TSS Earnslaw
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| History | |
|---|---|
 New Zealand
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| Owner: | Real Journeys |
| Builder: | McGregor and Company, Dunedin |
| Laid down: | 4 July 1911 |
| Launched: | 24 February 1912 |
| Fate: | In service |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 330 L/T |
| Length: | 51.2 m (168 ft) |
| Beam: | 7.3 m (24 ft) |
| Draught: | 2.1 m (6.9 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Twin screw steamer, two sets of triple expansion 500 horse power jet condensing steam engines |
| Speed: | 13 knots |
| Complement: | 11 crew, 389 passengers |
| Notes: | coal capacity 14 tons, boiler type and pressure=Locomotive style, 180lb per square inch. |
The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 Edwardian vintage twin screw steamer plying the waters of Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand. It is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Central Otago, and the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, New Zealand Railways awarded 20,850 pounds to John McGregor and Co shipbuilders of Dunedin to build a steamship for Lake Wakatipu at their Otago Foundry and Engineering Works. The Earnslaw was designed by naval architect Hugh McRae and was based on a Siemens-Martin steel hull design and using Kauri for the decking. Propulsion was provided by twin coal-fired triple-expansion, jet-condensing, vertically inclined engines. The keel was laid on 4 July 1911. The ship was named after Mount Earnslaw, a 2889-metre peak at the head of Lake Wakatipu. She was to be 51.2 metres long, the biggest boat on the lake, and the largest steamship built in New Zealand. Transporting the Earnslaw was no easy task. When construction was finally completed, she was dismantled. All the quarter-inch steel hull plates were numbered for reconstruction much like a jig-saw puzzle. Then the parts were loaded on to a goods train and transported across the South Island from Dunedin to Kingston at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu.
Six months later, after being rebuilt, on 24 February 1912, the TSS Earnslaw was launched and fired up for her maiden voyage to Queenstown, with the Minister of Marine as captain.
She then became a valuable vessel for the New Zealand Railways (NZR) and was known as the "Lady of the Lake".
The Earnslaw worked with her sister ships, the paddle steamers Antrim and Mountaineer and the screw steamer Ben Lomond, transporting sheep, cattle and passengers to the surrounding high country stations.
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Wikipedia