The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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COASTAL CHARACTERS THE BOATS THAT BUILT THE BRIDGE BY BADEN PASCOE O ur Auckland Harbour Bridge is simply now an integral part of Auckland's culture. It certainty adds huge value to our city's brand value and most Aucklanders are very proud of it. I certainly am! To add more value, you can experience it by walking over it, and the bridge will soon become a public space. This wonderful artistic structure has grown our city and northern regions far beyond expectations. To the men who worked on the Waitemata Harbour at the time of its construction, the bridge is a working, living monument to the great skills of our tug and towboat masters and their little vessels. If you were to ask most experienced tug skippers of today to perform the tasks that their forerunners did, they would tell you, "You are dreaming, it's impossible with such underpowered gear." Well, our local boys did, and I would say without doubt the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours on either side of the Auckland isthmus have produced the best tug and towboat skippers one would find anywhere. Building the bridge certainly stimulated our local economy in many ways. The bridge was designed by the English firm of Freeman Fox and Partners and constructed by a partnership of the Clevedon Bridge Company and Dorman, Long, who provided the steelwork for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The main maritime contractors were Lance and Harry Julian, who worked with project manager Wilf Cardno, project engineer "Plum" Partridge and chief engineers Brian Wilson and Bill Weatherall. Designer Ralf Freeman, of Freeman Fox & Partners, kept a very close eye on things throughout the entire construction. At that time the Julian's main towboats were the Mona's Isle (Rakanui). Barbara W, Te Kopuru and Mahoe (under charter). In addition to this fleet they had subcontractors Subritzkys with their faithful Romo, Sierra and Presto. Other boats that played a part were the Hukarere, a lovely looking 40ft Vos-built compromise stern launch. This boat was owned and operated by the builders themselves, but no-one can remember who skippered her. The Hukarere carried out inspections, delivered workmen to various locations and did light towing work. Jimmy Thompson was a young lad doing a boat building apprenticeship with Lidgards at the time, but he had his mind on other matters, yep, tugs and towboats. He kept a close eye on everything that was going on and just wished he could be part of the scene. He recalls in roundabout words: "This was the most exciting time I can remember on this harbour, and Harry Julian backs this up by saying this time was the pinnacle of his days as a tug master and fleet owner." I just wish someone had filmed some of this stuff! Construction started in 1954 and one of the first jobs was to put the concrete foundations in place. These were formed by positioning steel structures so concrete could be poured into them. Once in place, the water was pumped out and men went down to dig until a suitable surface was found. I understand two men lost their lives in the process. Once they were filled with concrete, all-up the total weight was about 3500 tons each. Positioning these structures was difficult, 28 Professional Skipper November/December 2011 Auckland Harbour Bridge under construction Romo in Subritzky trim as their draft was about 10.5m and the tide carried them like nothing else. Using tide and precise planning was the key to this as the three towboats used were so underpowered for the task. Te Kopuru and Joe Cooper in 1965 All the materials were from local suppliers, including a greywacke blue chip that yielded a very high strength for its weight. This came from the Wharekawa quarry near Kaiawa in the Hauraki Gulf. Enter another star towboat, the Glyn Bird and her skipper, Nip Lowe. Parry Bros Ltd owned this boat and the barge Whakakeri. This combination worked night and day transporting the crushed aggregate to locations on the southern and northern side of the harbour. The Glyn Bird was a very old boat, built in 1909, and featured in this publication in issue 33, May/June 2003. The highlight of the maritime activities has to be the positioning of the spans via a piggyback method in 1958. I will not go into the full story of this unbelievable act, as this is fully explained in Harry Julian's book Sea in my Blood. If you are interested in tug and towboat work, get a copy of this book and read it. This act borders on the art of magic. To explain simply what was done, each section was loaded onto four 500-ton barges lashed together. However, they were piggybacked onto smaller sections so they were high enough to be positioned over the foundations, but only during high tide. The ebbing of the tide acted as a natural lowering device until they sat home at each end in position. A mooring system was set up to act as a follow-up system, but once these 183m top-heavy structures left their construction site, they were in the hands of Harry Julian and his team of handpicked skippers. Harry called the shots while on board Mona's Isle, while his other star boat, the Barbara W, was in the very capable hands of Digger Stanaway. Maurie Cates was at the helm of the converted steamer Te Kopuru and Fred Subritzky was on the Romo. This line-up of skippers simply had to be the best of the best, as one mistake and big time disaster was the result. To make matters worse, on the very first run the weather turned bad and squalls exceeding 35 knots came out of the sou'west. These boats were very underpowered. The Mona's Isle had two new 5L3 Gardners of 95hp each, the Barbara W a 6/110 GM producing 240hp, the Romo a very old 110hp GM and Te Kopuru a 165hp GM. One can just imagine these machines working at their absolute maximum and the screaming of these little gimmys.