And find them they did in the days before accurate charts, proper lighthouses and safe harbours. Supplement of the "Dunedin Star", April 10th, 1893. From the late 1870s the Union Company had branched out from the coastal trade to establish passenger services to Calcutta, Vancouver, San Francisco and Australia. He moved to Britain to enjoy his political and economic wealth. Under P&O, 'the Southern Octopus' had become 'the Southern Eunuch'. This now left Union with few strings to its bow. This plate was is typically of those plates … The bulk of the collection is composed of stock and financial records, 1854-1952, including such items as lists of stockholders, financial statements, invoices, various ledgers, and payroll sheets. Tin Stackers tells its story: the ships, the men who sailed them, and the conditions that shaped their times. Union Steamship Company Jug 1 matches. The company operated a fleet of ships along the Pacific Coast until the late 1930's. It was unglamorous work, but in 2000 the tug Karamea and the large barge Union Bulk I made what look almost certain to be the last Union voyages. 1919 Bullard King & Co.'s Natal Direct Line taken over. P&O kept its promise to leave the operational management with the Wellington board (the company moved its head office from Dunedin at the start of 1922) and management. The federation modelled itself on the Shipping Federation, London, and its founding members were Huddart Parker & Co., McIlwraith McEachern & Co., the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, and the Adelaide Steamship Company. Union Steamship Company vessel MV Kaimiro at Lyttelton, New Zealand, in 1956 However, I have contacted Maritime New Zealand , which in the 40s and 50s was known as the Marine Department, and from them obtained a scan of handwritten entries in their register showing the dates my father’s 1st Mate ‘s and then … New Zealand Ship and Marine Society (30th Aug 2019). The wheel had turned full circle just as the company rang 'finished with engines'. In May 1987, the company was converted from a public to a private company and all operations were transferred to Union Shipping NZ Ltd. In 1876, just months after Mills got back to Dunedin, Denny negotiated a Union Company takeover of the country's biggest coastal competitor, the Wellington-based New Zealand Steam Shipping Company. The Union Company's ships have also carved their names in blood, iron and steel along our coastlines. Date: 1902 Nov Held by: The National … Take the early history of one of its premier routes, the famous Wellington-Lyttelton ferry service. Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 3.25 x 4.25 inches In hindsight it can be seen that it was soon to suffer an even more serious loss than the wartime sinkings — the nationalisation of its air services. ... the National Steamship Company was founded in June, 1901, as a subsidiary of Union Lumber Company. And, despite complaints from VIPs, such as the MPs who often used the ships, they got no better. She was fitted throughout with incandescent electric light—this at a time when New Zealand streets were lit by gas or not at all. Photographs depict Union Steamship Company vessels, personnel, facilities, resort … Ships such as the Hawea and the Taupo, the legendary trans-Tasman flier Rotomahana of 1879 (the first ship in the world built of mild steel and the first with bilge keels) and the high-speed coastal mini liner Takapuna of 1883 were all state-of-the-art vessels. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the following credit: More information can be found in our terms of use. /records… The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand must surely hold the accolade for having owned the largest number of truly beautiful passenger … The fonds consists of minute books, financial records, advertising materials, newspaper clippings, schedules, a typescript history of the company by Jessie M. Van der Burg, postcards, and an extensive photograph collection. The BTs' innovative marine gas turbines guzzled gas, though, and the unforeseen oil price shocks of the 1970s forced Union to re-engine Union Rotoiti with conventional diesels. Comptroller's records. Earlier in the century Union had used New Zealand's weak company legislation to artificially deflate profits and to build up hefty secret reserves by depreciating its assets at a very high rate. The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Ltd continued to exist as a … The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Union NZ) should not be confused with the Union Steam Ship Company (UK) which became part of Union-Castle Line. File print and colour transparency available in Ephemera Room. Its end came off North Africa in November 1942 when serving as a troopship. He also became a trustee for his employer, a fortunate move, since Jones died suddenly in 1869, throwing the future of the Harbour venture in doubt. Perhaps more damning was the