Early New Zealand Shipping

Click on the name of the ship to read more about it. If you are able to add more information, are seeking information or are connected to any of these ships through your ancestory, please submit a comment.

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"Sculpture made from a Sperm Whales tooth depicting 'Land & Sea'. This whales tooth is from a whale that washed up on the shores of New Zealand."

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Lady Nelson
Captain J Simmonds was in charge of the 60 ton armed tender when she arrived at Sydney in early July 1804. Lady Nelson had come from New Zealand's Bay of Islands where her crew reported having seen pigs. Seeing the animals while visiting New Zealand was an excellent sign for captains with regard to future prospects for trading for pork. Captain Simmonds noted that the natives were very keen to trade, and did so for almost anything that could be taken from the ship. On February 25 1806 when Lady Nelson set sail for New Zealand from Sydney she took chief Te Pahi back to the Bay of Islands. The voyage took longer than usual due to bad weather, but when she did arrive, one of her passengers, George Bruce left the ship to live among Maori. During his year living at the Bay of Islands George Bruce was under the protection of Te Pahi, and this was confirmed by his marriage to one of the chief’s daughters. Later Bruce and his wife were taken from New Zealand against their will on General Wellesley.

Lambton
On March 25 1826 the New Zealand Company ships Rosanna and Lambton arrived at Stewart Island under the command of Captain James Herd. They were there to trade for produce, and to overhaul their spars and planking, which they did so onshore with forges and saw-pits. While there they were among the company of a party of sealers which had been left by the ship Elizabeth and Mary.

Lord Liverpool
Lord Liverpool, Captain Kent, was working in Cook Strait over the summer of 1832/3. When she arrived back in Sydney on January 20 1833, her crew had procured 16 tons of flax, 2 tons of black oil, and 1.5 tons of seal oil.

HMS Larne
In February 1826 HMS Larne, a war sloop carrying 20 guns, and under the guidance of Captain Kingcombe arrived at the Bay of Islands from Thames. The naval ship departed New Zealand for Hobart, Tasmania on February 26.

Lord Rodney
Lord Rodney was a whaling ship that called at the Bay of Islands from Sydney with Captain Hindson in May of 1828, on her way to Tahiti.

Louisa
On 4 March 1831 Captain Mackey sailed Louisa from Sydney bound for New Zealand. Later that year the 242 ton ship set sail again in September with the same captain, and this time carrying a tell-all cargo of gin, tobacco, muskets, gunpowder, flints, blankets, beef, pork, biscuit, beer, pickles, sugar, tea, hardware and iron pots. Her destination was New Zealand and Norfolk Island. In December 1833 Louisa was reported as arriving in Sydney under Captain James Farmer from the South Seas with a cargo of 147 tuns of sperm oil. In January 1836 Louisa was at the Neck, Stewart Island, on her way to the Chatham Islands.

Lucy Ann (US)
An American whaling ship from Wilmington called Lucy Ann, captained by John S Barker, called at Bluff in Foveaux Strait in 1837 and 1838.

Lucy Ann
In 1831 the Weller Brothers purchased Lucy Ann from the New South Wales Government. On September 25 she set sail from Sydney under Captain Owen with supplies for establishing the first shore whaling station in Otago. She had on board 6 cases of muskets, barrels, gunpowder, axes, iron boilers, casks of beef, whaling gear, gin, rum, tobacco and other stores necessary for survival. On 29 February 1832 Lucy Ann returned to Sydney with a cargo of timber and flax. While in Sydney an attempt was made to burn Lucy Ann in Sydney Harbour, and despite a reward of 50 pounds being offered, the culprit was never apprehended. On May 28 she sailed for New Zealand again, this time with George Weller on board, who was off to see his family’s new venture. In September she made the voyage to New Zealand again, now captained by her owner, and going via Port Pegasus at Stewart Island where the Weller Brothers had agreed to buy a vessel being built by a party of ship builders who had been abandoned there. In March 1833 Lucy Ann was spoken by Caroline at Paterson’s River, Stewart Island. On the 15th of the same month she left New Zealand was a cargo that included flax, spars and seal skins, bound for Sydney under Captain Worth, and having onboard a number of New Zealand women.

