EARNSLAW

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

EARNSLAW

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:58 pm

She was built as a twin-screw passenger vessel by John McGregor and Company Ltd., Dunedin, New Zealand for the New Zealand Government Railway department, Dunedin. Designed by Hugh McRae.
04 July 1911 keel laid down.
Launched under the name EARNSLAW.
Tonnage 329.55 grt, 155.43 net, dim. 51.2 x 7.31m. Registered length 50.47m. Depth 9.9ft, draught 6.6ft.
Two triple expansion steam engines 500hp each. Speed maximum 19 knots, cruising speed 12 knots. Coal fired. Bunker capacity 12 tons, later 14 tons. Coal consumption at cruising speed 1 ton an hour.
Passenger capacity 1.035, cargo capacity 100 tons (or 1.500 sheep or 200 bale of hay and 70 head of cattle.)
Crew 11
Port of registry, Dunedin.
Completed in 1911, building cost £20.850.

The shipyard where she was built, was originally the Otago Foundry, established in 1859 alongside the Dunedin railway station, the business went through several changes of ownership prior to becoming John McGregor & Co. in 1894.
The foundry was a major engineering company and renowned for their steam locomotives and gold dredges.

A commemorative plaque marks the site of the EARNSLAW slipway. From here she was then taken apart and hauled by train through the mountains to Kingston and launched on the 122 square mile Lake Wakatipu.
Kingston is a small settlement, with a wharf at the former rail-head at the Southern end of the lake and is 46 kilometers from Queenstown. Kingston’s name complements that of Queenstown, both Irish place names and presumably bestowed by Irish gold miners.

Kingston was the end of the railway line from Invercargill and passengers continued their journey to Queenstown aboard the Railway Department Lake steamers.

Her design was not without its faults and the vessel is said to handle poorly at low speed “like steering a brick across an ice rink”.
She is still in service after more as 90 years she makes now five 90-minute cruises on Lake Wakatipu each day, with further two on summer evenings.
The 1915 Kingston Flyer steam train operates two daily excursions from 1 October until 30 April on the remaining 14 kilometers of track between Kingston and Fairlight.

New Zealand 40c sg1987, scott?, 1996 40c sg 1987. scott?

http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/earnslaw.htm



Source: Watercraft Philately Vol. 48 page 27.
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Last edited by aukepalmhof on Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: EARNSLAW

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Jun 29, 2011 2:47 am

New Zealand 2011 Indipex MS, EARNSLAW in margin of MS.
Tourists walk the triple - expansion steamer EARNSLAW’s decks these days, but 100 years ago the ‘Lady of the Lake’ was a hard-working passenger, freight and livestock carrier, one of several linking the isolated farms and settlements of Lake Wakatipu. Designed and built in Dunedin and reassembled at the lakeside in 1912, the EARNSLW still burns coal today.

New Zealand 2012 $ 1.90 sg?, scott?

New Zealand Post leaflet.
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