company's failure to see the potential of the road/rail ferries that the New Zealand Railways wanted for the Wellington-Picton run. Italian bombers struck and Awatea's speed and anti-aircraft guns provided insufficient protection and the ship went down in flames. Also surviving is the Dunedin office of the Union Steam Ship Company used after the company shifted its headquarters to Wellington. Those secret reserves grew even fatter after the war as Union, P&O's most profitable cash cow, salted away more and more money. Then in 1907 Dennys delivered the first purpose-built Lyttelton ferry, the Maori. Initially the âUnion Steamship Companyâ (USSCo) of New Zealand owned and operated a considerable fleet ships covering a range of tonnages, however the over-night Inter-Island Express service between Wellington and Lyttelton (Christchurch), was one of the most important routes. From 1895 the elderly Penguin was running exclusively between the two ports. This was a major coup. Models: Shipbuilders, Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and Rennie Forrestt Shipbuilding, Engineering and Dry Dock Company. In 1998, it formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Shipping Bulk, to barge coal from Westport to Port Kembla, Australia. Little wonder that the Company's 2500 ton colliers of the late 1940s were so soundly built that later owners squeezed another two decades' service from them after the company sold them in the early 1970s. Although most of the Union Company ships were smaller than the Atlantic liners, the fleet was huge in numbers and Union was a significant line by world standards. 277 tons register and nearly 500 tons gross. Those bulging reserves proved too tempting to P&O. Records … Chartering was more common than owning, but in 1976/77 the company introduced the mainstays of its 'trans-Tasman bridge', the BT class quarter-ramp RO-RO ships Union Rotorua and Union Rotoiti. For a good history of AORANGI click here http://www.derbysulzers.com/shipaorangi.html, UNION LYTTELTON 1977- 1983 SEAWAY MELBOURNE 1983 - 1992, UNION HOBART 1976 -1984 SEAWAY HOBART 1984 -1988. The Awatea was not replaced and although the liner Monowai was expensively refitted for peacetime service, passengers were switching from ships to aircraft. Rumours about Britain's inability to compete with the United States and Japan unsettled many British businesses. Morgan became minor legends. You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. The Union Line was founded in 1853 as the Southampton Steam Shipping Company to transport coal from South Wales to Southampton. Twain found a berth, but in a calico partitioned space 'as dark as the soul of the Union Company, and [that] smelt like dog kennel'. The old repair yards, the Wellington laundry and other operations were closed. Overview of the Collection ... and their union, became increasingly dissatisfied that prices continued to rise, but wages remained frozen under existing contracts. By the end of the 1960s the Union Company was at a crossroads. In January 1908 the company's freighter Koonya earned a footnote in Antarctic history by towing Shackleton's Nimrod from … It is no exaggeration to say that the company touched the lives of nearly every New Zealander. Only a few insiders knew what was going on. Some masters, Arthur Davey, Coll McDonald or G.B. It also ran airlines. Until the 'fifties' Aucklanders or Wellingtonians would have been on the look out for the trans-Tasman stalwarts Maunganui or Monowai, bringing mail, foreign papers, passengers and gossip. And they had the latest-style, economical compound steam engines. Mills kept the British lines out of local waters by buying the Albion Line's little coaster Taiaroa. Some ships owned were the National City, Brunswick, Coquelle River, Arctic, and three named Noyo. Portland Electric Power Company. Embarking at Las Palmas, St Helena, Natal [Durban], Algoa Bay [Port Elizabeth] and Cape Town. Books. In 1998, just a year before the company bowed out of the Tasman for good, its big quarter ramp ship Union Rotorua served as a temporary floating electricity plant, helping out Aucklanders after multiple cable failures had blacked out much of the centre of the city. p5d The British India Steam Navigation Company states that the transport Zibenghla, which left the Mersey on Oct 2 with Field Artillery on board arrived at Cape Town on Monday. 1585-002: Alaska Steamship Company records, 1950-1960; Accession No. Southampton: SS Tintagel Castle (Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd) travelling from Cape Town to London. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Ltd. