EDWIN FOX ($1) This ship is a survivor. She is still afloat (1990) and her hulk is berthed in Picton Harbour undergoing restoration.
Built of solid teak by the famous East India Company, the EDWIN FOX sailed the seas for 32 years. She made her first trip to Lyttelton in the South Island in 1873 wih 140 immigrants and made many more such trips before she finally became a coal hulk in Picton Harbour.
The EDWIN FOX weathered many storms and had some 'close calls'. She ran into and sank a collier schooner and then drifted onto the rocks at Deal. After being towed off and docked for repairs, she left on yet another trip with immigrants for New Zealand.
She was also reported running aground on the Goodwin Sands. Again, she was towed off and repaired in London.
The last years of her working life were spent in New Zealand coastal waters.
Log Book April 1990
New Zealand SG1545
Edwin Fox
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aukepalmhof
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Re: Edwin Fox
Built as a wooden full rigger by William Henry Foster at Sulkean for Thomas Reeves, Calcutta.
Launched as the EDWIN FOX named after Edwin Fox Esq. a manager of a financial company connected with East India Company.
Tonnage 836 ton. Dim. 48 x 9.04 x 7.16m. (draught)
She was built of teak or saul wood.
1853 Completed.
Her maiden voyage was from Calcutta to London with a cargo of tea.
After discharging she was surveyed in it Canal Dry Dock in London and classed A1 by Lloyds.
1853 Sold to Sir George Hodgkinson, London, he was not long the owner already in 1854 she was sold during a public auction for £30,000 to the well-known owner Duncan Dunbar in London. At that time a record price paid for a ship.
She was then chartered by the British Government for £1 a ton a month, she was used as a transport ship during the Crimean War.
Her maiden voyage for the new owner was from Calais to the Baltic with on board 15 Officers and 481 men from the 51st Regiment.
November 1854 she loaded at the U,K, for the Crimea via Malta. After the charter was completed Dunbar had made a profit of £8,000.
Between 1855 till 1858 she made three East India voyages for Dunbar, returning with a cargo of tea.
Then she was chartered again by the British Government for a voyage with convicts from the U.K. to Fremantle, Australia.
26 August 1858 she sailed from Plymouth with on board 280 male convicts. 20 November 1858 arrived at Fremantle. Not any convict died during that voyage.
1862 Duncan Dunbar died and the EDWIN FOX was sold to Messrs. Gellatly Hankey & Co., London.
She made then 5 voyages to Australia with passengers and cargo.
1867 Re-rigged as a barque.
1873 She was chartered by the Shaw Savill & Albion Company for the trade with cargo and emigrants to New Zealand.
Her first voyage was from the U.K to Lyttelton where she arrived on 27 June 1873, thereafter she made a few more between the U.K and New Zealand.
25 June 1885 she was bought by the Shaw Savill & Albion Co, for £2,500 and thereafter fitted out as a freezing hulk.
19 October 1885 arrived in Port Chalmers, the fastest passage she had made in this service of 116 days. After arrival all equipment on deck was removed and her masts shortened, a Bell and Coleman compression refrigeration machine installed and four steam boilers placed on deck.
The sheep butchered at shore were brought to the EDWIN FOX and after frozen in, stored in the holds till a reefer vessel arrived to transport the frozen carcasses to the U.K. The EDWIN FOX had a capacity of 400 sheep a day and could store 14,000 carcasses.
1889 towed to Lyttelton at that time she was chartered by Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, her burnt out freezing machine was repaired and thereafter she was towed back to Port Chalmers and continued her service as a freezing hulk.
After in Port Chalmers a coldstore was built the EDWIN FOX was not more needed and she was towed to Gisborne and later to Bluff for use as a floating coldstore.
After she was not more needed in Bluff she was towed to Port Chalmers and later by the KAWATIRI towed to Picton were she arrived on 12 January 1897.
Sheep butchered at Spring Creek near Blenhein were transported by rail to Picton and frozen in on board the EDWIN FOX.
When plans were made to build a coldstore in Picton it was intended to use the freezing equipment of the EDWIN FOX but it needed so many alternations and repairs that it was too costly.
The steamengines were removed from the EDWIN FOX and the boilers on deck thrown overboard and towed to a slipway and pulled ashore and transported to the Picton Meat Works for installation there.
After all the equipment was removed the EDWIN FOX was towed to an anchor place off Picton and till 1904 used by the workers of the meat company as accommodation ship.
In 1905 the EDWIN FOX was towed to the meat plant and moored behind some wooden piles. On both sides of her hull, ports were made and the accommodation was removed. A railway line from the boiler room of the meat work to the ship was put in her port-side, and she was used as a coal hulk till early 1950s.
In the end of the 1950s her forecastle and poop-deck were removed.
In 1965 she was bought by the Edwin Fox Society for the nominal sum of one shilling. In 1967 she was towed to Shakespeare Bay where she remained for the next 20 years. After much further fundraising the ship was refloated and towed to her final home, a dry dock on the Picton waterfront. She floated in and the dock was drained to begin restoration.
