The Countess of Onslow

The Countess of Onslow (1886) is believed to be the oldest surviving clinker-built lifeboat built in New Zealand, still in existence and in working order.

The boat was built by John Macfarlane (c.1828–1907) after the Public Works Committee of the Hokitika Harbour Board recommended that a lifeboat be constructed. The Board approved the project in August 1884, noting that “the expense would be small, the Board had the timber, and Macfarlane could build the boat.” Macfarlane, a long-time carpenter and shipwright for the Harbour Board completed the vessel in January 1886. The West Coast Times praised its “neat and careful workmanship,” describing it as a 30-foot clinker-built whaleboat, planked with kauri, copper-fastened throughout, and fitted with fore and aft posts made from single pieces of broadleaf.

In 1892, Governor Lord Onslow christened the lifeboat with a bottle of champagne, naming it Countess of Onslow in honour of his wife. 

“Shortly afterwards the boat, with six rowers and carrying the Governor and between 15 and 20 gentlemen, glided into the river. The other [watermen’s] boats followed and were joined by a number of private parties.”
— West Coast Times, 6 January 1892

By July 1911, the Countess of Onslow was no longer in service with the Harbour Board and was sold to George Aaron Wood (1862–1939). The boat was used on the Mahinapua Creek to transport whitebait to Wood’s canning factory. Wood, owner of the Pioneer Cycle Works and the whitebait factory on Revell Street, also operated the Merewether, a kauri motor launch used for white baiting and tourist excursions. A prominent local businessman, he later expanded his canning operations to Paringa and Westport, established Wood’s Motor Garage, and served as Chairman of the Hokitika Harbour Board (1921–1929).

Purchase Receipt, G.A. Wood, Hokitika Museum Collection

The Duchess changed hands once more when Fred Ross purchased the launch — along with the shed and all its contents — from George Wood for £50 in March 1929. Although the surviving receipt bears an ambiguous date once believed to read 1909, research shows the sale could not have occurred before 1911, the year Wood acquired the boat. As Wood relocated to Christchurch in 1929, it is most likely the transaction took place that March as he prepared to leave Hokitika.

Ross fitted the Countess with a cabin and motorised her with a Rugby 1928 engine (known as a “Stars” engine in the USA). Under the Ross family’s ownership, the boat was used on Lake Kaniere and stored in a boatshed there. When the sheds were dismantled around 1964, Bill Ross, Fred’s son, moved the Countess to a shed at Arthurstown near Hokitika. Before this relocation, the cabin and engine were removed — the engine is now part of the Westland Industrial Heritage Park collection. 

In the 1990s, Ash Barker of Central Autospray, Hokitika, received the Countess in lieu of payment for vehicle painting work for Bill Ross. In March 2000, Barker donated the boat to the Hokitika Museum. Initially stored at the Westland Industrial Heritage Park, the vessel’s stern post was repaired by Max Dowell, who also repainted her and oversaw the construction of a purpose-built display shed on Gibson Quay. With support from Lotteries funding and local volunteers, the Countess was fully restored and is now proudly displayed alongside other maritime artefacts, close to where she once worked the Hokitika River.