The Jane Gifford: Memories
Daisy Coles of Warkworth remembers:
"It was a special treat on New Years Day to walk down to the Warkworth wharf - one and a half miles - to get aboard the Jane Gifford and travel down the river to Sullivans Bay for the annual regatta. My friend was Dorothy Collins, the daughter of the skipper of the Jane Gifford, she had taken my hand the day I started school..." Continue reading
Phil Copestake of Warkworth remembers:
"Left Warkworth Wharf on the Jane Gifford to go to the regatta at Sullivans Bay. All went well on the downward journey.
Len Cassleton (son in law to Mrs Blair who ran the shop opposite the hotel in Warkworth) took ice cream and soft drinks in canvas bags of the type in use at that time, to sell at the Sullivans Bay Regatta and on the Jane Gifford. To get the items ashore Len enlisted the help of a few of us..."
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Jane Gifford's Voice
"When the restoration committee at Waiuku acquired The Jane Gifford in 1984, it was missing its bell. There had always been a bell on board to advise the crew of watch changes and as a warning device in fog. Until then the Jane Gifford had never had its own specially cast bell but that all changed when Peter Dawson, the Managing Director of Air Transport presented the vessel with one..."
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Memoirs Of A Scowman
There are few books around about life on the early scows. The hardy scowmen were not given to literary expression, and most of their stories died with them. However, one first-hand account was tape-recorded and transcribed by Dean Chandler (who used to write for the Auckland Star). The scowman was one Tudor Collins (1896-1969), described by Chandler a "a man who worked among giants in the kauri forests - as a lad with skippers of well known coastal vessels - as an official photographer of visits by notables - as a farmer on Takatu - as a business man, ahead of most in the early days of radio - running a petrol station and supplying light and power to residents and businesses in Warkworth. Tudor Collins was a man of great enterprise, courage and determination... Continue reading
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