The ship's story
A 1989 article written by Claire Jones for the Russell Review tells her story.
"Such an elegantly tall ship might be forgiven for being a bit high fallutin', for thinking herself a cut above more mundane vessels. But that is not at all the style of the R. Tucker Thompson. Above and below decks, she radiates friendliness and goodwill, a reflection of the people who built and sail her, and of the man whose d ream she was.
Tucker Thompson loved working with big sailing ships. For a time, they were old Baltic traders, brought out from Denmark , restored and set to work as movie stars or in the charter business. When Tucker's son Tod, was eight year old, he sailed with his father in the 100-foot Carthaginian from Newport Beach in California to Hawaii and Tahiti.
Sailing was Tucker's life. He cruised in all the places that cruising yachtsmen cruise, and everywhere he went, he met sailors from New Zealand . He liked their style, admired their competence and, on the strength of those feelings, emigrated from California to New Zealand without ever seeing the country, bringing with him his wife, two daughters and a son.
The family came to Northland. Against a rock face at Whangarei Heads, they built a house that was fine blend of grace with eccentricity. Below the house, Tucker began to built a boat. Originally it was to be a working fishing boat with a big engine and a small sailing rig, designed by Pete Culler, a naval architect in the United States . Tucker, already an experienced welder, decided to build her in steel, then stretched the design by more than two metres, making the hull longer, finer and deeper to accommodate the tall rig that distinguishes her now. From the beginning, she was built to meet Ministry of Transport standards for survey.
At that time, Tod was at Auckland University . After a couple of years there, he succumbed to the lure of a more practical life and quit academia to help his father with building the boat.
Tod had never welded anything, but he learned. He learned fast and he learned to do it well. Together, father and son handled the steel plates and welding torches that gradually brought into being the great steel hull – more than 18 metres or 65 feet long, nearly 5 metres or 16 feet in the beam; 2.6 metres or 8 ½ feet deep.
Tucker was not well and the hull was only partly finished when he had to go into hospital for a heart operation. Nobody worried too much; his changes of survival were thought to be about 98%. But he died after the operation, during post op recovery. Too young and far too energetic to die, he was mourned by his family and by the many friends he had made in New Zealand . “Personable”, “down-to-earth”, “practical”, “a caring man” are words his friends use. Now, many years later, it is clear that his persona has survived in the ship that bears his name.
While family and friends lived through the time of shock and grieving, the great steel hull lay on the grassy slope like a beached whale. It was too big to ignore. Tod went off cruising for a while with Greta, his wife, who was raised on a sheep farm at Kai Iwi Lakes near Dargaville. When they came back, the realised that the hull was nothing more that a waste of steel and effort while it remained unfinished. Tod resolved to complete the steelwork and get it sandblasted and painted so that it might then be worth something.
In Whangarei, while working on the rig of the Bounty, Tod met Russell Harris who had just sold his farm in Dargaville and was looking for a new enterprise. “I didn't know what I was looking for,” he said. “But I wanted something creative and production that would also have a potential for adventure.
All these lay head with the prospect of finishing the R.Tucker Thompson and getting her established in the charter business. Russell saw the potential and agreed with Tod and Greta that the three of them would together try to complete the ship. The hull, which was then finished but had no deck, was trucked to Russell's house at Mangawhai Heads and set up near the beach.
The community at Mangawhai Heads too the project to their hearts and were very supportive. Their combined talents and Kiwi ingenuity worked wonders. A local wood turner set to and made the deadeyes for the rigging out of balan, a hardwood from Malaysia . Greta's father Mike Simmons, made 160 blocks out of kwila. A few young people worked beside Tod and Russell on the ship full time, some of them on the Access-type schemes then operating. Russell became responsible chiefly for the engineering work, Tod for the rig and Greta, taking part-time work to bring in some money, did much for the business management, raising bank loans, negotiating with New Zealand television. She also made 3,000 square feet of sails under the guidance of Jack Lloyd in Whangarei.
The young trio had very little capital, so they were constantly searching for finance and for affordable materials. The massive fisherman's anchor is nicknamed “Heather Ann”, the name of a friend who found it when a pub was being auctioned in Auckland . She bid the $140 and brought this fine old 1921 classic which is stamped with the seal of approval of Lloyds Proving house in Chatham . The anchor windlass was modified from the back of a bulldozer; the bits are made from railway sleepers. The belaying pin and handsome wheel are made from old puriri fence posts. Spars are scarfed and laminated of Douglas fir taken from an old Auckland building demolished to make way for the Regent Hotel. The varnished cap rail is made from demolition kauri. Skylights came from the yacht Askoy. No sign remains of all this pinching and scraping. Every detailed is finished to high professional standards.
Little by little, enough materials and money came in to finish the ship and launch her in front of the house at Mangawhai heads. In the last six weeks before launching, people appeared from nowhere until about twelve enthusiasts were working on her full time. All have remained friends of the ship.
The launching from the beach on the 12 th October 1985 was an emotional event, heightened by the exhaustion of those frantic weeks of work and organisation. A great crowd of workers and well-wishers gathered to usher the ship into her true element. Karewa, a figurine to be her guardian, was carved by Gordon Hatfield and presented by William MacDonald Taylor, both of Ngapuhi.
The first job for the Tucker, as she is affectionately known, as to start in the New Zealand made television series “Adventurer”. An advance on this contract had been critical in funding the work of finishing the ship.
Critical loans had also come in from banks and the Development Finance Corporation on the prospects of chartering, one of the reasons why the Tucker had all along been built to Ministry of Transport specifications. After a season on the Northland coast, she set off across the world to join the fleet of tall ships gathering near Tower Bridge in London ready to take part in the re-enactment of the first voyage of a fleet of convict ships to Sydney , as part of the Australia 's bicentenary celebrations.
Financially, this circumnavigation proved stressful as Russell, Tod and Greta were never able to feel completely confident that the company which had chartered the ships would be able to make the payments promised. Indeed some of the contracted amounts have still not come in.
However, it was an adventure for the three-year-old ship and her crew, providing public exposure as well as deep sea experience and an impressive instant history. Two hundred people made ocean passages [on that voyage] and have remained friends.
The Tucker sailed again with some of these ships in the Pacific Islands in the winter and spring of 1989, carrying her full time professional crew of six and up to ten charterers at a time for cruising among the islands in the ocean passages from and to New Zealand . Since then she has been based at Opua, running day charters in the summer months in the Bay of Islands . As many as 45 passengers at a time take part in sailing the ship, lazing on deck admiring the mighty spread of sail, making an island stop for swimming and walking, getting caught up in the romance of the R. Tucker Thompson, and becoming a part of the ever growing group of people who become bonded together by their association with her.
Claire Jones 1989
