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Story: Transport – overview

HMS Driver

Image
HMS <em>Driver</em>

The first steamships were fitted with sails which they used much of the time. The first such vessel to visit New Zealand was HMS Driver, in 1846. This 20th-century sketch of the ship is by Roy Cowan.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, James Cowan Collection (MS-Papers-0039)

Reference: MS-Papers-0039-16

by Roy Cowan

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

James Watson, Transport – overview – Steam transport, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/24982/hms-driver (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by James Watson, published 10 June 2013.