U.S. Navy at Lyttelton 1925

The period following the First World War was conspicuous for the number of warships visiting the port of Lyttelton; state visits, showing the flag exercises, good-will cruises, massed deployments and demonstrations of strategic reach saw extravagant numbers of naval vessels in the harbour during the years after the Great War ended.

One of the more impressive visits occured when a fleet fourteen vessels, including Clemson class destroyers and an Omaha class light cruiser of U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, visited the port between the 11th and the 21st of August 1925.


After annual manoeuvers near Hawaii and accompanied by eight movie and still photographers aboard the flag ship Seattle, Admiral Robert E. Coontz, Commander in Chief of the United States Navy, led a battle fleet of more than 50 warships and 23,000 men on a cruise via Samoa to Australia and New Zealand. The battleship West Virginia acted as the radio control vessel for the tour and several broadcasts directed to Australasia were relayed to listeners by local stations.

Departing from Melbourne on the 30th of July, the battleships accompanied by divisions of cruisers from the Scouting Fleet and squadrons of destroyers headed for New Zealand, where four sections of the fleet entered the harbours of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers simultaneously. The officers and men were extensively entertained in our cities and the visit did much to further cement the friendly feeling existing between the United States and New Zealand.


Last of the flush deck, four funnelled Destroyers, the 88 Clemson class vessels were built between 1919 and 1922. With a length of 96.4 metres, a maximum speed of 35 knots and a complement of 122, they were armed with four 4 inch (100 mm) guns and twelve torpedo tubes. The Robert Smith, Yarborough and Stoddert are known to have been among the fourteen to visit Lyttelton. Another fourteen would be sunk in the Second World War.


Also with four funnels, the eleven Omaha class light cruisers looked remarkably similar to the Clemson class destroyers. They were built between 1923 and 1925 to scout for battleships and featured a maximim speed of 35 knots for coöperation with the destroyers. Displacing 7,050 tons, they were 171 metres in length and armed with twelve 6 inch (152 mm) guns. Of this class, the U.S.S. Trenton (1923-1946) is seen moored at Lyttelton's No.3 Wharf in the second photograph.

Footnote

Inspired by this post is a comprehensively illustrated New Zealand Journal article about the US Navy's Pacific Fleet visit to Wellington in 1925 (which opens in a new tab or window).

Christchurch's First Palace

Situated on the quarter acre Town Section 404, the first house on the western side of the Avon River was built in 1851 by Henry John Cridland (1821-1867), Superintendent of Public Works for the Canterbury Association from 1849. A New Zealand Company surveyor from 1843, Cridland was also an artist, architect, and like many of his lower middle class contemporaries, a political schemer and property speculator.


By 1856 a large extension had been added to the rear of the house. In December of that year the Cridland family moved to their farm at Hoon Hay and the house became the episcopal palace of Henry John Chitty Harper (1804-1893), first Bishop of Christchurch. Harper and his large family, who fetched water from the river, occupied the house until the completion in late 1858 of the much grander Bishopscourt on nearby Park Terrace.


Situated on Cambridge Terrace, equidistant between Worcester and Hereford Streets, the house was the only occupant of the block's river frontage until 1863 when the first Public Library building was completed at the Hereford Street corner and then the Canterbury Club to the Worcester Street corner 1874.


In later years the old house appears to have been occupied by staff of the Canterbury Club. Demolished between 1918 and 1920, the site became part of the Club's garden, which was replaced with a sealed car park by 1965. As such it remains.


Harper's residential predilection for the western side of the Avon River, rather than the extensive Anglican church lands in the vicinity of Cranmer Square, was probably instrumental in the development of the area as the salubrious suburb of West End, much favoured by the professional classes.

The subsequent development of the Canterbury University College on what had previously been a residential block attracted academics to the suburb from the mid 1870s. By the 1930s many of the grand homes had become private hotels and rooming houses for the College's students.

A thriving bohemian culture developed among the artists, writers, poets and musicians who occupied the quarter through the following decades. Toward the latter part of the twentieth century the bishops, accountants and lawyers moved on to suburban Cashmere, the University left the area and much of the built heritage was replaced high rise concrete.

The city's first suburb, which was subsequently associated with many of the most illustrious names in the New Zealand arts community of the twentieth century, lost its name, social cohesion and much of the former aesthetic.

Photo Credits: the Canterbury Museum, the Christchurch Public Library, the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Podcast: DNA Genealogy

From Britain's National Archives comes an hour long lecture of particular interest to family historians.

Chris Pomeroy, of the Pomeroy DNA Project, reviews the history of DNA testing and explains how it can be used by family historians, as well as discussing the experiences of leading family history projects that are using DNA testing to link and verify their family trees.

