Industry | Transport |
---|---|
Founded | 1873 |
Defunct | 1973 |
Successor | P&O |
Headquarters | , |
Products | Passenger and Cargo Shipping |
The New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC) was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973.
A group of Christchurch businessmen[1] founded the company in 1873, similar groups formed in the other main centres, to counter the dominance of the Shaw Savill line controlled from London and the (Scotland-Dunedin) Albion line. There were seven initial directors: John Coster, chairman, George Gould Snr., (father of George Gould), John Thomas Peacock, William Reeves, Robert Heaton Rhodes, John Anderson, and Reginald Cobb (died 1873[2]) representing the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency.[3]
The similar groups of businessmen in Dunedin and Wellington soon joined this Christchurch company followed by the Auckland group. They completed the four-main-centre link in July 1873.[4][5] Hon. John Johnston Wellington, John Logan Campbell Auckland, and Evan Prosser of Dunedin were elected to the main board.[6] A Captain Ashby opened an office off New Broad Street London and chartered two ships carrying 500 government emigrants: Punjaub 883 tons and Adamant 815 tons set to sail for Canterbury on 31 May and 20 June respectively with full cargo.[7] By November 1873 they had purchased two vessels, Hindostan and Dilfillan and chartered eighteen. Two 1,000 ton ships were scheduled to be launched the same month and named Waikato and Waitangi.[6]
The company gradually established a fleet of vessels, using Māori names for each. From 1875 the livery consisted of black hulls, white superstructure and yellow funnels.[8]
In 1882, the company's ships were equipped with refrigeration.[8] and a frozen meat service began from New Zealand to England.
Company policy dictated a stop at Pitcairn Islands, in the Pacific, to break the monotony of the ocean crossing.
In the First World War the NZSC lost nine ships from a fleet of 32.[14] In the Second World War it lost 19 ships from a fleet of 36.[citation needed]
The services of both companies were absorbed into the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) in 1973 after exactly 100 years of service.[8]
NZSC operated numerous ships, some purpose built, others acquired from other operators by purchase, lease or charter.
Ship | Type | Date launched | Date acquired | Date disposed | Fate/ next assignment |
Aorangi | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1883 | 1914 | Scrapped 1925 | |
British King | cargo and passenger ship | 1881 | chartered 1882[15] | 1884 | Scuttled at Port Arthur 1904 |
Coptic | cargo and passenger steamship | 1881 | chartered 1883 | 1884 | Scrapped 1926 |
Doric | cargo and passenger steamship | 1883 | chartered 1883 | 1884 | Wrecked 1911 |
Fenstanton | steamship | 1882 | chartered 1883 | 1884 | Grounded and wrecked |
Hurunui (1) | cargo and passenger sailing ship | 1875 | 1883 | Collided and sank Waitara, 22 June 1883[16] | |
Hurunui (2) | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1911 | 1918 | Sunk by torpedo off The Lizard by U-94, 18 May 1918[17] | |
Hurunui (3) | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1921 | 1940 | Sunk by torpedo on 15 October 1940 by U-93[18] | |
Ionic | cargo and passenger ship | 1883 | chartered 1883 | 1884 | Scrapped 1908 |
Kaikoura (1) | cargo and passenger steamship | 1884 | 1899 | Sold to British India SN Co | |
Kaikoura (2)[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1903 | 1926 | Sold | |
Kaipara[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1903 | 1914 | Stopped and sunk by SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, 16 August 1914[20] | |
Mataura (1) | barque | 1868 | 1874 (former Dunfinnan) | 1894 | Sold and renamed Alida. Wrecked 1900[19] |
Mataura (2)[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1896 | 1898 | Wrecked in the Strait of Magellan 12 January 1898[21] | |
Opawa | refrigerated cargo motor ship | 1931 | 1942 | Sunk by U-106, 6 February 1942[22] | |
