Loading a horse at Walter Peak
for the trip to Glenorchy
The Professional Skipper crew, were caught boarding
1920s: Loaded with sheep on the lower deck
VIP.S68
A large crowd gathered on the purpose-built Queenstown
wharf now known as the steamer wharf, to welcome the elegant
new steamship carrying parliamentarians, local MPs, and other
officials, as well as people from all over Otago and Southland
who were keen to be part of the historic voyage. The following
day a public holiday was declared for her debut trip to the head
of the lake and around 550 people paid the 2s6d fare to make
the journey.
TSS Earnslaw officially went into service under the NZR
banner on October 21, 1912, operating two days a week to
Kingston, and three days a week to the head of the lake, calling
at lakeside stations en-route picking up coal supplies, freight and
passengers. On Easter Saturday 1914, Earnslaw���s popularity
was such that she carried 1056 people: more than her allowed
maximum loading at the time of 1035 passengers and 11 crew.
With features such as a first class dining room, social hall,
32 Professional Skipper January/February 2013
ladies cabin and ship���s bar, along with her kauri panelling
and velvet seating, TSS Earnslaw was state-of-the-art and
passenger numbers increased noticeably when she joined the
Lake Wakatipu fleet. For many years she was the key mover of
stock, freight and passengers, as well as catering for a growing
visitor trade.
The first warning bells sounded in 1936 with the opening
of the Kingston to Queenstown road. The advent of coach
services meant that there was now competition on the route that
offered a more frequent and cheaper service to passengers. But
TSS Earnslaw continued to provide an exceptional freight and
passenger service to Glenorchy and head of the lake residents,
particularly after 1952, when the last of the original steamers
the Ben Lomond, was scuttled leaving the Earnslaw as the sole
passenger steamer remaining on Lake Wakatipu. Yet another
chapter closed in 1963 when the Queenstown to Glenorchy road
was officially opened.
Passenger numbers reached a peak in 1963/64 when the
steamer carried almost 37,000 passengers, but by 1968 there
was a serious decline in numbers and the Government talked
of scuttling her. However, a syndicate of young Auckland men
stepped in and chartered her for $1 from New Zealand Railways
with a view to saving and eventually purchasing her. In spite
of their fervour they could not make the venture work and her
future once again looked bleak. At this stage Les and Olive
Hutchins of Fiordland Travel Ltd, who were well known in
the tourist industry as the founders of the Manapouri-Doubtful
Sound Tourist Company, could see an opportunity and in 1969
they chartered the Earnslaw.
Since 1970 Fiordland Travel (rebranded as Real Journeys in
2002), has remained committed to retaining TSS Earnslaw as a
heritage steamship, and in spite of some modifications following
