The war years couldn’t dampen the Tattersfield family’s enthusiasm for boating, bringing new boats, new duties, and a family tragedy too.
The Tattersfield brothers continued racing with Altair until 1938, excelling in the longer-distance races. For example, in the Easter 1937 race to Coromandel, Altair on scratch was first on line, followed by the same result in the race on from Coromandel to Kawau. Then she was second on line and first on handicap in the December Auckland-Whangaroa race. In early 1938 the Tattersfields sold Altair to Col. A.C. Amy of Howick who quickly resold her to A.D. Walker.
By the beginning of 1939, Guy, the eldest of the six Tattersfield brothers, was increasingly occupied in running the Tattersfield family bedding manufacturing business especially as the founders of the business, his father Fred Tattersfield and his mother, were spending more time in England at Glebe House, a property they had bought near Colchester. The second son Noel was in practice as a solicitor in Auckland; Leo and Peter worked at Tattersfields; Felix, the only redhead, was a bank clerk in Whangarei; the youngest, John, was working for the South British Insurance Co. in Hamilton.
After Altair was sold, Noel returned to his centreboard roots and put up half the cost of a new 18ft M Class patiki. The boat was Moerangi, M12, essentially a further development by Jack Brooke of his Frostbite design. She was built at Devonport by co-owner Ron Hunt with help from Snow Waters and was launched in November 1939. By the end of her first season she had become successful and was RNZYS champion the next season. Noel also occasionally helmed Manoa, M14, Jack Brooke’s first (1937) development of the Frostbite hull. Noel later bought Rio Rita, Frostbite 35 as a knockabout.
Guy was a friend of Max Colebrook whose father, Percy Colebrook’s new launch Manunui was launched from Bill Couldrey’s yard at Sulphur Beach Northcote on 30th September 1939, 27 days after war was declared on Germany. Manunui was to be the last of the big Couldrey-built launches following on from Tiromoana and Reremoana. She was a handsome 42ft bridgedecker with a 55hp Benz diesel engine. In the vague ‘phony war’ period that followed there was a limited amount of fuel available for private use and most big craft were laid up ‘for the duration’.
Two of the Tattersfield sons, Felix and John, were in England when war was declared. Both enlisted in the Royal Navy. Felix was seconded to the RNZNVR and promoted to Lieutenant on June 1, 1942. He was appointed the commander of an MTB based at Dover, then Felixstowe. John became a radio operator on a corvette. Their parents left for England to provide a base for the boys at Glebe House where their father James became an ARP Warden. Many Kiwi servicemen gravitated to Glebe House. Felix saw a lot of fellow Auckland yachtsmen, notably Con Thode (Thelma), John Mallitte (later Editor of Sea Spray magazine), Stan Jervis and John Watson.
After the liner Niagara sank when she hit a German mine laid off the Hen and Chickens on June 19, 1940 it became obvious that there was a very real danger from German surface raiders/ minelayers around our coast. The Government quickly did a survey of suitable private and commercial motor launches to establish which could be ‘commandeered’ by the Armed Forces to assist the Navy in patrolling the coast – these wore the letter Q on their bows – and the Air Force in servicing the existing flying boat base at Hobsonville and establishing a new flying boat base at Lauthala Bay in Fiji. These wore the letter W on their bows.
The question of engines was important as the services needed to standardise engine maintenance and repairs and avoid ‘orphans’. This process was considerably more important after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 when the war was on our doorstep and the US Navy became involved. The standard engines for re-engining became the Chrysler Crown petrol or the GM 71 series diesels. Despite her Benz engine Manunui was taken over by the Navy in early 1942 and sent up to Fiji as a patrol vessel with a full naval crew. In fact, her Benz was still in her until it was replaced with a 100hp Perkins diesel in 1963.
During the First World War a volunteer patrol service had operated out of Auckland, headed by two live wires in the local yachting community, ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson, the Editor of the New Zealand Yachtsman magazine and Charles Palmer, a well-known engine and marine hardware importer. In 1940, by the time of the Niagara sinking, there were the stirrings of a repeat Patrol Service. Several Whangarei launches were busting to go to the rescue of the Niagara’s passengers and crew but were held back by the RNZAF until its British Power Boat Co. highspeed launch W1 could get there first from Auckland… and could fit in only 20 survivors!
Beginning in December 1941, NAPS (Naval Auxiliary Patrol Service) became a well-organised patrol service in place in Whangarei, Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin. Local launches were volunteered rather than impressed into service, so that the service was very like the Home Guard. Often their owners were skippers with the rank of Chief Petty Officer and the crew as ABs were active yachtsmen. Some launches were full-time and others part-time. They were distinctive with a Z number painted on their bows.
