THE NEW ZEALAND MARITIME RECORD

Maintained by the NZ National Maritime Museum
as a service to Shipping Enthusiasts and Maritime Historians

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Displacement: 195 tons
Length: 38 metres
Ship's company: 9
Type: Three masted schooner or barquentine

1875     August     Built by Francis or Frances Guy at Batemans Bay, New South Wales and first registered at the port of Sydney.

1875     October 15     Under the command of  Edwin Cain, the two months old vessel with a cargo of timber was stranded on Waikanae Beach on the South West coast of New Zealand's North Island.  A Court of Inquiry found that the master did not take sufficient pains to ascertain his true position when running in for an anchorage. Both Cain and the first mate were warned to be more cautious in future. She subsequently had a long career as a timber carrier in New Zealand waters.

1876     In the book Down the Bay, (about Otago Harbour) it is stated that the new steamboat Balclutha towed the schooner Frank Guy from Dunedin to Port Chalmers on 22nd September, 1876.

1881     Registered at the Port of Napier, she was later registered at Auckland and then Dunedin.

1929     The date of this vessel's arrival in Lyttelton is unknown, but she was converted to a coal hulk in 1929.

photographed as a hulk at Lyttelton

1932 or 1936     Beached at Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour.

Note:     There is some possible doubt over the correct identity of this vessel. The vessel at Quail island has an all metal hull not wooden as stated for the 1875 vessel built in Batemans Bay, NSW. The only wood James Turner found on her was along the top guard rail.

1936

   
photographed in the early 1980's by James Turner
Enlarged copies open in a new browser window.

1990

Acknowledgements

Thanks to James Turner, the Lyttelton Museum, Steven McLachlan (specialist in Maritime Covers) and Marcus Castell