Paddle Steam Tug Lyttelton – the grand old lady of Port

By Carl Bonniface

The first meeting of the newly formed Lyttelton Harbour Board was held on 18 January 1877, with one of the first things on the agenda being plans to order a new tug boat. Up until then Lyttelton Port was at the mercy of the Cameron Brothers, who owned the only tug, Titan. After discussing it thoroughly, the Board ordered a new tug at the cost of £9,000 (about NZ$2.7 million today) from the Laird Brothers, pioneers in the construction of iron-hulled ships. They were located at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool, on the west bank of the River Mersey.

The new tug PS Lyttelton was an iron paddle wheel steamer powered by twin diagonal compound steam engines. She left Birkenhead on 19 August 1878. She was rigged as a brigantine in London before being sailed out to New Zealand via the Suez Canal, arriving at her home port Lyttelton on 21 November 1878. On her arrival the sails and mizzen mast were removed and the paddle wheels fitted. She was also fitted with a steam-powered fire extinguishing pump, which could throw a stream of water up to 65 metres. This was handy to extinguish ship fires and also to help the Lyttelton Volunteer Fire Brigade deal with large warehouse fires.

The first master of the tug was Captain JW Clark who had previously commanded several ships on the trans-Tasman trade. He was originally from Tasmania. He remained master until 1886 when he was appointed Port Lyttelton's Harbourmaster. Under Captain Clark's leadership PS Lyttelton performed two notable salvaging feats. In 1882, after a storm at Timaru when several vessels were wrecked, PS Lyttelton went to Timaru and towed off the barque City of Perth, taking her to Dunedin. The barque had lost her rudder so the tow was very difficult. A short time later PS Lyttelton towed the barque Hobson off Ninety Mile Beach in Northland and brought her to Lyttelton. The old tug certainly got around!

At the official opening of the Lyttelton Dry Dock on 3 January 1883 PS Lyttelton was used to convey the ladies, dressed in all their finery, from the ‘Town Jetty’, across the harbour to the dry dock. The tug was dressed "in an exceedingly tasteful manner" with bunches of toetoe and bouquets of geraniums. After the ceremony, around 700 gentlemen gathered in the new export shed to celebrate the momentous occasion. The party cost the Harbour Board £533, (over NZ$160,000 today) including £240 (NZ$73,000) for wine! The speeches went on into the night.

Included is a photograph of the Terra Nova, best known as Captain Robert Falcon Scott's ship on his fateful second attempt to reach the South Pole in 1910, but here she is accompanied by PS Lyttelton in Lyttelton Harbour in 1904. How did this come about? Well, during Captain Scott's first Antarctic expedition of 1901-1904, his ship Discovery became trapped in pack ice in McMurdo Sound. Terra Nova accompanied by SY Morning was sent to the frozen continent to free Discovery and was photographed in Lyttelton with PS Lyttelton, on her way home. Captain Scott was so impressed with Terra Nova, he used her for his second expedition.

Around this time PS Lyttelton was starting to show her age, even though she was re-boilered in 1901. As merchant vessels arriving in Lyttelton were getting larger, the Harbour Board decided to replace her with a more powerful and manoeuvrable tug. A new tug was ordered from Ferguson Brothers of Port Glasgow in Scotland. The Canterbury arrived in Lyttelton on 10 September 1907. PS Lyttelton went out to meet her and escorted her into the inner harbour. The new tug had a name change in 1911 to Lyttelton, and is the much-loved vessel still visible moored in the harbour today.

The old paddle steam tug's service ended with the arrival of the new, and she was sold to the Devonport Steam Ferry Company for £3,500 (NZ$1.1 million) and headed to Auckland. In 1912 she was again sold, this time to the Kauri Timber Company to tow rafts of kauri logs between Whangaroa and the Coromandel ports. In 1945 her superstructure was destroyed by fire. On 5 October 1955 she was towed across the Hauraki Gulf and run ashore at Lagoon Bay on Coromandel's Takatu Peninsula, for use as a shingle hopper for the Subritzky Shipping Company. After the shingle trade ceased in the mid 1970s (nearly 100 years after her launch in August 1878) her hull became slowly buried in shingle drifts. A sad ending for a grand old lady of the sea that was part of the colourful history of Port Lyttelton.

Recently, the original brass binnacle from the compass on the PS Lyttelton was gifted to the Tug Lyttelton Preservation Society by the Naval Point Club Lyttelton. It will take pride of place in their on-board museum.