FELICITY AND THE BLIND BAY HOOKERS, NELSON, 1889
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:16 pm
$4.10 The Felicity and the Blind Bay hookers, Nelson, 1889. The hookers were Nelson’s ‘mosquito fleet’ of little sailing vessels that played a vital role in European settlement, not only in Blind Bay (the original name of Tasman Bay) but around the whole top of the South Island and across Cook Strait.
From 1840s Tasman Bay was Nelson’s main transport route. Small white sails dotted the bay as locally built vessels traded between Murderers’ Bay (Golden Bay) and the fledgling town of Nelson. Along Tasman Bay families of settlers took up leases, or squatted, eking out an existence logging, building boats or farming the more fertile flats. Boats were built in bays where there was suitable timber. Most were small cutters or schooners, from one to 20 tons, which were dubbed ‘Blind Bay [Tasman Bay] hookers’.The term 'hooker' originated from the Dutch hoeker, a two-masted fishing vessel that fished with hook and line. Over time the name became a derisive, yet still affectionate, general English term for these small sailing vessels. Hookers were ideal for serving the many shallow coastal ports and wharves in Tasman and Golden bays. The pile of rocks in the foreground is likely to be the ballast that a hooker has swapped for cargo. The ballast is not seen on the stamp)
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/288 ... ay-hookers
The Hookers were Nelson’s ‘mosquito fleet’ of little sailing vessels that played a vital role in the first century of the country’s European settlement, not only in Blind Bay (the original name of Tasman Bay) but around the whole top of the South Island and across Cook Strait.
FELICITY is the vessel closest to the left. The scene is Port Nelson on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon during the late 1800s. The Hookers are drying their sails. The middle vessel is PLANET which is being towed out by two dinghies to begin her voyage. You can see her sails are hauled tight whereas the other two vessels have their sails slack drying in the warm sun. The vessel on the right is the ketch-rigged vessel COMET.
https://jgg.co.nz/product/felicity-blind-bay-hookers/
FELICITY: A two-masted ketch-rigged built-in 1885 by her owner Henry M. Burnard at Frenchman’s Bay for the Bays trade, especially coal from Puponga.
24 or 27 tons, 49.8 x 15.5 x 4.7ft.
She was laid up for two years in Motueka.
1901 Owned by her master Captain George Williams.
On a voyage from Molueka to Nelson in 1901 during a strong south-westerly, she was leaking and the pump did not work properly, slowly she was sinking about a mile from Nelson breakwater. Another vessel came to the rescue and with her help the FELICITY who had capsized was brought inside the harbour of Nelson, where she was pumped dry and righted, thereafter she spend months on the yard of the Ricketts Bros, where she was repaired and re-rigged
11 September 1910 under command of master John Anderson who had bought her a few months earlier from Williams she was lost.
New Zealand Shipwrecks gives:
She sailed from Wellington on 13 September 1910 bound for Havelock and the Sounds to load timber, but on proceeding out into the Cook Strait the master found that the northwest gale and confined sea was too much to contend with and decided to return to Wellington. All went well until the entrance to the harbour was reached, when at 6.30 pm the vessel struck a rock about 100 yards from the low-level light at Pencarrow Head. The FELICITY sank in a few minutes and the captain and two members of the crew scrambled onto a rock. The ketch had approximately 10 tons of cargo on board, including an oil (powered) launch. The ship’s boat and the launch were swept overboard and carried out to sea. The three men remained on a rock 12 feet wide and 30 feet long, all night exposed to the gale and the rain. Their perilous plight was noticed by lighthouse keeper Parker of Pencarrow at 6 am, and he immediately put off in a boat to their rescue. The men were exhausted from exposure but were cared for by Mr. Parkes.
The Court of Inquiry found that the cause of the casualty was that the jib-pennant carried away, the ketch missed stays and was carried on to the rocks.
PLANET: She was built by George Beddoes at Devonport, Auckland, she was his first vessel.
1859 launched, cutter rigged. Dim. 47 x 11.9 x 4.6ft. Tonnage ?
After completing used in the Bay of Islands-Auckland area trades into the 1860s
2 February 1867 Charles Wise of Motueka bought her.
1876 Owned by Mary Wise.
During the ownership of the Wises she was used in the service between Motueka and Nelson for years, she called 360 times at Motueka, in the service with passengers and cargo.
Around 1900 she carried timber from Mace and Holland’s mill, Okiwi Bay when she was trading between Nelson, Croisilles, and the Sounds under Captain Jack Johnson before she was laid up at Haulashore Island.
At that time she was owned by Neil Swanson, who lived on board during her layup.
1909 He intended to make some alternations on the PLANET but could not afford them.
Most probably thereafter rotten away or used for firewood.
COMET: Built in 1883 on the south shore of the lagoon at Torrent Bay by J,J, Ricketts and owned by J,J,F. and C.A. Ricketts.
Tonnage 22.45 ton, dim. 48.8 x 14.9 x 5ft.
Ketch rigged.
She had a yard on the foremast with a square sail for running with the wind.
At one time G.H. Reeves was owner/master, in 1896 W. Caldwell in Collingwood owned her.
She was sold to Lyttelton and returned to Nelson when George Williams bought her in 1911. His son P.C.Williams served on her until 1915 and was later master, although George Williams was master in 1918.