On May 5 Lucy Ann sailed back to Otago, and when she was returned to Sydney five months later her cargo consisted of 130 tons of black oil, 7 tons of whalebone, 8 tons of potatoes, one ton of flax, and five New Zealanders sailed with her. Among those New Zealanders was a chief who told of the fighting that was taking place between warring North and South Island tribes at Cloudy Bay. Captain William Worth was also able to report the ship wreck that had been discovered at the Auckland Islands by a sealing gang left there by Caroline. On December 30 1833 Lucy Ann sailed again for Otago. Her passengers included Captain Worth’s wife, Mary Jackson, Captain Hayward, John Hughes, George Beers and six New Zealand Maori. In April 1834 she arrived back in Sydney, with Captain Worth reporting only having seen one other ship, Joseph Weller, during the entire voyage. Despite the establishment of whaling stations and several European communities around the South Island, visiting ships were still relatively few and far between.

Lunar
On 10 August 1837 Lunar, Captain Kaley visited Moeraki on the Otago Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. A couple of months later she was in Foveaux Strait bound for the sperm fishery. In November 1843 Lunar was wrecked at Waipapa Point. Rather than leave his cargo in the hands of his own crew, the captain of Lunar took it to Ruapuke where it would be kept safe by southern chief, Tuhawaiki, also known as Bloody Jack.

Lynx
When the Sydney sealer Lynx set sail on November 3 1820, her captain Richard Siddons had two men among his crew whose names will forever be a part of early New Zealand European history; Joseph George Thoms (aka Geordie Bolts) and John Guard. Both of these men eventually established themselves in the Cook Strait region, but in 1820 they had joined Lynx in an exploratory cruise to the sealing rookeries on the recently discovered South Shetland Islands. Despite having procured 5000 seal skins and 40 tons of whale oil by the time they returned to Sydney on 19 June 1822, the expedition was regarded as unsuccessful. The next appearance of Lynx in New Zealand was on February 23 1828 when a ship by that name arrived at the Bay of Islands from the whaling fishery, where she stayed until March.

When Lynx next left Sydney on April 29 of 1829 her captain was Bolger and she was bound for the fishery again. The whaling barque arrived back in Sydney 15 months later having taken 1200 barrels of sperm whale oil while out. After three months in port, Lynx and Bolger were off again for the South Seas fisheries. On July 4 1836 Lynx, Captain Shaw, left New Zealand for Sydney. The following October she was in Foveaux Strait bound for New River. She had been sent by whaling entrepreneur John Jones to pick up cargo and crew. On board were some of Jones’ right-hand men, namely James Spencer, William Carter, and John Wilson. Also on board were two New Zealand Maori. While in Foveaux Strait Lynx spoke Magnet, another of Jones’ ships. Unfortunately on November 18 while carrying out her duties, Lynx was wrecked at New River. Survivors of the wreck traveled in a whaleboat across the dangerous strait to the Neck at Stewart Island where Captain Joyce took care of them until Governor Bourke arrived to take them back to Sydney. 100 tons of oil was lost when Lynx was wrecked.

When Lucy Ann sailed again on May 19, she had a new Captain at her helm, Captain Anglim who had previously been in charge of Caroline. Lucy Ann’s arrival back in Otago had unfortunate timing. 500 Maori, mostly warriors who had had an unsatisfactory war expedition to Cloudy Bay had just arrived back and they were looking for a fight. They assaulted the Europeans and when a chief’s daughter died her death was attributed to the arrival of Lucy Ann, and the tribe threatened to plunder and kill everyone. It was a harrowing time for all, and when Lucy Ann sailed from Otago on July 21 with a cargo of whale oil taken by the station there, Captain Anglim took with him Maori hostages to ensure the safety of the whaling crews who remained in Otago. When she arrived back in Otago in early 1835, the danger had subsided, but it was not to be the last of the trouble for Lucy Ann. While in New Zealand in the autumn of 1835, her captain deserted her, and she was brought back to Sydney on May 15 under the guidance of the ship's mate. Lucy Ann next sailed with Captain Rapsey for Port Cooper, on Banks Peninsula, where she was on the hunt for whales. At Port Cooper she met another of the Wellers’ ships, Joseph Weller, but only a small cargo of whale oil could be procured. Lucy Ann’s time in New Zealand waters ended after this, when she was sold in Australia in 1836.

Looking out over Port Levy and Port Cooper where whaling ships, including Lucy Ann, called in the mid 1830's.