The Sandringhams’ engines proved prone to overheating on the long trans-Tasman legs. On 3 December 1947 ZK-AME New Zealand encountered just such a problem. Her crew managed to nurse her safely back to Sydney, but only after the flying boat had been lightened by the jettisoning of the mail and cargo. In an effort to cure the problem the Sandringhams were withdrawn for a thorough overhaul in February 1948. They duly returned to service, but were withdrawn permanently in 1949. The more modern Short Solent had been selected as their replacement, but until this type could be delivered the trans-Tasman route had to be maintained by chartered Douglas DC-4 landplanes.
TEAL Short Sandringham ZK-AMD Australia at Mechanics Bay, Auckland, in January 1948. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
TEAL was not the only New Zealand airline to operate flying boat services out of Auckland. On New Year’s Day 1949 the New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NZNAC) had inaugurated weekly flights between Auckland, Suva, and Labasa, Fiji, using former Royal New Zealand Air Force Short Sunderlands. They also began services from Auckland and Wellington to the New Zealand-owned Chatham Islands, but abandoned this route in March 1950, leaving the remote island location without air links until TEAL reopened services with Short Solents. The first TEAL Solent 4, registered ZK-AML, was named Aotearoa II by HRH Princess Elizabeth in a ceremony at the Belfast works on 26 May 1949, and the type entered service on the Auckland–Sydney route at the end of that year. On 6 June 1950 TEAL took over the service to Suva and Labasa from NZNAC, and on 3 October introduced Solents onto flights linking Wellington and Sydney. Each week, Sydney was served by five flights from Auckland and three from Wellington.
The Solent 4 was a variant produced specifically for the TEAL network of long stages, and was a vast improvement on the earlier Solent 2s and 3s. Its four 2,040hp Bristol Hercules 733 engines gave it an economical cruising speed of 230mph at an altitude of 10,750ft, and a range of 2,330 miles. The take-off run of 900yd or so was usually accomplished in around twenty-six seconds. Like its earlier models, the Solent 4 was unpressurised. Accommodation was provided for forty-five passengers and was divided into seven compartments on the two decks, linked by a spiral staircase. The reclining seats were upholstered in deep blue fabric with cream-coloured antimacassars and were equipped with ‘winged’ headrests, armrests with ashtrays, folding tables for meals and card games, overhead reading lights, and warm/cool fresh air louvres. The four seats forward of the main entrance foyer could be converted into twin bunks for the transportation of sick passengers, and bassinets for infants could also be fitted. Elsewhere in the cabin were four toilets, a galley and a crew rest compartment. Luggage and freight were stowed in the forward and aft cargo holds. On the spacious flight deck sat the captain, first officer, radio officer, and flight engineer. The first officer was also responsible for the navigation of the aircraft, as all TEAL pilots were also required to hold a first-class navigator’s licence. The passengers were attended to by a senior flight steward, a flight steward, and a flight hostess.
At the end of 1951 a new £20,000 marine aircraft terminal building was opened at Evans Bay, Wellington, with the first scheduled service from here being operated by ZK-AMN on the last day of that year. The first service on TEAL’s Coral route to Tahiti via Fiji set off from Auckland on 27 December 1951, operated by Solent ZK-AMQ Aparima. The name for the service had been the winning entry in a TEAL staff competition, and had been submitted by one of the airline’s stewards.
