Historic three-masted sailing ship to begin new chapter in Northland

A derelict Northland landmark with a vivid history - it has variously been a restaurant, a shipwreck museum laden with treasure, and the target of a notorious criminal - is about to get a new life as a marine education centre.

The Tui, a three-masted sailing ship, has been a feature of the Waitangi waterfront since the late Kelly Tarlton bought the historic vessel and used it to house his finds from a lifetime of exploring shipwrecks.

Later it became a popular eatery known as Shippey's, but for the past decade it has been empty, an increasingly sorry sight in the estuary next to Waitangi Bridge.

The tops of its masts have been removed and the hull has started shedding planks, a decline accelerated by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Now, however, the waterfront icon appears to have been saved and is set to embark on a new life.

Kerikeri-based TriOceans marine research institute announced this week that it had started restoring the vessel for use as a community space and marine education facility.

TriOceans describes itself as a "collective of scientists and innovators" focussed on marine mammal science and marine education, weaving together mātauranga Māori and modern scientific methods.

It's just the latest chapter in the ship's long and intriguing history.

A ship of treasures

Ask when the Tui was built and you'll get a range of answers, from 1890 to 1913.

What's not disputed is that it was built for Chelsea Sugar to transport refined sugar from the then- isolated outpost of Birkenhead across the Waitematā Harbour to the docks at Auckland.

It was one of seven purpose-built, kauri-hulled lighters, which are flat-bottomed vessels resembling a barge or scow.

The construction of Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1954, however, meant the lighters were no longer needed. The last one was sold in 1961.

Most were converted into pleasure boats or floating homes, but one caught the eye of Kelly Tarlton.

A scuba diving pioneer, Tarlton was also one of New Zealand's most passionate and successful treasure hunters.

In the early 1960s he moved to Northland's Tutukākā Coast to be close to the spectacular waters of the Poor Knights Islands.

One of the first shipwrecks Tarlton explored was the Elingamite, a passenger steamer that sank at the Three Kings Islands in 1902 with a large consignment of gold and coins on board.

The Tasmania, which went down off Mahia Peninsula in 1897 with a suitcase full of jewels, was the subject of another lucrative expedition.

Eventually Tarlton needed somewhere to display his growing collection of treasures wrestled from the sea. The Tui was just what he was looking for.

With typical Tarlton ingenuity and enthusiasm he set about converting an ungainly 30-metre barge into an elegant, three-masted barque.

The kauri masts were salvaged from the Endeavour II, a Canadian sailing ship that came to grief on the Parengarenga Bar, near North Cape.

Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks was an instant success when the first visitors crossed the gangplank in 1970.

It became a must-see attraction in the Bay of Islands and helped pay for his ongoing ventures.

After Tarlton died in 1985, aged just 47, his wife Rosemary kept his ship of treasures open for another 15 years.

The kitchenhand, the thief and the rapist

In the year 2000 disaster struck in the unexpected form of kitchenhand Keith Anthony McEwen.

Shortly before 8pm on 8 April, while visitors were still in the museum, staff discovered a glass vault had been plundered of an estimated $300,000 worth of gold, jewellery and coins.

McEwen, then aged 23 and employed in the museum kitchen, vanished around the same time, leaving his clothing and girlfriend behind.

It wasn't long before he was named as the prime suspect.

McEwen was eventually caught and sentenced to 7½ years' jail, but never revealed where he had hidden the treasure.

Police and private investigators made many attempts to find it, even searching his childhood eeling spot near Moerewa.

Years later, an associate claimed McEwen stole the treasure on behalf of a gang and never got a cut, but that story has never been verified.

McEwen disappeared again after he was released in 2005. He spent some time holed up on Kawau Island, then returned to public attention in the most disturbing way possible.

On 10 November, 2006, a Dutch couple sleeping in their van at Haruru Falls were accosted by two men pretending to be police.

The honeymooners were handcuffed at gunpoint, then driven around the Mid North for six hours while the men withdrew money using their bank card.

One of the men subjected the woman to a sexual assault so horrific the details are permanently suppressed by court order.

The two men were arrested on 21 November as a result of what police described as a combination of information from the public, CCTV footage, forensics, and old-fashioned legwork.

The main offender was none other than Keith McEwen.

In February 2007 he admitted two charges of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping, five of sexual violation, and one each of rape, attempted stupefaction and using the couple's bank card.

He was sentenced to preventive detention, which means he will be released only when he is deemed to no longer be a risk.

McEwen was denied parole for the eighth time in April last year.

His accomplice, Christopher Mana Manuel, pleaded guilty to lesser charges the following month.

The rise, and fall, of Shippey's

McEwen's heist - and the insurance company's refusal to pay out on a technicality - spelt the end of Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks.

Rosemary Tarlton delayed selling the Tui until she believed she'd found the right buyers, but by 2003 she was confident her search was complete.

The new owners, a Kerikeri couple, had a vision of transforming the Tui into a bar and café they called Brown Sugar, a nod to the ship's beginnings as a sugar lighter.

The restaurant went through a number of incarnations, operators and names, until it eventually became Shippey's, a popular spot on summer evenings for fish and chips on the deck.

Shippey's closed down in 2014 amid a breakdown in the relationship between the boat owners and the business operators.

Plans to reopen the vessel as an eatery were scuppered by the Covid pandemic.

Since then it has deteriorated badly. The most obvious sign of its decline is the planks that have fallen from its port side.

The ship's poor condition has not gone unnoticed by the Northland Regional Council, the local maritime authority.

Harbourmaster Jim Lyle said the Tui was regarded as a coastal structure rather than a ship, because it was permanently mounted on blocks.

However, it was still being monitored by the council to ensure debris from its hull did not create a shipping hazard.

Lyle said the Tui was originally a flat-bottomed, barge-like vessel.

When it was converted to a museum, Tarlton had steel framing built around it, which was then planked over.

The planks that were falling off were cosmetic in function and not part of the original vessel, he said.

A new chapter

TriOceans bought the vessel last year, saying the organisation planned to restore the "iconic old sugar boat in line with Kelly Tarlton's original vision".

This week that vision came a step closer to reality with TriOceans announcing on social media it had received funding for the restoration from Foundation North, formerly the ASB Community Trust.

A team from Kerikeri-based Hawke Property Developments had started the job of returning the Tui to its former glory.

TriOceans said the location, in the rich waters of the Bay of Islands a stone's throw from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, was perfect for a marine education centre.

"We aim to make local marine life and conservation education accessible to all, working alongside local kaitiaki, community leaders, and passionate educators to build this iconic ship up to its fullest potential," the organisation said.

It's a fresh chapter in the fascinating story of the Tui, offering hope the ship will remain a landmark on the Waitangi waterfront for many years to come.

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