Honouring our seafarers

I am no sailor. The only boat I own gathers dust on a bookcase. Yet I am fascinated by maritime museums. Auckland’s Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum has become like an old friend to be called upon whenever I visit the City of Sails. 

Established 22 years ago on a former shipping wharf, Voyager takes me on a journey through Polynesian voyaging, European discovery and migration, to coastal shipping of a century ago. I
ponder the dreamers, innovators and pioneers of the ocean including Sir Peter Blake, the boy who messed about in boats.

Over several visits, favourite items draw me back. They begin with rigged Polynesian craft and their association with arriving in New Zealand, the last habitable islands on the planet.
I am awed by the immigration galleries depicting the adventurous spirits that saw New Zealand as a place for discovery or offering a better lifestyle. Many boarded creaking departing ships with little more than their courage, hopes and dreams.

Immigration is highlighted further on by displays of fine model ships that were once regular visitors: Dominion Monarch, Rangitata, Awatea and others. Reproductions of once famous shipping line posters remind of a time when as a young New Zealander I dreamed of escape.

The coastal trading cutter, Rewa, is highly anticipated when I know it is just a few steps further on. This pleasing-on-the-eye craft with sun-faded, gaff-rigged sails was built on a Coromandel beach during the 1880s. Such vessels offered the only transportation between Auckland and nearby farming regions, their topography as rugged as they were isolated. Rewa’s decks would have been piled high with wool clips and produce in one direction and machinery and supplies in another.

Maritime art work is impressive. Not to be passed by is the dramatic representation by R B Beechy of HMS Orpheus wrecked on Manakau Bar in 1863. Ferocious waves are pounding the ship apart; 193 lives were lost in the worst shipwreck in New Zealand waters.

A happier work is the Roger Morris Dominion Monarch on the Waitemata. The sun is shining and people wave from a healing yacht.

An exhibit discovered on my most recent visit was the Greyhound Trophy awarded to the Union Company Awatea for the fastest Tasman crossing in 1937. Awatea was sunk by German bombers in 1942 while on troop ship duties in Europe.

The museum boasts its working marina from which visitors can sail aboard replica historic scows. A gem is the diminutive steam launch Puke, built during the 1880s, which rides the swells close to the marina. I recall boarding Puke years ago, wondering if its tall funnel made her top heavy. We cruised beneath the towering bows and sterns of nearby ships.
Yachting on the Waitemata is an integral component of the Blue Water Black Magic gallery, a tribute to key players in New Zealand’s yachting history culminating in skipper Sir Peter Blake and his Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup at San Diego in 1995.

I pause on a gantry, my gaze across the deck of NZL 32, better known as Black Magic, and recall the frenzied sailors who occupied it and celebrated two decades ago. Designed by New Zealander Laurie Davidson, NZL 32 won five straight races to win the world’s oldest sporting trophy at San Diego.

Roy Sinclair

Also see...

Torpedo Bay Navy Museum, Devonport, Auckland

The official museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy has changing exhibitions, children’s activities, guided tours and a café.

Bluff Maritime Museum

A collection of boats, models and photographs telling the story of Bluff and Fouveaux Strait’s maritime history.

Edwin Fox Maritime Centre, Picton

This museum, on the town’s foreshore, focuses on the history of one of the world’s oldest ships.

Dargaville Museum

Not purely a maritime museum but with plenty of sea-based history, including shipwreck relics and a 16m pre-European waka.

Wellington Museum

Located on Queens Wharf, exhibits include a memorial to the Wahine ferry disaster.

Port Chalmers Museum, Otago

This impressive collection reflects the port town’s history and industries, with memorabilia, models and artefacts from the sail and steam eras.