Rangiriri (paddle steamer)
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The Rangiriri was a 19th-century paddle-steamer gunboat used on the Waikato River in New Zealand. It brought the first Pākehā settlers to Hamilton in 1864 and served as a riverboat until it was wrecked in 1889. It is now located on the shore in Memorial Park, Hamilton East. It is the oldest surviving iron-hulled boat in new Zealand.[1]
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The Rangiriri was a stern wheel gunboat with two twelve-pounder in embrasures and one rocket tube. Her length was 90 ft 6 in (27.58 m), breadth 20 ft (6.1 m) and speed 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph).[2][3] It had high bulwarks with 20–30 piercings for rifles on each side.[2] The steamer had a tight turning circle which allowed it to navigate the twists and turns of the Waikato River with greater ease.[2]
To prosecute the Invasion of the Waikato, the New Zealand colonial government required a fleet of river boats to transport troops and supplies upriver and provide artillery support.[4] This Waikato Flotilla was characterised by historian Herbert Baillie as "the first New Zealand navy," but they were mostly crewed by Royal Navy personnel.[5][2] These ships were ordered in October 1863 and the first of them, the Avon and the Pioneer, arrived in July and October 1863 respectively and saw action at various points in the campaign.[6][7] The Rangiriri and her sister ship the Koheroa were designed by James Stewart, a Scottish civil engineer who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1859.[2][3] He later described the Rangiriri as "hideously bluff at the bows, straight in the sides, and square in the stern."[3] Stewart supervised the construction of both ships at the P.N. Russell & Co. foundry in Sydney.[2] They were brought across the Tasman Sea in pieces on the Beautiful Star and reassembled by Stewart and James Bramwell Steedman at Port Waikato in April 1864.[6][2][3] The Rangiriri was named after site of the decisive victory won by the colonial government the previous year.[6]
