Safety concerns prompt dismantling

Dismantling the historic scow The Portland has made the Pounawea hulk safer, its owner says.

The derelict 116-year-old Portland is one of the last surviving New Zealand hold-scows, and Catlins residents contacted the Otago Daily Times after noticing its mast was missing this week.

Northern Southland-based owner Karl Hishon said he and a small team of friends including local people had spent King’s Birthday weekend removing The Portland’s decayed mast, steel cables and wire rigging.

The work was driven by safety concerns, not restoration plans.

‘‘The mast was showing serious signs of decay.

‘‘From a health and safety point of view we had the responsibility to remove it and other stuff that was hanging over the side or was a potential danger,’’ Mr Hishon said.

A vessel type once common around New Zealand’s shallow coastal waters and tidal rivers, the 23m, kauri coastal cargo scow The Portland was built in Auckland in 1910 and worked around the North Island and Cook Strait.

It has rested at Pounawea beside the Owaka River since 1979 when it was converted into a houseboat.

It sank in 2011 before being refloated and beached, and local people said leakage issues had prompted fuel tanks to be pumped out.

When Mr Hishon bought the vessel ‘‘more than 10 years ago’’ he had hoped it could be restored.

But he soon found the cost and complexity of the project too much of an obstacle.

Since then, weather, vandalism and theft had further reduced the prospects of saving or on-selling the boat, he said.

A 2023 ODT report noted comparable restorations had reached costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A local woman, who the ODT agreed not to name, said she was concerned to see visitors and children sometimes ignore warning and trespassing signs to board the beached hulk.

She had also once hoped The Portland might become a restored attraction, but now regarded it as a hazard she would rather see the back of.

Mr Hishon said he understood that view and his plan was to gradually salvage usable timber and components.

‘‘It’s beyond repair, and there’s not much left that another restorer would be able to safely get back in action,’’ he said.

‘‘So the next best thing is to repurpose it.

‘‘We’ll just pick away at the easy stuff that needs removed and maybe just be left with a shell.’’

Over last weekend the mast was lowered into the water and floated upstream before being winched on to a trailer at the boat ramp.

In 2023, Mr Hishon tried to sell the boat, telling this newspaper ‘‘all serious offers’’ would be considered.

Then, last year, he said restoration groups in Canterbury had shown interest in salvaging parts of the vessel for use in their own projects.

Otago Regional Council harbourmaster Steve Rushbrook said at the time there had been no recent complaints regarding the scow.

‘‘The ORC has not received any recent complaints and we are not aware of any pollution incidents relating to this vessel,’’ he said.

nick.brook@odt.co.nz

The Portland

• Records at the Owaka Museum show the 23m, flat-bottomed scow was built by George T Niccol, of Auckland, in 1910.

• Originally owned by Wilsons (NZ) Portland Cement, it traded in the Auckland area until 1932. In 1934, it went to Nelson and traded between the Tasman Bay harbours and Wellington for more than    40 years.

• The Portland arrived in Pounawea as a houseboat in 1979, and is one of a very few surviving hold scows in New Zealand. Many of these ships were taken to the Pacific for war use and never came back.

• Originally powered by sail, it was later fitted with diesel engines.