John Lees Faulkner and the schooner Jane, 1865-1871

Tauranga’s Early Maritime Traders, Part 1

An adventurous Yorkshireman from the ancient English port town of Whitby, John Lees Faulkner had originally been transported to New South Wales as a teenaged convict. He first arrived and settled at the Bay of Islands in 1832. Having trained as a convict shipwright at the Port McQuarie Dockyard, he soon built and began sailing his own vessel to the Bay of Plenty to trade with Maori at Tauranga. According to The Bay of Plenty Times of 9 Sept 1882:

Mr Faulkner’s object in coming to this district was ostensibly to obtain supplies to ship to the Bay of Islands which was one of the principal resorts for whalers in the South Seas. There were few Pakeha then present, but among the resident missionaries was Archdeacon Brown.

In 1840, Faulkner settled in Tauranga and established a trading store near Otumoetai Pa on land belonging to his wife to be Ruawahine of Ngai Tukairangi, a hapu of Ngai Te Rangi. From this base, close to the harbour entrance he supplied Maori with general trade goods, particularly agricultural implements, in exchange for cargoes of maize, flax and kauri gum. Sometimes accompanied by Ruawahine, he sailed these cargoes to the Bay of Islands and, from 1841, to the newly established Auckland settlement. During the 1840s and 1850s, Faulkner continued to build boats for himself, local Pakeha traders and several Maori rangatira at Tauranga. Noted for his integrity by both Pakeha and Maori, he was appointed Tauranga postmaster in 1860.  

John Lees Faulkner, Tauranga ship builder and trader (1807-1882)
Tauranga Library image collection Ref. 00-208

During the 1860s, Faulkner owned or part owned three trading vessels which, mainly crewed by local Maori sailors, regularly transported cargo and passengers between Tauranga and Auckland: the Maxwell (1862-63), the schooners Jane, 37 tons (1865-71) and the topsail schooner Tauranga, 61 tons (1863-72). A typical mid-sized schooner of the era, the Jane did not carry square rigged topsails above its foremast as did the Tauranga. Otherwise, its sail configuration was identical, with a schooner’s distinctive bow and bowsprit, two try sails carried on the foremast, a foresail and mainsail.

A swift and very busy vessel, the Jane ran military dispatches to and from Auckland during the mid to late 1860s, and delivered commissariat stores to British and colonial military forces at Tauranga and Opotiki. On the 10^th March 1865, the Jane carried news to Auckland, confirming rumours that the Rev Carl Volkner had been killed at Opotiki by militant followers of the Pai Marire faith. In June 1865, the Jane’s then master, Captain Sellars, sailed to Auckland with the bereaved Mrs Volkner and her two daughters.

A 35-ton, New Zealand built schooner, the Governor Grey
Watercolour painting by Charles Heaphy, late 1840s
Whanganui Regional Museum, Ref. 1910.2.1

No images of the 37-ton Jane have survived. This 1860s sketch of the 35-ton New Zealand built schooner Governor Grey however, gives a fair indication of the Jane’s size and sail configuration.
Major Charles Heaphy, ‘The Governor Grey’, in Baille, Herbert, ‘Episodes of the Maori War’, in Transactions and Proceeding of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 53, 1921: 32.

The diverse commercial cargoes that the Jane’s skippers delivered to Auckland make interesting reading. Recorded in the Port of Auckland’s ‘Shipping Intelligence’ reports, published in contemporary newspapers, examples include:

16 October 1865.   -   From Opotiki, Tauranga, Mercury Bay with sawn timber, 8 passengers.

1 October 1866      -   The schooner Jane. Faulkner, master, with a cargo of kauri gum.

8 January1867.       -  The Jane schooner, Faulkner, 37 tons, with sheep from East Coast.

15 February 1868.  -  The Jane schooner from Tauranga with hides, tallow and passengers.

24 February 1868.  -  From Tauranga, 1 horse, 1 cow, a quantity of produce, and 25 passengers.

7 December 1868.  -  The Jane schooner, from Tauranga with cattle and passengers.

11 February 1869.  -  The Jane Schooner, Moller, master, with fruit etc.

The return cargoes that the Jane delivered to Tauranga’s settlers and its more substantial British and colonial military population included wine, ale, spirits, groceries, drapery, flour, general cargo, sundries, and passengers. The Jane also shipped cargoes of timber (presumably kauri) and sundries to Hawke’s Bay. During 1870, the Jane’s voyages to Auckland became less frequent and ceased altogether in 1871. An article in the Daily Southern Cross on 22 September 1869, explained:

The schooner ‘Jane,’ Captain Moller, whose trips [to Auckland] are as regular as the clock, came in again as is usual on his eighth day, deeply laden with stores. She leaves again this evening. We understand that the owner of the ‘Jane,’ Mr J. L. Faulkner, intends to put the schooner ‘Tauranga’ in the berth, as a regular packet between there and Auckland in place of the ‘Jane.’ Captain Moller is to have charge of her.

Military camp at Te Papa with sailing craft and a steamer, 1864

E. A. Williams (c.1824 – 1898), Camp Te Papa, Tauranga, 1864, watercolour, pen & ink on paper: 136x201mm, given by Dr H. D. Skinner, Dunedin, 1948. Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago, 75/100.

The Jane had several masters during the 1860s including Faulkner himself, Captains Moller and Sellars, and Faulkner’s sons Jarvis and Christopher. The brothers had initially learned their seacraft by sailing the family’s 16-ton cutter Bella on its runs between Tauranga and Maketu. From 1866, Christopher regularly sailed the Jane on trading voyages between Gisborne and Auckland, before sailing his father’s largest schooner Tauranga, which shipped considerably larger cargoes between Tauranga and Auckland.

From the 1860s, in the face of contrary winds which could delay them for days on end, sailing vessels were increasingly towed clear of Tauranga Harbour by local or visiting steam vessels. As the New Zealand-wide construction of steam powered vessels large and tiny accelerated during the 1870s, the glory days of Tauranga’s commercial sailing vessels were done. The number of familiar ‘sails’ readily recognized by residents as they entered the harbour dwindled and most of Tauranga’s picturesque commercial sailing ships soon passed from sight.

Whether Faulkner sold the aging Jane to Maori or Pakeha buyers or if it joined the old sailing hulks, abandoned and quietly decaying in the mangrove backwaters of Tauranga Harbour is unknown. The final Auckland Shipping Intelligence report to mention the vessel simply read: ‘5 May 1871. The Jane schooner, Faulkner, 37 tons, from Tauranga’.

The dominant figure in Tauranga’s early commercial maritime history, John Lees Faulkner died in 1882 at the age of 75 years. On the 9^th of September that year, the Bay of Plenty Times described him as ‘a man of few words, naturally reserved, but of a kind, rough, genial-hearted disposition, ever ready to render assistance to his neighbours. Mr Faulkner's name will not be easily forgotten, for he was universally respected, and we may safely assert was without equal’.

Sources

Auckland Star, 17 August, 1911: 8.

Bay of Plenty Times, 9 September1882: 2.

Daily Southern Cross, 22 September 1869: 3.

Gifford, W.H. and H.B. Williams, A Centennial History of Tauranga, A. H. and A.W. Reed, Matamata, 1940, Capper Reprint, Christchurch, 1976.

Green, Julie, John Lees Faulkner (1807-1882), Tauranga Historical Society

Rorke, Jinty, John Lees Faulkner 1810-12? - 1882, Trader, Shipbuilder, Farmer in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, W.H. Oliver (ed.), Bridget Williams Books and Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1990:   118-119.