item details
NameMakers' half-model of New Zealand Government steamship 'Matai'
ProductionR. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company Ltd.; maker/artist; circa 1930; United Kingdom
Classificationmodels, ships
Materialswood
Registration NumberNS000049
Credit lineAcquisition details/history unknown. Found in collection, date unknown
Overview
Builder's half-model of the New Zealand Government steamship 'Matai'. 'Matai' was the government's lighthouse tender servicing the marine lights around New Zealand and offshore islands, and was used for cable laying in the 1930s. The ship was named after an indigenous tree.
'Matai' was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941 and handed over to a dockyard for conversion to minesweeping duties.
After commissioning on 1 April 1941, 'Matai' took over as the flotilla leader of the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla which began clearing a German minefield in the Hauraki Gulf.
Postwar, 'Matai' worked as a ferry between Bluff and Stewart Island. She was sold off in 1963.