As a unit in the Canterbury Company fleet in 1910, she was fitted with
Steam Shipping Company in Goole (UK) and renamed Sparta.
bilge keels at Port Chalmers the following year.
Still in service during World War II, on 10 March 1941, the Sparta struck a mine in the North Sea and was lost
along with nine crew members. Their names were later recorded on Tower Hill, London.
The s.s.Petone
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1983.1836.109Wanganui River accidents
In 1914, the outbreak of World War I had seen many British-built coasters requisitioned for service as On arrival in Lyttelton via Durban, Bunbury (Western Australia) and Melbourne, she was renamed Calm.
colliers and tenders for the Royal Navy. At the same time, trade was expanding in New Zealand and the Placed on the Bluff-Wanganui run and calling into the intermediate ports, she had several accidents in
Canterbury Steam Shipping Company sought to add a further ship to its fleet. the Wanganui river between 1925 and 1930.
The 892-ton s.s.Skell had been built in 1909 by Short Brothers at Sunderland (UK) for Norwegian owners and Often unable to reach the Town Wharf because of her draught and fluctuating levels in parts of the river,
launched in 1910 although not registered under that name. Subsequently sold to the transport company she was forced to discharge a certain amount of cargo at Wellington or unload at Castlecliff. Neither
Empresa Fluvial Brasil Uruguay to become the Cuyaba on the River Plate, she was purchased by the solution was satisfactory and she was laid up in 1933. Three years later, the Calm was sold to Auckland
Canterbury Company in 1914. for scrapping.
The s.s.Calm
- Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1980.1270.23Up in the Solomon Sea
In order to increase its tonnage, the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company purchased the s.s. Karamu Launched by Naamhuizen, Vennootschap Werf Vooruit in 1919 as a replacement for tonnage lost in
from the Union Steam Ship Company in December 1921, renaming her the Gale. Following a stranding World War I and sold to London owners in 1920, Gale (II) also had several accidents at Wanganui
at Wanganui in July 1922, she was sold back to the Union Company a month later and reverted to the between 1925 and 1928.
original name Karamu. In early September 1925 and in leaking condition, she foundered off South West
Purchased by Melbourne owners in March 1935, she was renamed Wannon after the Electoral Division in
Cape, Tasmania.
Western Victoria. Sold to a second Australian owner in 1940, she was taken over in 1942 by the Small Ships
Seeking to replace the Gale (I), the Canterbury Company purchased the 610-ton, Dutch-built Rawlinson Section of the US Army for war service in Solomon Islands-New Guinea waters.
ex-Boschpolder in 1922. She was re-registered as the Gale (II), thus maintaining the tradition of naming
Post-war, she was converted to a wool lighter at the port of Melbourne and finally broken up there in 1957.
the ships after sea and weather conditions.
The s.s.Gale (II) at Wellington.
- Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, G-14492-1/2You can also read