Initially it was planned to restore the ship completely, replacing rigging and refurbishing the interior. It has since been decided that this is not practical, not only for reasons of finance but because the timbers required are no longer available. She is thus preserved as a hull with an adjacent informative museum, and visitors can visit two of her decks and so stand inside this atmospheric piece of history. Most visitors to New Zealand will pass through Picton as they move between the islands, and so there are high hopes that the continual cost of her preservation can be met by revenue from the visitor centre. The trust are also looking for sponsors to continue their work on this unique vessel.
She has been given a category I registration from Heritage New Zealand.
This side has her complete life history.
http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/edwinfox.htm
New Zealand 1990 $1 sg1545, scott 984
Source; partly downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Fox and the above given URL.
Launched as the EDWIN FOX named after Edwin Fox Esq. a manager of a financial company connected with East India Company.
Tonnage 836 ton. Dim. 48 x 9.04 x 7.16m. (draught)
She was built of teak or saul wood.
1853 Completed.
Her maiden voyage was from Calcutta to London with a cargo of tea.
After discharging she was surveyed in it Canal Dry Dock in London and classed A1 by Lloyds.
1853 Sold to Sir George Hodgkinson, London, he was not long the owner already in 1854 she was sold during a public auction for £30,000 to the well-known owner Duncan Dunbar in London. At that time a record price paid for a ship.
She was then chartered by the British Government for £1 a ton a month, she was used as a transport ship during the Crimean War.
Her maiden voyage for the new owner was from Calais to the Baltic with on board 15 Officers and 481 men from the 51st Regiment.
November 1854 she loaded at the U,K, for the Crimea via Malta. After the charter was completed Dunbar had made a profit of £8,000.
Between 1855 till 1858 she made three East India voyages for Dunbar, returning with a cargo of tea.
Then she was chartered again by the British Government for a voyage with convicts from the U.K. to Fremantle, Australia.
26 August 1858 she sailed from Plymouth with on board 280 male convicts. 20 November 1858 arrived at Fremantle. Not any convict died during that voyage.
1862 Duncan Dunbar died and the EDWIN FOX was sold to Messrs. Gellatly Hankey & Co., London.
She made then 5 voyages to Australia with passengers and cargo.
1867 Re-rigged as a barque.
1873 She was chartered by the Shaw Savill & Albion Company for the trade with cargo and emigrants to New Zealand.
Her first voyage was from the U.K to Lyttelton where she arrived on 27 June 1873, thereafter she made a few more between the U.K and New Zealand.
25 June 1885 she was bought by the Shaw Savill & Albion Co, for £2,500 and thereafter fitted out as a freezing hulk.
19 October 1885 arrived in Port Chalmers, the fastest passage she had made in this service of 116 days. After arrival all equipment on deck was removed and her masts shortened, a Bell and Coleman compression refrigeration machine installed and four steam boilers placed on deck.
The sheep butchered at shore were brought to the EDWIN FOX and after frozen in, stored in the holds till a reefer vessel arrived to transport the frozen carcasses to the U.K. The EDWIN FOX had a capacity of 400 sheep a day and could store 14,000 carcasses.
1889 towed to Lyttelton at that time she was chartered by Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, her burnt out freezing machine was repaired and thereafter she was towed back to Port Chalmers and continued her service as a freezing hulk.
After in Port Chalmers a coldstore was built the EDWIN FOX was not more needed and she was towed to Gisborne and later to Bluff for use as a floating coldstore.
After she was not more needed in Bluff she was towed to Port Chalmers and later by the KAWATIRI towed to Picton were she arrived on 12 January 1897.
Sheep butchered at Spring Creek near Blenhein were transported by rail to Picton and frozen in on board the EDWIN FOX.
When plans were made to build a coldstore in Picton it was intended to use the freezing equipment of the EDWIN FOX but it needed so many alternations and repairs that it was too costly.
The steamengines were removed from the EDWIN FOX and the boilers on deck thrown overboard and towed to a slipway and pulled ashore and transported to the Picton Meat Works for installation there.
After all the equipment was removed the EDWIN FOX was towed to an anchor place off Picton and till 1904 used by the workers of the meat company as accommodation ship.
In 1905 the EDWIN FOX was towed to the meat plant and moored behind some wooden piles. On both sides of her hull, ports were made and the accommodation was removed. A railway line from the boiler room of the meat work to the ship was put in her port-side, and she was used as a coal hulk till early 1950s.
In the end of the 1950s her forecastle and poop-deck were removed.
In 1965 she was bought by the Edwin Fox Society for the nominal sum of one shilling. In 1967 she was towed to Shakespeare Bay where she remained for the next 20 years. After much further fundraising the ship was refloated and towed to her final home, a dry dock on the Picton waterfront. She floated in and the dock was drained to begin restoration.
Initially it was planned to restore the ship completely, replacing rigging and refurbishing the interior. It has since been decided that this is not practical, not only for reasons of finance but because the timbers required are no longer available. She is thus preserved as a hull with an adjacent informative museum, and visitors can visit two of her decks and so stand inside this atmospheric piece of history. Most visitors to New Zealand will pass through Picton as they move between the islands, and so there are high hopes that the continual cost of her preservation can be met by revenue from the visitor centre. The trust are also looking for sponsors to continue their work on this unique vessel.
She has been given a category I registration from Heritage New Zealand.
This side has her complete life history.
http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/edwinfox.htm
New Zealand 1990 $1 sg1545, scott 984
Source; partly downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Fox and the above given URL.
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