Guy Tattersfield joined Max Colebrook as a member of the crew of Joan, Z19. HMNZS Joan was one of 13 fully mobilised launches and another 22 partly mobilised in Auckland and Whangarei. She was taken on strength in June 1942. Joan’s skipper was her owner Athol Wells, deputy Max Colebrook (whose Manunui was serving in Fiji of course), her crew were Guy Tattersfield, R.L. ‘Bob’ Stewart, Peter Buddle, Cranston Leighton, F. Rogers and C. Hodge. She was put to work doing mainly harbour duties and boom patrol.
Joan was a hefty 42-footer in the flush deck style, fitted with a Millar engine and built in 1919 by Bailey & Lowe for W. L. Casey as Imanota. In late 1921 Casey sold her to James Donald who renamed her Marion D and replaced the Millar with an Auckland-built three-cylinder Twigg engine which had a brilliant reputation for reliability, if not for advanced technology. In early 1939 Donald bought Norana, built by Miller Bros of Port Chalmers in 1913. He sold Marion D to Athol Wells who renamed her Joan. She still had her Twigg engine but the Navy rationalisation process soon had that replaced by a Gardner diesel.
NAPS began to lose its importance as the tide of war changed in the Pacific. The US forces drove the Japanese steadily north, assisted by Australian and New Zealand aircraft, naval vessels and soldiers on the ground. The bloody battles of Guadalcanal and Tarawa were over by December 1943 and Germany was clearly no longer a threat in the Pacific. Joan was released from NAPS in that December.
Guy Tattersfield had formed a strong bond with many of the NAPS men, particularly with Bob Stewart who was already emerging as an important local yacht designer. Another like spirit was engineer Claude Edwards, a mechanical wizard, who was on the crew of the NAPS launch Royal Saxon then later Tasman, Z 21, skipper Jack Brooke. Claude’s sport before the war was motor racing.
In late 1941 Claude and Guy Tattersfield bought the 1892 Robert Logan-built 44ft keel yacht Aorere from C.V. Jobling. Aorere had been maintained in excellent order over the years. Her original gaff cutter rig had become a Bermudan ketch. As working naval ratings they could race her and potter about the harbour without derogatory comments, but it wasn’t until hostilities were almost over that she could be taken outside harbour limits, for example the RNZYS Easter race to Coromandel in March 1945.
Then came the news the family dreaded; Felix was missing in action at sea. On the night of October 6, 1942 he was in command of the Vosper-built MTB 29 in a group of six boats in the English Channel, off the coast of Dunkirk. They were planning to attack a German vessel possibly accompanied by E Boats. Lying with silent engines on hydrophone watch they were surprised by the E Boats. In the ‘crash start’ that followed, Felix’s MTB was struck amidships by another, but although damaged, managed to get away under full power. Moments later she was hit by an E Boat and exploded in flames. There were no survivors.
Guy and brother Noel had been active with Akarana Yacht Club for some years but now became active with the RNZYS. Noel became a committee member in 1938 and Guy was elected Rear Commodore in 1944 and 1945.
During the war, the Squadron sponsored a design competition for what they hoped would produce a restricted design class of keel yacht postwar, a class suitable for both racing and civilised family cruising. The K Class is outside the scope of this article, but Claude Edwards was one of its pioneers. He had Thelma, K3, designed by Bill Couldrey and built by Alan Williams in 1950. Guy Tattersfield did not follow him back into yachts and bought a launch.
But the launch was not a flash bridge-decker or gin palace. Instead, it was well-built workaday vessel that suited Guy’s practical nature, his love of fishing and the need to educate his children in the ways of the sea. Guy renamed the launch Korora. She had been built in 1935 by Joe Lobley at his home in Westmere to a design by C. Philpott, as another Joan curiously enough, after Joe’s daughter. By the time Guy bought her in 1953 she had been reengined with a Scripps marinised Ford V8. With Korora, Guy gave his children many years of enjoyment of our wonderful waters.
Guy Tattersfield’s sons Felix (another redhead) and John have had a galaxy of interesting yachts and launches in the years since, which I hope to visit sometime soon. BNZ
WHERE IS ALTAIR ?
Altair disappears from the record about 1952. Capt. Charlie Marks (fishing boats Daisy Belle and Waimana; yachts, Speedwell and Queenie) had owned her from 1948 to 1950, taking part in the Auckland-Tauranga and Coromandel races. In 1951 she was owned by B. Wilkinson of Seaview Road, Remuera, in 1952 by V. Wilmhurst of Victoria St., Hamilton. After that, nothing except a Tattersfield family notion that she was bought by a Waikato owner and is in a shed there. Capt. Marks’ grandson, Richard Marks, is keen to find out more. Robin Elliott considers that the Wilmhurst family will know the answer.
Can a reader help?
