1905: Duelling Steamships – 7 Killed
December 23, 2019
By AHNZ
Today in history, 23 December, 1905, 7 people were killed in Auckland’s worst transport fatality since the 1903 Tramway Disaster. Steamship crashed into steamship just off Devonport Warf in Auckland Harbour.
Captain James Mewett vs. Captain William James Southgate
SS. Claymore vs. SS. Kapanui.
Steel vs Timber…
How did it come to this? Alexander McGregor was ousted from his Northern Steamship Company in the late 1880s so he turned around and founded another: The McGregor Company. The wily Scot ran his ships for the settlers and tourists from Auckland’s North Shore to Warkworth and beyond.
By 1898 the locals who depended on this service had jack of what they saw as monopolistic price gouging. So, they set up their own rival company- Coastal Shipping Company owned and run by locals. Captain Southgate (image right) was one of these locals, his father having built Warkworth’s first hotel which pre-dated the town itself. Here began the fierce, deadly, rivalry between the companies and the captains.
McGregor’s company battled Coastal in a price war, which must have been brilliant for the consumer. The rival directors visited the townships, ripping into each other in public and in the newspapers with word and promotional photos. They even exploited the Warkworth School to show off (reminds me of Season 2 of ‘The Wire’..¹). Their great rival, The Northern Steamship Company (NSC), strategically stayed out of it letting the two pick each other off so it could devour the victor.
On 22 March 1899, down river from Warkworth, Capt. Southgate seems to have put the Kapanui in the way of the rival company, playing ‘chicken’ with them I think. His ship is struck in a way that would prefigure the 1905 collision in Devonport. How many other physical encounters between duelling steamships did not make it into the papers?
Northern Settlers’ Steamship Company Civil War
Old McGregor died early in 1901 and by 1905 the two companies merged to face the competition of the new railway and NSC together. So, when McGregor’s steel ‘Claymore’ struck wooden ‘Kapanui’ at Devonport they were ships of the same line: Northern Settlers’ Steamship Company!
Perhaps the captains’ rivalry was too long established. And perhaps they both knew only one of them, and one ship, had a future at this job. I think they battled for hierarchy like boy racers, playing chicken, racing to show who was faster. The trouble is, they were playing with passengers’ lives! Indeed, in 1908 only Kapanui was kept on this run- Claymore was sold. And it was in this year that the NSC expanded into their turf, swallowing up the Settler’s Company and its trade.
Both Captains lost their jobs and blamed the other man. Southgate offered up some bullshit about lighting failure and having to dodge the sea minefield on this dark cold Devonport night. The mines seem plausible to his audience, although as far as I know the Auckland Harbour minefield was a non-deployed leftover toy from the Stout & Vogal era 20 years before. In my strong opinion this was no accident but two old salts playing rivalry games.
James Southgate retired to farming, at least at the time, to be buried in 1928 (80yo) at Waikaraka cemetary. James Mewett died (67yo) in 1935 and rests at Waikumete cemetary. Both ships are long gone although there is a replica of Kapanui still running at Warkworth today.
—
1 In The Wire two rivals, watersider and policeman, make a show of being the greatest contributor to their church, buying the best paraphanalia. Not because of piety but due to Honour Culture rivalry. So it was with this New Zealand situation, but it was the school that was the recipient and the theatre
Image ref. Steamships crashing; Challenge of the Blue Riband: The Duel That Led to Disaster; Original artwork from Look and Learn no; Pintrest
Image ref. Cap. Southgate
Image ref. Kaipanui holed, fresh from the collision; Wrecksite.eu
Image ref. Kapanui destroyed by fire, 1909 as posted by New Zealand: History & Natural History, 2014; Facebook
Like Comment Share
