‘Few people in the colony, especially south of Auckland, have any idea of the amount of shipping there is in the Kaipara Harbour nor the amount of business going on there’. So wrote a correspondent in the Taranaki Herald of 6 April 1901. It could be that even today it is still not realised just how busy the harbour was in those times.
The writer noted, ‘There are four large sawmills on the northern branch of the harbour, known as Northern Wairoa. These mills are all south of Dargaville, the largest township on the Kaipara. A small mill is working fourteen miles beyond the town, another going up at Tangiteroria with one talked of near the famous Tokatoka swamp, where there is a large quantity of kahikatea. Some very large cargoes have been taken away from Kauri Company’s mills at Aratapu and Te Kopuru lately’.
Many of the ships and their crews that regularly came in to Kaipara Harbour became part of the social life of the river towns. Captain Thor Mikklesen probably could see that it would take quite a while to load his Norwegian barque Fortuna with a million feet of sawn kauri at Te Kopuru over December 1900, so he decided to throw a ship board party. The newspaper reported that he stood up a Christmas tree and invited his crew and 50 friends to dinner and a social.
Three dining tables were arranged on the 40-feet wide main deck, each place set with knife, fork and spoon tied with a red, blue and white ribbon. Sails formed a roof over the deck and many colourful flags were draped around, including that of the Christiana Shipmasters Association to which Captain Mikklesen belonged. Each guest was presented with a button-hole. Unusually though, the crew and Captain were seated at one table while his visitors sat around the other two.
When all was ready the Captain said the ‘grace’ in Norwegian and the meal began. Afterwards music, dancing and singing took over with many toasts proposed and honoured.
Probably too soon, the evening was over, but not before each guest and each member of the crew was presented with a gift from the Christmas tree.
There was a big surprise for ‘the good Captain when the crew presented him with an album containing a big collection of New Zealand ferns. General regret was expressed when at last the 1,300 tons Fortuna sailed on her long voyage around Cape Horn to Liverpool in England with her load of timber. We all hope to see her back again next year’.
Fortuna was obviously a popular and happy ship that was always welcome in Kaipara.
