Checking out the newly arrived steam engine are Minerva project manager John Clode, left, steam buffs Mike and Dave Collins, and, front, Kerikeri Steam Trust chairman Ian Faulkner. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Checking out the newly arrived steam engine are Minerva project manager John Clode, left, steam buffs Mike and Dave Collins, and, front, Kerikeri Steam Trust chairman Ian Faulkner. Photo / Peter de Graaf
It's finally full steam ahead for the restoration of a century-old ferry, thanks to an Advocate article that led the project team to a rare steam-powered ship's engine in Switzerland.
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 USA and converted into a pleasure boat, before eventually being tied up to a wharf and left to rot.
That engine's arrival — and the continued quest for a second, identical steam engine — was reported on by the Advocate in a story called "Engine powers ferry restoration" in May 2020.
Months later a steam enthusiast in Switzerland stumbled onto the story and contacted the Advocate, saying he happened to have just such a steam engine and asking to be put in contact with the Kerikeri Steam Trust.
Last Friday, after much negotiation and a long journey by land and sea, it was finally delivered to a Kerikeri workshop where it will be painstakingly restored.
Until then the group had scoured the world for engines of the right specifications.
The Sisson steam engine, seen here while still in Switzerland, was owned by a Swiss engineering firm before it was bought by the Kerikeri Steam Trust. Photo / Langhans Innotec GmbH
Kerikeri Steam Trust chairman Ian Faulkner said they had tracked a few down in museums but curators had been reluctant to part with them.
"As far as we know there are only five of these left in the world. We've got two of them. That's a triumph for everyone involved in the Minerva project," he said.
"Nothing can stop the restoration of the Minerva now."
The engine had been bought from a Swiss engineering business that built machinery for canning factories but had a sideline in restoring steam engines. The company also maintained a number of steamboats on nearby Lake Constance.
The engine sold to the Kerikeri Steam Trust was apparently surplus to requirements.
Checking out the freshly arrived steam engine, from left, Kerikeri Steam Trust chairman Ian Faulkner, Mike Collins, project manager John Clode, and Dave Collins. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Kerikeri steam buff Dave Collins said it was a Sisson marine engine made in Gloucester, England, in 1943.
It was a compound engine with an eight-inch high-pressure cylinder and a 16-inch low-pressure cylinder, with an eight-inch stroke.
Fellow steam aficionado Mike Collins said it was built to a design from 1910, the year the Minerva was built.
That came about because the Royal Navy needed a fleet of harbour launches for minesweeping and other duties.
They were built of wood, to ensure they were non-magnetic and safe from mines, and fitted with steam engines because World War II had caused a shortage of internal combustion engines.
"Having a second engine is exciting. It's like Christmas," Mike Collins said.
"It's a great relief to have it," brother Dave Collins said.
"We'll enjoy working on it."
Supporters of the Minerva restoration project raise a toast to the arrival of a second steam engine for the 112-year-old ferry. Photo / Peter de Graaf
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 boiler, which was designed to run on compressed wood waste, was being made in Lyttelton. It was due to be delivered in November.
The steam engines would be installed in the vessel next year.
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 Minerva in Kerikeri in 2019, before it was transported to Ōpua for the next phase of restoration. Photo / Peter de Graaf
