Magazine Bay (Bakers Bay) #1
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| Example of a spar torpedo boat, http://navymuseum.co.nz/spar-torpedo-boats/ |
Wedged between Corsair Bay and much-modified Dampiers Bay on the outskirts of Lyttelton port and township, tiny Magazine Bay is all but invisible from the road yet punches above its weight historically.
The name ‘Magazine Bay’ only appears in the first decade of the twentieth century despite the fact that the powder magazine was built there as early as 1874. For a good 60 years it was known as ‘Bakers Bay’ after an early resident. The powder magazine at ‘Navy Point’ housed explosives for port and road construction and was accessed by means of a stone jetty. At high tide, vessels arriving with significant quantities of gunpowder were legally required to land the powder on the jetty and transport it 40 yards to the magazine.
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| Press, 28 February 1874 |
Bakers Bay was also used to offload livestock. Whether the presence of the stone jetty encouraged this (or whether animals were even allowed to be unloaded at a jetty intended for the transport of gunpowder) is unclear because in February 1867 the SS Airedale anchored off Bakers Bay, brought her cargo of over 60 horses up on deck and put them over the side to swim ashore unassisted.[1]
The bay was one of several sites used by John Grubb for his shipbuilding business. Early photos show a boatshed, slipways and boatbuilding activity. In January 1878 the Lyttelton Harbour Board were looking to strengthen John Grubb’s slip at Bakers Bay so that it could take the harbour dredge for repair work. This was prior to the construction of the graving dock.
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Bakers Bay (now Magazine Bay) in 1897. The Croydon Lass is shown on John Grubb's slipway. His workshop is just visible at the extreme lower left. Centre foreground is the shed built in 1885 to house the torpedo boat Defender.
The Weekly Press, 27 January 1897. CCL |
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| Bakers Bay, Peter Loader, Pinterest Both this image and the one above are labelled 'Bakers Bay'. Because the second photo is undated it is a little difficult to reconcile it with the first image. Possibly this might be Corsair Bay?? |
Alarmed at what it perceived to be growing Russian threat in the Pacific in the 1880s, the New Zealand Government developed a three-tiered defensive system comprising shore-based artillery, submarine mines and torpedo boats for the colony’s most important ports. A spar torpedo boat - Thornycroft Torpedo Boat No. 168, known as Defender - was deployed to Lyttelton in December 1884. The following year a 5-acre military reserve was gazetted in Magazine Bay, a shed and slipway were built for the torpedo boat and a gun was established on the headland above the magazine building. Cottages were built for a caretaker and a gunner. A torpedo corps was formed at Lyttelton and trained in the use of mines.
Defender was something of a curiosity. With a length of 63 feet, she was only 7ft 6in in the beam and her displacement was twelve tons. Steam power was provided by a locomotive boiler to a single engine of 173 horsepower. She had two funnels side by side and a conning tower with quarter-inch bulletproof plating to protect the coxswain. Defender was originally capable of steaming at 17½ knots over a measured mile; a high speed for those days. The boat was equipped with a 36 foot spar tipped with a gun cotton charge, which projected over the bow of the vessel and would be exploded on the side of a ship below the water line. A Nordenfelt gun was also fitted.[2]
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Defender at Lyttelton 1897. CCL
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However the story of the Torpedo Boat is one of incompetence and neglect. Right at the beginning there was a ‘slip-up’.
The torpedo shed and slip at Baker’s Bay are now nearly completed, in fact the slip, as designed, was finished, but a bungle occurred in the plans, and the sea-end of the slip, as at first planned, was found to be high and dry at high water. An additional length of 90ft was therefore ordered. The shed will hold three torpedo boats which it is said will be allotted to Lyttelton.[3]
Then in March 1886 Admiral Scott arrived inspect the Lyttelton Naval Volunteers and was taken out on the harbour in Defender. According to the Lyttelton Times reporter the boat’s engines were so rusty that she could only muster 12 knots. “The boat is only brought out once in three months, or thereabouts, and consequently a valuable piece of machinery is not in gear when wanted. The engines were in no order whatever...”[4] The reporter also observed that the design and placement of the boat slip meant that it was impossible to launch the Defender in anything other than relatively calm seas and near high tide. “The Admiral’s inspection was to have been made on Saturday, but there was a slight swell, and the boat could not therefore leave the slip.”
An even more scathing article appeared in the Lyttelton Times two days later in which the author suggested inviting tenders for a gigantic placard to be painted on Godley Head announcing:
To Russians and all others whom it may concern. Hostile parties wishing to shell the Port of Lyttelton are requested to time their visit for fine weather, otherwise they cannot be fittingly received by the local authorities.[5]
The complete unsuitability of the torpedo boat location was confirmed in April 1895 when a severe easterly gale washed away 40ft of John Grubb’s slipway in Bakers Bay and caused the torpedo boat slip to twist and work in the heavy run “like a huge sea serpent”.[6]
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| Defender in Lyttelton Harbour c.1890s. JJ Kinsey collection, Canterbury Museum |
The Defender was never much more than an expensive show-piece, impressing locals in Lyttelton’s 1885 regatta. There is no evidence she was ever armed and the Naval Volunteers much preferred working with the artillery. By 1900 the torpedo boat was outmoded and neglected. Eventually she was purchased by Lyttelton steam launch proprietor Mark Thomas who stripped her and dumped the hull on Purau beach. There she remained until 1958 when the Borough Council bulldozed the rusty remains into a pit.
In 1998 David Bundy was tasked by Project Port Lyttelton to locate and excavate the remains of Defender. Referring to an aerial photograph taken in 1958 of Purau beach, he was assisted by a team of soldiers using metal detectors. Eventually the remains were found, with some sections buried at a depth of 30 metres. After being excavated, the remains were taken to Lyttelton where they were restored. In 2003 the Lyttelton Torpedo Boat Museum Charitable Trust opened the Thornycroft Torpedo Boat Museum in the former magazine house and placed the restored remains, complete with a spar torpedo, on display.[7]
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| Defender on Purau beach stern section to the right of the bow, 1930. Painting by Jesse Holloborn |
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| Magazine Bay and wreck of the Lotta, 1940. Lyttelton Museum |
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| The powder magazine today - now the Torpedo Boat Museum (Jane Robertson, June 2019)
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[1] Lyttelton Times, 27 February 1867
[2] The New Zealand Maritime Record, NZ National Maritime Museum, http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/thornycroft.htm
[3] Star, 27 April 1885
[4] Lyttelton Times, 30 March 1886
[5] Lyttelton Times, 2 April 1886
[6] Star, 16 April 1895
[7] Christchurch City Libraries Blog, https://cclblog.wordpress.com/tag/lyttelton-harbour/
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