The route was operated once-monthly at first, but by May 1952 it had been upgraded to fortnightly. A typical journey along the Coral route would begin with departure from Mechanics Bay, Auckland, in the morning for a seven-and-a-half-hour flight to the Laucala Bay Marine Air Base at Suva, Fiji. After alighting there the passengers would be taken ashore and transported by limousine to the Grand Pacific Hotel on the waterfront for afternoon tea. They would then have time for a nap before dinner preceded by pink gins and a night’s sleep ashore. On the next day the flying boat would transport them on the three-hour journey to Western Samoa. Here they would alight in the lagoon and be transported to Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Apia for another night stop. The next morning they would be up early for the flight to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, where the airline had erected some native-style huts in tropical surroundings. After the Solent had been moored in Akaiami Bay, a TEAL launch would ferry the passengers to the landing stage, where they would be welcomed and presented with the traditional leis, garlands of sweet-smelling flowers. TEAL had also constructed a small fuel depot at Aitutaki, and while fuel was pumped into the aircraft from a barge the passengers and crew could make the most of the two- to three-hour stopover by swimming from the sandy beach or relaxing in the small TEAL guesthouse. Then it was all back aboard again for the final leg to Papeete in Tahiti. From March 1953 an additional stop at Tonga was added. The Coral route proved especially popular with American tourists, who could fly by landplane from San Francisco to Fiji to connect with the flying boat. Many famous passengers passed through Aitutaki en route to Tahiti, including the movie star Marlon Brando and Crown Prince Tupou of Tonga, the son of Queen Salote. Because of his great girth, whenever he travelled TEAL installed a specially large seat at the rear of the cabin for his use. By the end of 1952, with the exception of a DC-4 landplane link between Christchurch and Melbourne, the entire TEAL route network was being operated by an expanded fleet of five Solents. In December 1953 the Solent ZK-AML Aotearoa III transported HM Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on a section of their Royal Tour of the Pacific islands and New Zealand. From Laucala Bay in Fiji they flew to Lautoka, where they went ashore before returning to Fiji later that day. At 0900hrs on 19 December they boarded the Solent again for a three-hour flight to Nukualofa in Tonga, from where they continued their itinerary by ship.
In June 1954 the Solents were displaced from the trans-Tasman services by landplanes. Four of them were withdrawn completely, but ZK-AMO Aranui continued to serve on the Coral route to Papeete until 1960. The completion of a new land airport on Tahiti in 1959 had spelt the beginning of the end of the flying boat service, and on 14 September 1960 ZK-AMO departed Lauthala Bay in Fiji on its return journey to Auckland. Its arrival there on the 15th brought to an end the last scheduled flying boat service in the world.
TEAL Short Sandringham ZK-AMD Australia taking off from Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, in September 1946. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
In Australia, in addition to Qantas, several other flying boat operators were active in the 1950s. Barrier Reef Airways had been founded in Queensland by Captain Stewart Middlemiss and Captain Poulson back in 1946. Two Catalina flying boats were used initially, on twice-weekly services between Brisbane and Heron Island and between Brisbane and Gladstone, and a weekly schedule linking Brisbane with Lindeman Island, Daydream Island, and the South Molle Islands. In 1950 two Short Sandringhams were acquired from TEAL, overhauled, and converted to carry forty-one passengers. One of these, registered VH-BRC and named Coral Clipper, inaugurated Sandringham services on the Brisbane–Lindeman Island–Daydream Island route on 23 May 1950. Sandringham services to Hayman Island commenced on 2 July that year. By then, Barrier Reef Airways had merged with Ansett Airways in April 1950. Services under the Barrier Reef Airways name continued until 12 November 1950, after which the airline was fully absorbed into Ansett.
TEAL Short Sandringham ZK-AME New Zealand gets airborne from Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, around 1948. (R.N. Smith Collection, copyright to aussieairliners.org)
In February 1947 Captain Brian Monckton set up Trans-Oceanic Airways, with the intention of acquiring one or two surplus Short Sunderlands from the Royal Australian Air Force as his initial equipment. In the event, he was obliged to enter into an agreement to purchase a package of five aircraft plus spare engines for a total price of £10,000. Two of these aircraft were scrapped, but the other three entered service, and in May 1947 were joined by the airline’s first Short Sandringham. Trans-Oceanic was eventually
to operate three examples of this type, configured to carry thirty-eight passengers. In February 1949 the airline was still operating the Sunderlands in a thirty-six-seat layout on regular services between Sydney (Rose Bay) and the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. During that month the Sunderland Australia also made its first visit to Lord Howe Island, on an emergency food flight. Trans-Oceanic also built up a network of services linking Sydney with Hobart, Grafton, Taree, and Port Macquarie on the coast of New South Wales. In April 1950 a Trans-Oceanic Sandringham alighted on the Clarence River at Grafton with a load of thirty-three passengers and 8,500lb of mail, at that time the greatest weight of mail carried by a single aircraft in Australia. These internal flights were taken over by the Sandringhams of Qantas that year, but by then Trans-Oceanic was also operating to Fiji and was able to report a 50 per cent increase in traffic over the previous year. Two Short Solent 2s were purchased from BOAC to cope with the expansion, and on 25 January 1951 the first of these, now re-registered as VH-TOA, set off on its delivery flight after overhaul at Belfast. One of the many stops was at Marseilles, where a party of twenty-nine German technicians bound for Brisbane joined the aircraft. On 26 January the aircraft was prepared for the next leg to Malta, but whilst taxiing for take-off it suddenly sank, with the loss of one life. The second Solent arrived safely in Australia in April 1951 and was registered there as VH-TOB. Later in the year two further Solents were acquired from BOAC, and the type first appeared on the Sydney–Hobart route in a forty-four-seat configuration.
