Shipbuilding Was In Their Blood
SHIPBUILDING WAS IN THEIR BLOOD
Two families with a long connection with the shipbuilding industry on the other side of the world – the Meiklejohns and Mathesons – reached Auckland in 1857. Each sailed to New Zealand in ships they built themselves and each established yards at Omaha Bay, halfway between the capital and Whangarei.
The story of these adventurers in search of new homes is told by N.R. McKenzie in “The Gael Fares Forth” and by Neil Robinson in “The Lion of Scotland”. The pages of the Registers of Shipping record the ships they built at Omaha.
James Strange Meiklejohn, an Edinburgh Sea Captain, was not one of the Nova Scotian settlers, although he came from Prince Edward Island on the northern fringe of Nova Scotia. There he built ships which he sailed to Britain and sold.
Trading Voyages
Having built the brigantine Union, he embarked his family and set off in 1856 on a series of trading voyages which finally brought him to New Zealand. Having acquired land at Omaha he resumed shipbuilding with the help of his sons.
In 1860 he launched his first New Zealand ship, the Ruby, a schooner of 25 tons. During the Waikato war she was bought by the Government and used as a gunboat under the name of Caroline.
In his first 20 years at Omaha Meiklejohn built 12 ships. They were nearly all schooners of about 50 tons. His greatest effort however was the brigantine which he named Omaha and launched in 1874. She was 83 feet long and displaced 133 tons.
Three generations of Meiklejohns build ships. William built the Excelsior, of 52 tons in 1862 and the Lagoon, of 27 tons in 1878; Alexander the Day Dawn, of 24 tons in 1867, and Septimus the Lake Erie, 27 tons in 1873 and the Lake Michigan, 25 tons in 1876.
The Mathesons had been ship-builders in Scotland. They continued this calling for 30 years in Nova Scoia and finally built the Spray, a brigantine of 106 tons in which Captain Angus and Captain Duncan Matheson and 91 others reached Auckland on June 25, 1857.
They made their home at what is still called Matheson Bay at Omaha. As the Mathesons spent much of their time on long trading voyages their output of ships at first was less than that of the Meiklejohns.
Between 1864 and 1876 four of their ships were registered. The first of these was the Saucy Lass, schooner of 39 tons, and the others the Coquette of 43 tons: the Ryno, brigantine, of 85 tons and the Rangatira, cutter, of 27 tons. They were the forerunners of many fine ships.
“To be continued” says the original clipping – but that’s all I’ve got.
Newspaper clipping/Article from Auckland library file on the Meiklejohns
(This is the eleventh of a series of articles by a special correspondent on pioneer shipbuilding in the Auckland province).
