From 1841 to 1925, central New Zealand's Blind Bay (now Tasman Bay) was enlivened by the white sails of a "mosquito fleet" plying local waters and beyond. The earliest of these seagoing little ships - some as small as 30 feet - were amiably known as hookers, and were often built on beaches using timber hewn from the bush. All were able to 'take the mud' to discharge and load on beaches and in estuaries.
For the pioneer settlers of Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast, struggling to cope in difficult terrain, these little ships were their lifeline. The evolution of these sailing workboats during eight decades of trial and error is covered with dozens of illustrations and tales of triumph and tragedy.
This fascinating meticulously researched and indexed book is the extensively revised edition of an earlier book by Fred Westrupp - an accomplished sailor, businessman and researcher. In a very readable and well-illustrated book, he has blended ten years of research with his own insights stemming from a childhood upbringing on the Nelson waterfront among his seagoing forebears and other surviving skippers of the traditional sail-trading fleet of the port.
Embedded within the narrative is the social and economic colonial history of central New Zealand, viewed particularly from the perspective of the working-class seafarers who owned and operated vessels in the trading fleet of the C19 and early C20 era.