Orari | refrigerated cargo motor ship | 1931 | 1958 | Sold to Italy and renamed Capo Bianco[23] | |
Otaio | refrigerated cargo motor ship | 1930 | 1941 | Sunk by U-558, 28 August 1941[24] | |
Otaki (1) | sailing ship | 1875 | 1896 | Sold and renamed Dr. Siegert | |
Otaki (2) | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1908 | 1917 | Sunk by the German raider SMS Möwe 10 March 1917 | |
Otaki (3) | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1919 | 1934 | Sold to Clan Line and renamed Clan Robertson | |
Otaki (4) | refrigerated cargo motor ship | 1953 | 1967 | Transferred to Federal Steam Navigation Co | |
Otorama[19] | steamship | 1890 | former Sea King | 1902 | Sold |
Papanui[19] | steamship | 1898 | 1909 | Sold | |
Paparoa[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1899 | 17 March 1926 caught fire in the South Atlantic, scuttled by HMS Birmingham[25] | ||
Piako (1) | clipper | 1877 | Sold, lost 1900[19] | ||
Piako (2) | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1920 | 1920 (former War Orestes) | 1941 | Sunk by torpedo on 18 May 1941 by U-107 |
Piako (3) | refrigerated cargo and passenger ship | 1961 | 1962 | 1979 | Sold to Blue Ocean Compania Maritima SA. Scrapped 1984 |
Rakaia | cargo and passenger motor ship | 1944 | 1946 (former Empire Abercorn) | 1971 | Scrapped |
Rakanoa[citation needed] | |||||
Rangitane (1) | passenger motor ship | 1929 | 1929 | 1940 | Sunk by shellfire by the German raiders Orion and Komet, 26 November 1940[26] |
Rangitane (2) | passenger motor ship | 1949 | 1949 | May 1968 | Sold to CY Tung, Scrapped Taiwan, 1976 |
RMS Rangitata | passenger motor ship | 26 March 1929 | 1929 | 1962 | Scrapped |
RMS Rangitiki | passenger motor ship | 1929 | 1929 | 1962 | Scrapped |
Rangitoto | passenger motor ship | 1949 | 1949 | 1969 | Sold to CY Tung, Scrapped Hong Kong, 1976 |
Remuera (1) | passenger steamship | 1911 | 1940 | Sunk by aerial torpedo 26 August 1940 | |
Remuera (2) | steam cargo and passenger steamship | 1947 | 1961 (former Parthia) | 1964 | Sold to Eastern & Australia Steamship Company.[27] |
Rimutaka (1)[19] | steamship | 1884 | 1900 | Sold to British India SN Co | |
Rimutaka (2) | refrigerated cargo and passenger ship | 1901 | 1930 | Scrapped | |
Rimutaka (3) | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1922 | 1938 (former Mongolia) | 1950 | Sold to Incres Shipping Company |
Rotorua (1) | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1910 | 1917 | Sunk by torpedo on 22 March 1917 by SM UC-17 | |
Rotorua (2) | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1910 | 1936 (former Shropshire) | 1940 | Sunk by torpedo on 11 December 1940 by U-96[28] |
Ruahine (1) | steamship | 1891 | 1900 | Sold | |
Ruahine (2) | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1909 | 1949 | Sold to Italian owners; scrapped 1957 | |
Ruahine (3) | passenger motor ship | 1951 | 1968 | re-registered in Hong Kong; scrapped 1974 | |
Ruapehu (10) | efrigerated cargo and passenger ship | 1901 | 1931 | Sold for scrap 5 August 1931 | |
Stad Haarlem | cargo and passenger ship | 1875 | leased 1879 | ||
Tekoa[19] | steamship | 1890 | 1902 | Sold | |
Tongariro | passenger and cargo steamship | 1883 | 1883 | 1899 | Sold to British India SN Co |
Tongariro | 1901 | 1916 | Wrecked on Bull Rock, 30 August 1916[29] | ||
Tongariro | 1925 | 1960 | Scrapped | ||
Turakina (1)[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1902 | 1917 | Sunk by torpedo in the Western Approaches by U-86, 13 August 1917[30] | |
Turakina (2) | steamship | 1923 | 1923 | 1940 | Sunk by shellfire in the Tasman Sea by the German raider Orion, 20 August 1940[31] |
Waikato[19] | sailing ship | 1874 | 1898 | Sold | |
Waimate[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger ship | 1896 | 1925 | Scrapped | |
Waitara | cargo and passenger sailing ship | 1863 | 1873 (former Hindustan) | 1883 | Wrecked following a collision with Hurunui[16] |
Wakanui[19] | refrigerated cargo and passenger steamship | 1899 | 1913 | Sold | |
Warrimoo | passenger steamship | 1892 | 1899 | 1901 | Sold to Union Steam Ship Co |
Whakatane[19] | refrigerated cargo steamship | 1900 | 1924 | Sold |