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Rangitoto Ships' Graveyard

Northern Chief

Barque Northern Chief

 

The Northern Chief was built in 1885 by Richard Mackay at Freemans Bay, Auckland and was launched in December the following year. She was a 274 ton 3-masted barque and measured 125 feet in length, and was registered at Auckland (official number 87545).

 

 

 

 

1885 Built in 1885 by Richard Mackay at Freemans Bay, Auckland and was launched in December the following year.
1897Mackay was her first owner and master. Mackay died in 1897 and the Northern Chief became the property of his widow Joana Mackay.
1914The Devonport Steam Ferry Company acquired the vessel.
1918In October 1918, the Northern Chief was purchased jointly by George Turnbull Niccol, shipbuilder of Auckland, and John Burns & Co Ltd, hardware and iron merchants of Auckland. At this time she was refitted as a 3 masted schooner.
1921The Northern Chief was laid up in Auckland in 1921, converted to a hulk, and moored at Shoal Bay. 
1929The hulk was condemned in 1929. By January 1929 the ship had been sold to shipbuilders to be broken up.
DisposalThe Northern Chief was burnt on the shore of Rangitoto Island between Wreck Bay and Gardiner Gap.
TODAY

Archaeologists recording wreckage amongst driftwood, Gardiner Gap

Little remains of the Northern Chief. At the site where the vessel was dumped there are iron spikes, a section of keel and a few metal fittings. A large section of the keel (rear portion) has floated round and stranded on the southern side of Gardiner Gap.
None of the pieces of wreckage of the vessel are easily found and there are no formed tracks to the locations.

There is a scale model of the Northern Chief in Auckland's Maritime Museum.

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