Download the 42 Mb mp3 audio file

West End

Much favoured by the professional class, the inner city area between the Avon River and Hagley Park was known as the residential suburb of West End. The name finally faded away in the 1950s.

Above are westerly and easterly views of Armagh Street, across the intersection with Durham Street, in the first decade of last century. Pictured are the buildings of the former Canterbury Provincial Council, which by that time were the offices of the Department of Crown Lands. Built in the mid 1880s and demolished in 1962, the substantial house was typical of the dwellings in this area. 

Christchurch Art Gallery

Christchurch's first suburb was originally known as West End. Long forgotten as such, in the 21st century its centre is now the city's cultural precinct. Dominating this locale is what has been charitably described as a warehouse in a tutu.  Little more than a museum of artistic relics from bygone eras, it is the official Christchurch Art Gallery, but it's not a place where art happens.

On the other hand, and opposite side of Hagley Park, is another Christchurch Art Gallery. Situated in the long derelict livestock saleyards at lower Riccarton, it's a location where art actually takes place. As such it might well deserve equal recognition as a cultural precinct.


A photographic essay by Brendon Keenan of the Canterbury Saleyards art collection, where cameras are allowed, opens in a new tab or window.

A Most Unlucky Ship

Of all the ships to have served Lyttelton Harbour the luckiest would have to be the extant steam tug Lyttelton of 1907, but at the other end of the scale was the unfortunate Manchester.

Launched for the Manchester Ship Canal Company by William Simons & Company at Renfrew, near Glasgow on Tuesday, the 15th of July, 1890, the Hopper Dredger was named Manchester. With a length of length: 55.3 metres (180.2 feet) and a beam of 12 metres (39.1 feet), Yard No 279 displaced 881 gross registered tons. Capable of dredging 700 tons per hour to a depth of 10.75 metres (35 feet) and fitted with electric lighting, she cost her owners £20,000.

The canal was completed in 1894 and four years later the twin screw vessel was offered for sale at £15,000. In June 1898 the Lyttelton Harbour Board offered £12,750  for the dredge and by September the sale had been completed.

Subsequent to undergoing repairs, the Manchester left Liverpool for Lyttelton on the 7th of February 1899.  Aboard was the brindle Bull Terrier of Andrew Anderson, son of the 1850 pioneer blacksmith and Mayor of Christchurch, who was visiting his parent's former homeland at the time. In what was probably the longest ever voyage to New Zealand, it would be another fourteen months before the Civil Engineer would see his dog again. In the meantime the Anderson's Lyttelton shipbuilding yard constructed a hopper barge to act in consort with the new dredge.

The Manchester made it as far as Ireland, where she put into Waterford for machinery repairs. Next stop was Gibraltar where she incurred further repair costs amounting to £700 during her month long stay. Crossing the Mediterranean, the dredge traversed the Suez Canal before sailing on to Singapore via Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Eagerly awaited in Lyttelton, where few of the larger ocean steamers were now making the township their final port of departure, owing to the risk when they were fully loaded, Captain John William Clark, the Lyttelton Harbour Master left by the Monowai for Brisbane in late January 1900 in order to meet and take charge of the Harbour Board's dredge.

Under Clark's command the Manchester sighted Cape Maria at 10.50 p.m. on the 9th of March 1900, and the North Cape next morning, when the gale abated. Owing to bad weather she called in at Whangamumu on the evening of the 10th, where it was discovered that the feed-pipe in her engine room was cracked. Repairs were effected at Auckland and on the 14th she sailed for Lyttelton, which she reached on the 22nd of that month.

Andrew Anderson was on the wharf to meet her arrival, but long before he could see anything he heard the joyous barks as his dog careered around the deck in a geat state of excitement. But the dredge had experienced a terrible voyage, most of which was spent undergoing repairs in ports along the way, and there was a great deal of discontent among the crew, as they had signed on for a fixed amount for the duration of what turned out to be a 408 day voyage.

On the 5th of April 1900, at a meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, the chairman stated that the Board had suffered great loss in connection with bringing out the dredge from England. He reported that the persons who had been paid to protect the Board's interests had grossly abused their trust, and the expenses of the dredge, instead of being £24,000, had been £30,000. A special committee was set up to report on the expenses and delay incurred.

By the end of the following month the Manchester was deemed ready for service and a trial of the dredging machinery was undertaken while the vessel was moored between No. 7 wharf and the graving dock. In half an hour from fifty to sixty tons of highly tenacious, cement-like mud were raised from the harbour floor.

