John Arnold

_The Evening Post_, 16 February 1925:
PERSONAL MATTERS
…
The death is announced of Captain Arthur #Irvine at Timaru on Saturday. Born at Larwick, Shetland Islands, in 1835, the late Captain Irvine was a well-known figure in the New Zealand coastal trade some years back. He went to sea at an early age, and arrived in Australia in 1856, and in. New Zealand four years later. For nine years Captain Irvine was with the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, Wellington, and during that period rose to the position of chief mate. In 1872 he took charge of the Wanganui-built vessel Tongariro, and later was in the Egmont. He was appointed pilot at #Wanganui in 1878, and shortly afterwards became harbour-master and pilot there, a position which he held for a number of years.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19250216.2.115

#OnThisDay #OTD #PapersPast #Obituaries #Captains #HarbourMasters #CoastalShipping #Whanganui #NewZealand

Feb 15, 2025 at 9:22pmWeb
Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 15, 2025

@JohnDA An interesting reference to “Tesla” here. The photograph would have been taken around 1910, some 20 years after the invention of the Tesla coil, so potentially the illumination for the image came from a Tesla coil, a technique that Nikola Tesla himself used on occasion.

Or Captain Irvine drove a Tesla to the studio to have his photo taken…

Show threadJohn ArnoldFeb 16, 2025
@ProfundumPhoto I noticed the photo landing page says Tesla Studio; and this other page notes the name was derived from a place name https://natlib.govt.nz/records/32196352 "Tesla studio was founded in Wanganui by Mark Lampe around 1910, and named after a village in Germany."
Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 16, 2025

@JohnDA Ah-ha. Have to say it’s bloody hard these days to search for places originally called “Tesla”.

Here’s an old mining town in California, named after Nikola.

Still looking for the village in Germany.

Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 16, 2025

@JohnDA A bit more background on Tesla Studios:

https://sarjeant.org.nz/gallery/tesla-studios-the-mark-lampe-years/

Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 16, 2025

@JohnDA Interestingly, no place named “Tesla” (or sounding like it) in this gazetteer of the German Empire from 1912:

https://www.meyersgaz.org/

I will now walk away, before the gnawing curiosity turns into an obsession!

Meyers Gazetteer - An online, searchable version with historical maps

An online, searchable version of the Meyers Gazetteer of the German Empire with integrated historical maps. The full title of the Gazetteer is Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs

Show threadJohn ArnoldFeb 16, 2025

@ProfundumPhoto I had no luck, either, so a bit of a mystery.

More significant, though, and I guess the point of my original post is that for New Zealand in the 19th century and early 20th century coastal shipping was far and away the most important form of transport for goods, land transport (including railways) being paltry in comparison.

Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 17, 2025
@JohnDA I heard the factoid that there are more boats in New Zealand than households - no idea if that stacks-up, but it rings true and really brought home to me the extent to which New Zealand is a maritime nation.
Show threadJohn ArnoldFeb 17, 2025

@ProfundumPhoto I’m unsure what counts as a “boat” (canoes/kayaks too, I guess), so I hesitate around boat statistics; on the other hand, figures of households/dwellings are robust as they are part of the 5-yearly NZ census.

Stats I found were: 2M households or dwellings, 1.5M boats.

Show threadGum on China’s ShoeFeb 17, 2025

@JohnDA #factoid Oh well, it was a good story. I think an Auckland taxi driver said it to me as we were driving past acres of yachts bobbing at the marina next to the Harbour Bridge.

I guess an average of 0.75 boats per household is still pretty impressive.