It’s now full steam ahead for the restoration of SS Minerva after the six-tonne boiler, made by Lyttleton Engineering, was delivered to the Ōpua workshop where the work is taking place.
Since 2010 a band of volunteers in the Bay of Islands has been working to restore the Minerva, a passenger ferry built in Auckland in 1910.
It’s been a long-running project with its share of setbacks and challenges, one of the biggest of which was finding a pair of steam engines to power the vessel.
The Minerva’s own steam engines were pulled out and dumped at sea many decades ago when the 20-metre, kauri-hulled vessel was converted to diesel.
Internet sleuthing led the restoration team to its first steam engine in Seattle a few years ago. It was in a Royal Navy launch that was transported to the US and converted into a pleasure boat, before eventually being tied up to a wharf and left to rot.
Two main engines - it has four in total - were both sourced from overseas and the final piece of the jigsaw needed to get everything finished was the boiler.
Sue Hamnett, Bay of Islands Vintage Railway chair and director Keteriki Ltd (future operating entity), Peter Jones, Kerikeri Steam Trust, Peter Tustian, Ian Faulkner, chair KKST, Pita Tipene, chair Keteriki Ltd and Jo Litten, MBIE, at the fitting of the new boiler for the historic steamship Minerva in the Bay of Islands last week.
Now it’s on site project manager Peter Tustian said the next step is building a steel platform to put the boiler on, then connect it up to the four engines and get it working.
The boiler will run on compressed wood pellets, which Tustian said is more environmentally friendly than petrol or diesel and is an efficient way to power her up.
‘’It’s a modern boiler using the latest technology with a total output of 800 kilowatts of power. We can’t just bolt her to the hull though and have to build a strong foundation to spread the boiler load evenly.’’
He said after almost 15 years to get to this stage was fantastic and he was looking forward to the next steps, and hoped the Minerva would be ready to steam along the water for the 2025/26 summer season.
Some of the Minerva volunteers, in front of the new boiler, that was fitted last week
He said there probably won’t be anywhere else in New Zealand that you can get a steam train, then depart to get on board a steam ferry.
“This will see people get on the steam train at Kawakawa then steam to Ōpua, get aboard the ferry Minerva then steam off to Waitangi or Russell. We think that will be an amazing steam experience.
“And for the visitors it will be a very unique experience. We have open hatches and a window where people can see the steam engines working - the pistons turning and the works - so they will be able to see, hear and feel a steam experience that will be second to none.”
Volunteer and KKST trustee Steve Edwards inside the Minerva.
The Minerva was fitted with twin steam engines and propellers because it was designed to operate in the shallow Wairoa River near Clevedon. That also increased its manoeuvrability, which would be a boon on the Kawakawa River.
The restoration of the Minerva is part of a wider project involving the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway and the Twin Coast Cycle Trail and part-funded by the Provincial Growth Fund.
The SS Minerva was built in 1910 to ferry passengers between Auckland's Queen St wharf and Howick, here it steams in to Howick circa 1910.