The Manchester's most significant contribution to the development of the port was the reclamation to the southern side of the graving dock, where the oil wharf and tank farm now stands, but during this time crew members succumbed to fatal accidents on two occaisions. In March 1912 she was replaced by the 1,117 ton suction hopper dredger Canterbury (1911-1968) and the Manchester was offered for sale at £20,000.

Sold to the Sydney Harbour Trust in 1912, Manchester departed from Lyttelton in the command Captain James Downie on the 3rd of April. Aboard were three of the original crew who had brought the vessel to New Zealand in 1900, one of whom had also served his apprenticeship with the builders of the dredge at Renfrew. The balance of the crew were local seamen. Sailing from Wellington for Sydney on the following day, after passing through Cook Strait the Manchester was never heard of again.

By the end of April the cruisers Challenger, Encounter and Pioneer were searching for the dredge, but beyond the discovery of three lifebuoys bearing the name Manchester, Lyttelton in the vicinity of the Manukau Heads and Hellensville between June and November, no trace of the vessel was found. Thus ended what is perhaps one of the most poignant of all Lyttelton's tales.

Photo Credit: Photograph of the Manchester moored on the Manchester Canal courtesy of the Manchester Ship Canal Society.

Looters Ransack Historic Site

The Rising Sun hotel was built on what had been the garden of Dr. Augustus Florance in 1865 by Frank Innes, who had arrived at Lyttelton aboard the Sebastopol two years earlier. 

Situated in the Christchurch suburb of St Albans and more infamously known as the Rising Hell, the much altered and extended hotel became the Caledonian in 1878. As such it continued to enjoy something of a louche reputation until closing in late 2007.

The extensive site was undergoing evaluation by archaeologists from the University of Otago when the dig was raided during the night of the 26th of March, 2009. Artefacts and layers of information critical to archaeological analysis were destroyed as the looters picked over the site, upon which it's reported that sixty town-houses are to be built.

 

Artist at Work

LARGE IMAGE OPENS IN A NEW WINDOW

This is a detail from a photograph taken by a German visitor to our city on the 22nd of March 2009. In something of an increasing rarity, it depicts a working artist rendering a westerly streetscape of Worcester Street, across the Manchester Street intersection, towards Cathedral Square.

There was a time when art galleries were working places where an artist could re-interpret paintings, etc. It's possibly a sad reflection on our era that in the case of the Christchurch Art Gallery, not even the use of a camera is allowed to inihibit the sales of postcards in the ubiquitous gift shop.

However, an old splodger of our acquaintance managed to sneak a small camera into said cultural mall and thereby to record sufficient impression as to effect this rendition of the foyer.

LARGE IMAGE OPENS IN A NEW WINDOW

Photographic Excellence

LARGE IMAGE OPENS IN A NEW WINDOW

From Ray Wise of London, comes this coastal landscape of the marine suburb of Sumner from the vicinity of Clifton. With a south-easterly view from Shag Rock (Left), Whitewash Head can be seen at the centre.

Our Shame

In July 2008 we reported on Ti Kouka House, the circa 1865 home of Samuel de la Bere Barker (1848-1901) at 281 Cambridge Terrace near to the Madras Street bridge.

Son of Dr Alfred Charles Barker, the pioneer of Canterbury photography, Sam Barker was a widely renowned Botanist. A promenade along the river bank was officially named Barkers Avenue as a consequence of his development of a botanical garden in the extensive grounds of Ti Kouka house, which originally stretched from the river bank to Kilmore Street. A part of the garden was subsequently replaced by an extension to Cambridge Terrace, now a cul de sac.

Occupying a potentially valuable inner city redevelopment site, the historically significant house had been allowed to fall into dereliction in an all too familiar and shamefully predictable sequence that resulted in an arson attempt in August, 2008. On the night of the 21st of March 2009 the second attempt to burn the house succeeded.

That the Christchurch City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust apparently turned a blind eye while this historic house, which was in relatively sound condition in July 2008, was allowed to fall into ruin and finally succumb to a second arson attempt, raises serious issues which might be more appropriately addressed at a national level.


Ti Kouka House, 29 June 2003
Courtesy of Early Canterbury Photographers

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Further Reading

We are greatfully indebted to kinopus 88 for the above detail from a photograph of the conflaguration, which is part of a sequence of 16 photos recording the final destruction of Ti Kouka House.

Post-fire photos of Ti Kouka House.

July, 2008 original article: Saving Canterbury's Heritage

August, 2008 post fire article: Heritage Tragedy

A sequence of photographs by Ars 666 of the interior of Ti Kouka House in August, 2008