TSS EARNSLAW
100 YEARS:
���THE LADY
OF THE LAKE���
BY KEITH INGRAM
T
he ���Lady of the Lake��� as she is affectionately known,
sailed into Queenstown Bay on October 18, 2012, with
flags flying, and blasting her whistle continuously while
making a circuit of the bay, flanked by a flotilla of local
commercial craft.
Queenstown turned the clock back 100 years when a large crowd,
dominated by school children waving flags, lined Queenstown���s
Steamer Wharf to welcome their heritage steamship TSS Earnslaw.
They were marking her official centenary with a sailing from
Kingston to Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu, in a re-enactment of
her maiden passenger voyage 100 years ago.
From the shore a resounding response came from the whistles
ation
ter Peak St
tty of Wal
side the je
Along
of nine vintage steam traction engines, and a battery of canons
fired in salute, while the band played on the wharf: all welcoming
the steamer home.
Three hundred and fifty guests dressed in period costume
made the journey, and at Kingston, the vintage Kingston Flyer
steam train waited on the wharf just as it had a century ago when
it carried passengers from the south, to meet TSS Earnslaw for
the trip across the lake.
TSS Earnslaw was launched on Lake Wakatipu in 1912, the
same year the ill-fated steamship, the Titanic left Southampton
on her maiden voyage. Unlike the Titanic she has survived and
is now the oldest coal-fired passenger steamer in the southern
hem
hemisphere proudly celebrating 100 years of outstanding service.
T
The ship was commissioned in 1910 after increasing public
app
apprehension about the comfort and safety of the existing
lak
lake steamers, particularly the paddle steamers PS Antrim, PS
Mo
Mountaineer and the SS Ben Lomond. Disparaging letters to
new
newspapers from as far afield as Sydney highlighted problems
and created concerns about the impact on settlement growth in
Qu
Queenstown.
F
Following the initial excitement of the gold rush days in 1862,
pre
previous steamers had all in been in private hands, and they
com
competed for services operating out of Queenstown for 40 years.
On
Once the rush was over these operations were unable to provide
a profitable service for the lakes settlements and stations, and
so in 1902 the Government bought out the last remaining
b
business. These ships were thought to have been too small and
s
slow, so pressure was applied on the Government by the Prime
M
Minister Sir Joseph Ward to finance a modern and fast twin
screw, freight and passenger steamer for the lake. A tender was
let on behalf of New Zealand Railways in September 1910