1920 she was fitted out with an engine and her rigging altered to a ketch. She worked the Bays and Lyttelton trade,
1941 Broken up at Bluff.
Source: Taken from “Blind Bay Hookers” by Fred Westrupp.
New Zealand 2022 $4.10 sg?, Scott?
From 1840s Tasman Bay was Nelson’s main transport route. Small white sails dotted the bay as locally built vessels traded between Murderers’ Bay (Golden Bay) and the fledgling town of Nelson. Along Tasman Bay families of settlers took up leases, or squatted, eking out an existence logging, building boats or farming the more fertile flats. Boats were built in bays where there was suitable timber. Most were small cutters or schooners, from one to 20 tons, which were dubbed ‘Blind Bay [Tasman Bay] hookers’.The term 'hooker' originated from the Dutch hoeker, a two-masted fishing vessel that fished with hook and line. Over time the name became a derisive, yet still affectionate, general English term for these small sailing vessels. Hookers were ideal for serving the many shallow coastal ports and wharves in Tasman and Golden bays. The pile of rocks in the foreground is likely to be the ballast that a hooker has swapped for cargo. The ballast is not seen on the stamp)
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/288 ... ay-hookers
The Hookers were Nelson’s ‘mosquito fleet’ of little sailing vessels that played a vital role in the first century of the country’s European settlement, not only in Blind Bay (the original name of Tasman Bay) but around the whole top of the South Island and across Cook Strait.
FELICITY is the vessel closest to the left. The scene is Port Nelson on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon during the late 1800s. The Hookers are drying their sails. The middle vessel is PLANET which is being towed out by two dinghies to begin her voyage. You can see her sails are hauled tight whereas the other two vessels have their sails slack drying in the warm sun. The vessel on the right is the ketch-rigged vessel COMET.
https://jgg.co.nz/product/felicity-blind-bay-hookers/
FELICITY: A two-masted ketch-rigged built-in 1885 by her owner Henry M. Burnard at Frenchman’s Bay for the Bays trade, especially coal from Puponga.
24 or 27 tons, 49.8 x 15.5 x 4.7ft.
She was laid up for two years in Motueka.
1901 Owned by her master Captain George Williams.
On a voyage from Molueka to Nelson in 1901 during a strong south-westerly, she was leaking and the pump did not work properly, slowly she was sinking about a mile from Nelson breakwater. Another vessel came to the rescue and with her help the FELICITY who had capsized was brought inside the harbour of Nelson, where she was pumped dry and righted, thereafter she spend months on the yard of the Ricketts Bros, where she was repaired and re-rigged
11 September 1910 under command of master John Anderson who had bought her a few months earlier from Williams she was lost.
New Zealand Shipwrecks gives:
She sailed from Wellington on 13 September 1910 bound for Havelock and the Sounds to load timber, but on proceeding out into the Cook Strait the master found that the northwest gale and confined sea was too much to contend with and decided to return to Wellington. All went well until the entrance to the harbour was reached, when at 6.30 pm the vessel struck a rock about 100 yards from the low-level light at Pencarrow Head. The FELICITY sank in a few minutes and the captain and two members of the crew scrambled onto a rock. The ketch had approximately 10 tons of cargo on board, including an oil (powered) launch. The ship’s boat and the launch were swept overboard and carried out to sea. The three men remained on a rock 12 feet wide and 30 feet long, all night exposed to the gale and the rain. Their perilous plight was noticed by lighthouse keeper Parker of Pencarrow at 6 am, and he immediately put off in a boat to their rescue. The men were exhausted from exposure but were cared for by Mr. Parkes.
The Court of Inquiry found that the cause of the casualty was that the jib-pennant carried away, the ketch missed stays and was carried on to the rocks.
PLANET: She was built by George Beddoes at Devonport, Auckland, she was his first vessel.
1859 launched, cutter rigged. Dim. 47 x 11.9 x 4.6ft. Tonnage ?
After completing used in the Bay of Islands-Auckland area trades into the 1860s
2 February 1867 Charles Wise of Motueka bought her.
1876 Owned by Mary Wise.
During the ownership of the Wises she was used in the service between Motueka and Nelson for years, she called 360 times at Motueka, in the service with passengers and cargo.
Around 1900 she carried timber from Mace and Holland’s mill, Okiwi Bay when she was trading between Nelson, Croisilles, and the Sounds under Captain Jack Johnson before she was laid up at Haulashore Island.
At that time she was owned by Neil Swanson, who lived on board during her layup.
1909 He intended to make some alternations on the PLANET but could not afford them.
Most probably thereafter rotten away or used for firewood.
COMET: Built in 1883 on the south shore of the lagoon at Torrent Bay by J,J, Ricketts and owned by J,J,F. and C.A. Ricketts.
Tonnage 22.45 ton, dim. 48.8 x 14.9 x 5ft.
Ketch rigged.
She had a yard on the foremast with a square sail for running with the wind.
At one time G.H. Reeves was owner/master, in 1896 W. Caldwell in Collingwood owned her.
She was sold to Lyttelton and returned to Nelson when George Williams bought her in 1911. His son P.C.Williams served on her until 1915 and was later master, although George Williams was master in 1918.
1920 she was fitted out with an engine and her rigging altered to a ketch. She worked the Bays and Lyttelton trade,
1941 Broken up at Bluff.
Source: Taken from “Blind Bay Hookers” by Fred Westrupp.
New Zealand 2022 $4.10 sg?, Scott?