Hurunui

An iron full-rigged ship built in 1875 by Palmers & Co., Newcastle. Dimensions 204'1"×34'2"×20'0" and 1053 GRT, 1012 NRT, and 885 tons under deck.

Sistership to the same owner's Waipa.

Named after the 145 km long river in North Canterbury, NZ, which flows into Pegasus Bay about 80 km NE of Christchurch.

Rerigged as a barque before 1890.

1875: Launched at the shipyard of Palmers & Co., Newcastle, for New Zealand Shipping Co., London. Assigned the official British Reg. No. 73588 and signal QFDB.
1877 December 2: Arrived to New Plymouth, New Zealand, under command of Captain McKelvie but had to continue to Wellington due to a severe gale.
1883 January: Opened the Lyttleton Graving Dock.
1883 June 26: Collided with and sank the same owner's Waitara in the English Channel off the Bill of Portland.
1885: Captain J. Sinclair.
1892: Sailed from Great Britain to Nelson in 125 days. More than one month of this time was spent at Cape Town for repairs.
1895: Sailed from Great Britain to Lyttleton in 86 days.
1895 July: Sold G.A. Lindblom, Åbo, Finland, and was renamed Hermes. The Finnish measurements were 58,05×10,2×6,0 meters and 1010 GRT, 973 NRT, and 1500 DWT. Captain A.F. Svahnström, Nagu.
1898: Captain G.E. Lindström [also owner?].
1900: Sold to Robert Mattsson, Mariehamn. Captain Karl Eriksson.
1915 April 4: Torpedoed by a German submarine off St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight, in the English Channel, some 25 miles from Calais.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Bott, Alan: The Sailing Ships of the New Zealand Shipping Company, 1873-1900.
B.T. Batsford, London, 1972. -4to, 160 pp, ill, 8 pl.
Lille, Sten & Grönstrand, Lars: Finlands djupvattenseglare.
Etelä-soumen kustannus oy, Lieto, 1979. 4to, 224 pp, ill.

Updated 1997-04-22 by Lars Bruzelius