''Pioneer'' was a 19th-century paddle-steamer

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

used in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Built in Sydney to the order of the New Zealand colonial government by the Australian Steam Navigation Company, she cost £9,500. Launched in 1863, she was towed across the Tasman Sea by HMS ''Eclipse'', leaving Sydney on 22 September and arriving at

Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Onehunga is a ...

on 3 October 1863. She was a flat-bottomed, stern-wheel paddle-steamer of 304 tons, made of 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) iron. She was 42.6 m long, 6 m beam, and drew only 0.9 m fully laden for travel on the Waikato River. With twin 30 hp engines and a 3.7 m (12 foot) stern wheel she had a speed of 9 knots. She had two iron cupolas or turrets, which were pierced for rifles and 12 pdr guns. The cupolas were 2.4 m (8 feet) high and 3.6 m (12 feet) in diameter. She was manned by officers and men of the Royal Navy, two companies from HMS ''Curacoa''; and flew the pendant of Commodore Sir William Wiseman of ''Curacoa''. She proved of immense service in the skirmishing on the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

in 1863 during the

Waikato Campaign The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

of the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the ...

. On 24 December 1866, whilst awaiting repair, she broke her mooring at Port Waikato, drifted out to sea and, during an attempt to steam her into Manukau Harbour, was wrecked on the Manukau bar. The two turrets are on display in Mercer (as part of the war memorial) and Ngāruawāhia. There are two engravings of her in action on the Waikato River in Ross and Howard, from the Illustrated London News. File:The river gunboat pioneer.jpg, ''Pioneer'', 1863–1866, was New Zealand's first purpose-built warship File:Pioneer gun turret.jpg, A turret on display at

Ngāruawāhia Ngāruawāhia () is a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located north-west of Hamilton at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers, adjacent to the Hakarimata Range. Ngāruawāhia is in the Hamilton U ...

References

Bibliography

*Howard, Grant (1981): ''The Navy in New Zealand'' pages 11–12 (Reed, Wellington) *Ingram, C. W. N., and Wheatley, P. O., (1936) ''Shipwrecks: New Zealand disasters 1795–1936.'' Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin Book Publishing Association. *Ross, J O’C (1967): ''The White Ensign in New Zealand'' pages 87–88 (Reed, Wellington) *Taylor, T D (1948): ''New Zealand’s Naval Story'' pages 108-109 (Reed, Wellington)
Entry in the ''Miramar Index''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pioneer Naval ships of New Zealand Ships built in New South Wales New Zealand Wars 1863 ships Ngāruawāhia Maritime incidents in December 1866 Shipwrecks of New Zealand 1866 in New Zealand

See also

References

Bibliography