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand :View of Dunedin from Waverly Bay [and views of Dunedin buildings]. Inspired by Arthur Anderson, (a founder of P&O), the Union Steamship Co. was the older company founded in 1853 as the Union Steam Collier to carry coal from South Wales to meet the growing demand in Southampton. From the 1960s the company introduced new ships with deck cranes and then roll-on, roll-off ships (RO-ROs). The Union Company was at the thick of the three biggest waterfront disputes in our history, 1890, 1913 and 1951. Union Lumber Company records The collection contains correspondence, office files, and financial records. It was renamed the Union Steam Collier Company and then the Union Steamship Company. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). For the next three decades Dennys would build just about every one of the Union Company's ships. Control of the Union NZ was acquired by P&O Line in 1917, but the Company … 3551, Category 2). M.V.POOLTA Ship No 465 Last of the ships built for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, the end of an era really. Nothing is known of Talune's employment after its disastrous 1918 voyage until 1921, when Union Steamship Company records show it was laid up. Alternative form available: Scanned from original in 2012. They shipped a variety of cargo such as vegetables, grain, lumber, coal and iron, and boasted modern, luxurious facilities for their passengers. Union Steam Ship Company records, Hocken Collections AG-292-3/1/2 Tabulated abstracts of accounts. The new owners broke with tradition, prefixing their ships with the name Union. In 1897 the great American writer Mark Twain sailed from Lyttelton aboard the Flora, which he condemned as 'about the equivalent of a cattle scow'. It was bigger than the five largest Australian lines and was the biggest line 'south of the line'. UK Records All ships carrying passengers in or out of any British port were required by law to lodge a passenger list with the relevant port authorities. They were about the same size as sailing ships that were bringing migrants all the way out from Britain. The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand possesses a very numerous fleet, and the larger steamers are not much inferior to ocean liners in size and accommodation', he wrote approvingly. These ships burned coal, but a hint of things to come came in 1935 with the company's first new coastal motor-ship, the 1,044-ton Karu. Just as ironically, they did it hauling coal, the industrial revolution-era fuel that had once put the steam in the Union Steam Ship Company. Comptroller, creator. Nevertheless, the raid kept P&O afloat during the mid 1930s as it struggled to restore profitability to its other routes. 1585-001: Alaska Steamship Company records, 1908-1971; Accession No. They have plenty of good boats but no competition – and that is the trouble'. Union Steamship Company, Limited Associated Records. History Union Steam Ship Company Limited (of New Zealand) was a major Australian coastal and trans-Tasman shipping company from 1876 to 1972. It was … 2011.040.228 - Negative, Glass-plate. Union liners took our troops away to both world wars and even to Korea, where the old Wahine sank en route. By 1875 the Union Steam Ship Company had 32 vessels, and by 1913 the fleet had grown to 75. 1585-001: Alaska Steamship Company records, 1908-1971; Accession No. Content on this site may be subject to Copyright, please, A MATTER OF TRUSTS - WELLINGTON MARITIME MUSEUM, SECRET ACCOUNTING BY UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY, ttp://www.derbysulzers.com/shipaorangi.html, contact New Zealand Ship and Marine Society. 'All the cabins were full, all the cattle-stalls in the main stable were full, every inch of floor and table and in the swill-room was packed with sleeping men and remained so until the place was required for breakfast, the chairs and benches on the hurricane deck were occupied, and still there were people who had to walk about all night!' Entered on the List is the former Union Steamship Company building in Gisborne (List No. Supplement of the "Dunedin Star", April 10th, 1893.. Ref: Eph-E-BUILDINGS-Dunedin-1893-01. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Ltd Publisher, Moody, John George, active 1893 Publisher, Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand Ltd Subject, Commercial buildings - New Zealand - Otago Region, Stores, Retail - New Zealand - Otago Region. People took the ships very seriously then. They came in two basic size ranges, the 2,000 -2,500 ton colliers and coasters and the 3,500 and 3,800-tonners for the Tasman services. [Month and year only listed on the document]. Accounts 1921-38. volume 487. Accounts of S.S. Mexico, voyage 105, October 9, 1888 (in Oversize Collections D1). Steamship Company records of Roger D. Lapham, 1914-1952 HDC1744 (SAFR 24680) 1 A guide to the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company records of Roger D. Lapham, 1914-1952 Processed by: Maritime Research Center, Historic Documents Department (Bailey), Apr 2016. Union Lumber Company Records. By throwing the Tasman still generated good profits for some time to come, but 1875! 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