Name Lyttelton

LYTTELTON (originally CANTERBURY), is an ocean-going tug commissioned by the Lyttelton Harbour Board at Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand. She was built at Ferguson’s shipyard, Port Glasgow, Scotland, and launched on 2 July  1907. She sailed with a crew of 15 and 128 tons of coal through the Suez Canal, stopping for coal at Algiers, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Fremantle and Melbourne. She arrived in Lyttelton 69 days later, on 10 September, greeted by a large crowd. Her Certificate of British Registry was signed on 25 October 1907 and Lyttelton Harbour Board became her official owner.

LYTTELTON’s first major job was to escort Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship NIMROD out of Lyttelton Harbour on New Years Day 1908, an occasion witnessed by a 50,000 crowd; NIMROD was then towed to the Antarctic by a steamer. Her name was changed to LYTTELTON when a dredger called CANTERBURY arrived in 1912; her ship’s bell has her original name. LYTTELTON operated as a harbour tug until 1939 when a second tug arrived and they became LYTTELTON I and LYTTELTON II. In April 1942 the NZ Navy required her for use as an Examination Vessel and she became HMNZS LYTTELTON. After an uneventful naval career she reverted to LYTTELTON I in 1944. She was retired in 1971 when the Harbour Board’s first motor tug CANTERBURY arrived.

Following plans to scrap her, a Tug Lyttelton Preservation Society was founded on 12 June 1973. With help from the Harbour Board, she was converted for carrying passengers, secured a NZ Safe Ship Management Certificate, and made her first public cruise on 4 November 1973. She is now moored at Z wharf in Lyttelton Harbour. On sailing days she steams to No 2 wharf to load passengers. Since her retirement she has been used as a venue for weddings, funerals, and many parties and celebrations. Volunteers keep the tug running and looking good.

LYTTELTON is fitted with a Scotch Marine boiler which is hand fired by coal. There are coal bunkers each holding 17 tons either side of the stoke hold. Her twin main engines are compound, reciprocating steam engines producing 1000 horsepower.  The engines are still in excellent condition. Several alterations were made to the tug during her naval duty including the addition of portable depth charge shoots, bren gun stands, and lockers for ammunition. The engine room is largely original with polished brass and oily pistons. To reduce its carbon footprint the tug’s boiler is preheated using electricity. 

LYTTELTON has played a big part in the Port of Lyttelton’s history and is a unique working maritime museum.