The Tiare Taporo has a gross tonnage of 173 and a net of 137 tons and was built by C. Bailey, Jnr. at Auckland, New Zealand. Her owners were A. B. Donald, Ltd. and she is registered at Suva. A wooden auxiliary schooner, her machinery, which is aft, consists of a 4-cylinder oil engine built by the Atlas Imperial Diesel Engine Company, of Oakland, California and giving a speed of 7 knots. The schooner's dimensions are: length (overall) 90 ft., beam 23 4 in. and draft 7 ft.
Mr. A. B. Donald had the Tiare Taporo built by a master shipwright, Charles Bayley, Jr., of Auckland, who was considered one of the foremost shipbuilders in New Zealand. She was built of the very best Kauri, her frames were natural bent Pohutkava and her deck beams and main hatch coaming were Iron.
She has a beautiful Kauri stick for a bowsprit, but her main, fore and topmasts are Oregon pine.
Launched in 1913 she was christened Tiare Taporo (the Lime Flower). You'll see in the photograph she carries Donald's house-flag, which has a red border, white centre and blue lettering A B D L. On the main she is flying the French ensign, which is natural, as she was built for trading in French Oceania; that is, for trading in the Society, Tuamotu and the Marquesa group. She is fitted out with a trade room, a master's cabin, a main cabin seating eight at the table, with two bunks on each side. The main cabin is light and airy with a large skylight running nearly the length of the cabin: there is also a cabin for the mate. She was captained at the time by Capt. Joe Winchester, an Englishman who had arrived in Tahiti as a young man, married there and became a French citizen. The Tiare Taporo made a record run from Auckland to Tahiti in 11 days and 7 hours.
In the latter part of the First World War, the Donalds withdrew the Tiare Taporo from Tahiti and had her running to San Francisco from the Cook Islands with copra, returning to Auckland with petrol. She was under the British flag on that run. During 1919 she was permanently stationed in the Cook Islands, doing an annual trip to Tahiti for repairs and overhaul. She also did a few trips to Auckland during that time, owing to the Tahiti slip not being available. This routine was kept up until 1949 when she was again transferred to Tahiti and put under the French flag going back to her old run to the Marquesas and the Tuamotus, out of Papeete.
When old man Donald started his business in Tahiti, the Royal Navy obtained its lime juice from St. Vincent and St. Lucia in the British West Indies. Both these islands were struck by one of those hurricanes that blows islands off the map. The lime crop was destroyed and Donald obtained the contract for supplying the Navy with lime juice. As a result of the great quantities of limes he bought, he became known among Tahitians as the 'Lime Man'—in Tahitian `Taporo Tane'.
The Tahitians have a way of naming their vessels with the prefix 'flower', in Tahitian `Tiare', It is said that Donald was almost beating his brains out trying to find a suitable name for his new schooner, but one day he had it. He stormed into his office in Auckland and shouted, 'The new boat will be called Tiare Taporo.' I always like to think that Donald's sudden inspiration was brought on sharply after he had been indulging in a couple of rum punches, flavoured by Tahiti limes—he was that sort of person.
SG173 Sea Breezes 9/63, 11/63, 10/64 Photo of vessel supplied by Joy (Australia)