Making New Zealand - Shipping

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2014

... Mark Twain, the famous American writer, didn't enjoy a night on a New Zealand steamer carrying 200 passengers, and only licensed for 125.
– Narrator Mark Clare

...in the 1870s, Dunedin was the biggest city, well ahead of Auckland, and it had a lot of money. And they had links with Scotland which brought the world's best shipping technology and investment...
– Historian Gavin McLean

Many ferries were doomed by the development of the railway system.
– Narrator Mark Clare on the end of the age of passenger ferries

For most of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, passenger ferries were the main way people travelled around the country. Dunedin to Oamaru, Westport to Whanganui, New Plymouth to Onehunga...
– Narrator Mark Clare

...the makeup of the crews at that time when I went to sea, was either all old men or all young men, because the people that were in the middle were all ashore having their families. You couldn't have a family and go to sea - it was pretty much impossible.
– Alan Windsor on being a seaman in the 1950s

... the shipping industry stalled in the early 50s with the 1951 waterfront lockout. Watersiders rightfully claimed they were underpaid and working extremely long shifts, in often unsafe conditions.
– Narrator Mark Clare on the events of 1951