Story: Shipping

As immigrants began to arrive by sea and trade expanded, New Zealand’s shipping industry was monopolised by a few powerful British and New Zealand companies. They built larger, faster ships, advancing from sail to the glamour of steam liners. These queens of the southern seas were eventually overtaken by air travel and containerisation. Today the ports, once busy with local cargo–passenger vessels, are host to container ships and cruise ships from all parts of the globe.

Story by Gavin McLean
Main image: A 1940s poster promoting the New Zealand Line

Story summary

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For about 170 years from the early 1800s, ships were a lifeline for New Zealanders.

Sailing ships

The first sailing ships in the early 1800s brought explorers, sealers, whalers and traders. Most came from Britain, and others from France, America and Australia.

From the 1840s, thousands of British settlers sailed for months across the world to their new home. The arrival of an immigrant ship in New Zealand was a big event. Roads were rough and there were no railways, so the ports were busy with boats travelling around the coast. Small sailing vessels, such as cutters, ketches and schooners, brought supplies.

Steam ships

By the 1870s steam ships (powered by coal) began to replace sail. James Mills, a Dunedin shipowner, set up the powerful Union Steam Ship Company. It built bigger, faster ships to travel between the North and South islands, and to Australia. The speedy Rotomahana was called ‘the Greyhound of the Pacific’.

In the early 1900s the company built impressive steamers for the overnight trip from Wellington to Lyttelton in the South Island. This became very popular. Today, the two islands are linked by ferries running between Wellington and Picton.

Shipping meat

On 15 February 1882 the clipper Dunedin sailed for London with a load of sheep meat. The meat was kept frozen with new technology – refrigerated storage. After this first trip, meat became an important New Zealand export for the next 100 years.

Immigrant ships

Because steam ships used a lot of coal, until the 1880s it was cheaper to bring people from Europe under sail. Faster ships known as clippers sailed non-stop through rough, cold seas. Later, immigrants came on steam-driven passenger–cargo liners. Depending on how much money they had, they travelled in first, second or third class cabins. In 1955 the stylish liner Southern Cross offered one class for all passengers. But from the 1970s, most people travelled by air.

Containers

Loading and unloading cargo at the wharf used to take weeks. But from the 1960s cargo was pre-packed into large steel containers that could be rolled on and off ships quickly. Ships got bigger and fewer workers were needed. Most of the old cargo and passenger ships disappeared. Today New Zealand’s ports are busy with container ships and cruise ships from around the world.

How to cite this page:

Gavin McLean, 'Shipping', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/shipping (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Gavin McLean, published 12 June 2006, updated 1 January 2016