Bishop George Selwyn, Archdeacon Alfred Brown and the Flying Fish

Among the small missionary schooners like the Herald, Karere and Kukupa that sailed through Tauranga Harbour’s Maunganui entrance during the 1830s and 40s, was the 17 ton Flying Fish. Built at the Bay of Islands for use as an Anglican missionary vessel, it should not be confused with the Pacific Island’s trading schooner Flying Fish, 35 tons, which under Captain Webster, frequently arrived at, and departed Auckland during this decade).¹

Two men at work on Flying Fish at her berth at Orakei, Auckland, circa. 1844-1847

After Bishop Samuel Marsden’s death in 1838, the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand was led by the Rev. Henry Williams. A former Royal Navy Lieutenant, Williams who had built built the Flying Fish, wrote that the need for a Bishop was very great. George Augustus Selwyn was selected for the position in 1841, with responsibilities that included oversight of the Church of England’s work in New Zealand, as well as among the islands of Melanesia.² Selwyn’s first missionary vessel for use in New Zealand waters was the Flying Fish. A swift and most seaworthy vessel, from 1842 he often referred to it as ‘my yacht’, ‘my little schooner’, and greatly enjoyed taking a turn at the tiller.³ Later remodeled with a deck and cabin, the little schooner proved an ideal craft for visiting New Zealand’s North and South Island mission stations, accessible only by sea and often through challenging harbour entrances.

Bishop George Augustus Selwyn

Selwyn had a close relationship with Tauranga’s leading missionary Alfred Brown. In 1843 and 1844 Brown was encouraged in his arduous overland evangelising work when Selwyn trekked from Auckland to visit him at Matamata and Maungatautari, with an earlier visit to Brown at Te Papa in December 1842. He also showed his faith in Brown’s efforts by appointing him Archdeacon of Tauranga on 20th September 1844. Selwyn was to show his confidence in the new Archdeacon still further, as there is on record a letter written by Brown, on 29th February 1848, declining the appointment to a Bishopric which had been offered him by Selwyn.⁴  

On 9 March 1845, Selwyn recorded that the Flying Fish had made the quickest passage ever recorded for a vessel sailing between Wellington and Auckland. ⁵ Ably skippered by Captain Champion, the Flying Fish was also known as the ‘college schooner’, as it regularly transported missionaries and Maori ‘college boys’ to and from Thames, Tauranga and other Bay of Plenty mission stations to Selwyn’s St Johns College at Kohimarama, Auckland. During mid-1845, Brown was conveyed by the Flying Fish to Tauranga on an urgent visit to see his wife Charlotte and dying invalid son Marsh who had previously been cared for at St. John’s College.

Archdeacon Alfred Nesbitt Brown

Alfred Brown and William Williams, who arrived overland from the Turanga (Poverty Bay) mission station, sailed to Auckland on the Flying Fish for a meeting of Anglican archdeacons, held on 2 and 3 September 1847. Williams briefly recorded a swift overnight voyage to the College anchorage.

At once we set sail with a light wind & crossed the firth of the Thames. Passed the Island of Pakihi at daylight grounding for a short time on a sandspit. Beat up to Auckland with a strong westerly breeze and at four oclock we landed… ⁶

Captain Champion and the Flying Fish made additional voyages to Tauranga’s Te Papa mission station during the 1840s. On 26 September 1846, the schooner returned to St John’s College with flax, potatoes, maize and timber from Tauranga.⁷ In the same year, Selwyn sailed to Tauranga to conduct a confirmation service for some of Brown’s Māori converts at Te Papa^.8

Selwyn’s arduous, extended voyages to New Zealand’s scattered CMS coastal mission stations proved, at times, long and lonely experiences. At the Bay of Islands on 9 March 1845, he recorded:

 

I am sitting in my little cabin, in the schooner Flying Fish of seventeen tons burden; with no other companions than my sailing master, Champion, late boatswain of the Government brig Victoria, and my crew of three New Zealanders.⁹

Captain Champion at the tiller of the Flying Fish

Selwyn did not remain in his cabin for long. On 11 March the ‘rebel’ chiefs Hone Heke Pokai and Te Ruki Kawiti’s warriors attacked Kororareka (Russell) in the first battle of the Flagstaff War. Selwyn, Champion and their Māori crew took some of the terrified settler refugees aboard the Flying Fish, and joined the rescue fleet that transported them safely to Auckland. Initially offered a much larger vessel for his voyages that year, Selwyn, by now an accomplished sailor and commander, declined the offer. Replying by letter to his would-be benefactor he wrote:

In answer to your noble offer of a schooner similar to that given to the Bishop of Newfoundland, I must tell you, that any thing above twenty tons is considered large in our harbours, the greater number of our coasting vessels being about that size; and, if managed by steady men, they perform their voyages with great safety.¹⁰

Bishop George Selwyn continued to sail the sea-battered Flying Fish around his coastal diocese until 1848, when the schooner’s leaks began topping the cabin floor. The final straw it was reported, occurred when he stepped out of bed one morning ‘into a salt water bath’.¹¹  In July 1848, Selwyn took command of the larger 20-ton Undine, another Bay of Islands-built schooner. Whether this vessel also became a familiar sight on the waters of Tauranga Harbour during this era is currently under investigation.

References

¹ ‘Old Mission Ships’, New Zealand Herald, 27 July 1935: 15. 

² Selwyn, George Augustus, Te Ara, New Zealand biographies

https://teara.govt.nz › biographies › selwyn-george-aug...

³ Tucker, H. W; Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of George Augustus Selwyn. Bishop of New Zealand, William Wells Gardiner, London, 1879: 148.

Tucker, 1879: 148.

⁴ Waikato Independent, 11 May 1939: 3

⁵ Tucker, 1879: 187.

⁶ Porter, Francis, (ed.), The Turanga Journals 1840-1850” Letters and Journals of William and Jane Williams, Missionaries to Poverty Bay. Victoria University Press, 1Wellington, 1974: 442.

⁷ New Zealander, 26 September 1842: 2.

⁸ Williams, 1974: 370.

⁹ Tucker 1879: 187.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Williams, 1974: 464.

Illustrations

1 Hutton, Thomas Biddulph, 1824-1886. (56) The Flying Fish. Hutton, Thomas Biddulph (Rev), 1824-1886: [Three sketchbooks of New Zealand scenes and people. 1844-1847]. Ref: E-111-1-071. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

2 Mason & Co (Photographers). George Augustus Selwyn. Engraved by W. Hale, 1878-1879 from a photograph by Messrs Mason & Co. [London, 1889]. Curteis, George Herbert, 1824-1894: Bishop Selwyn of New Zealand and of Lichfield ... (London, Kegan Paul, 1889). Ref: PUBL-0148-front. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

3 Hemus & Hanna (Firm). Hemus & Hanna (Auckland) fl 1879-1882: Portrait of Archdeacon A N Brown. Ref: PA3-0103. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

4 Hutton, Thomas Biddulph, 1824-1886. (70) Champion at the tiller. Flying Fish. Hutton, Thomas Biddulph (Rev), 1824-1886: [Three sketchbooks of New Zealand scenes and people. 1844-1847]. Ref: E-111-1-085. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.