Throughout 1951 Trans-Oceanic Solents and Sandringhams flew this route six times each week, also operating twice-weekly from Sydney to Lord Howe Island and from Sydney to Grafton, and on the once-weekly Chieftain service from Sydney to Brisbane and Port Moresby. However, the airline’s reputation was marred by several non-fatal accidents that year and in the one to follow. In October 1951 VH-TOC collided with a dredger during its take-off run on the Brisbane River and was declared a total loss. On 11 February 1952 VH-TOB lost a propeller and its reduction gear in the course of a Sydney–Hobart service. The Solent was landed safely, but the same aircraft was in trouble again on 22 March when it struck a small cargo vessel at the beginning of a Brisbane–Port Moresby service. This time it was out of action for four weeks.
In April 1953 Trans-Oceanic Airways ceased operations and went into voluntary liquidation. By then, its founder, Bryan Monckton, had left the company and moved on to a new venture. During 1952 he had secured financial backing to set up South Pacific Air Lines. In 1953 the new company obtained Civil Aeronautics Board recommendation for a direct Honolulu–Tahiti service. It was the first airline to propose operating such a service on a regular basis, and planned to use two forty-seat Short Solents on one round trip each week. The one-way journey would take between fourteen and seventeen hours, including a proposed refuelling stop at Christmas Island in the Pacific. Services would hopefully commence in 1956, and an extension to Fiji would later be added. Three Solents were acquired, two of them former Trans-Oceanic aircraft and the other ex-Aquila Airways. By May 1956 all three aircraft had been delivered. One of the former Trans-Oceanic examples was overhauled, re-registered as N9964F and, given the name Isle of Tahiti, was used for a proving flight from Honolulu to Christmas Island and Papeete and back in December 1958, but at this point the airline’s plans began to unravel. Christmas Island was under the jurisdiction of the British government, who had designs on using it for hydrogen bomb testing and objected to its proposed use as a staging post. Further licensing problems were encountered, and eventually South Pacific Air Lines collapsed before it could operate a single service.
TEAL Short Sandringham ZK-AME New Zealand at Laucala Bay, at Suva, Fiji, in May 1947. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
Much more successful was the Australian operator Ansett Flying boat Services, formed in April 1950 when Barrier Reef Airways merged with Ansett Airways. The airline’s initial fleet comprised two Barrier Reef Airways Catalina flying boats and two Short Sandringhams acquired from the New Zealand airline TEAL. These were used to continue the operations to the Barrier Reef area, including Hayman Island, and to extend the Ansett network northwards to Townsville and Cairns. In 1951 services between Southport (Broadwater) and Sydney were added, and further expansion came in 1953 when Ansett Flying boat Services purchased the assets of the defunct Trans-Oceanic Airways. These included its Sunderland aircraft, its base at Rose Bay, and licences for scheduled services from Sydney to Lord Howe Island, Grafton, and Hobart. In January 1953 the Catalina VH-BRA was used to carry Mr R.M. Ansett and Captain Middlemiss on a proving flight to Tahiti, but these aircraft were reaching the end of their useful lives, and at the conclusion of this flight both Catalinas were retired. In March 1953 Ansett Flying boat Services transferred its headquarters from Brisbane to the newly acquired premises at Rose Bay, Sydney, which was to become one of the last fully equipped flying boat bases in the world.
The airline’s route network now covered an area from Hobart to Cairns and included services to Grafton, Southport and Hayman Island, and also the Sydney–Lord Howe Island route. Lord Howe Island is situated in the Pacific Ocean, 420 nautical miles north-east of Sydney. It is 7 miles long by 1½ miles wide and is renowned for its magnificent scenery. The Sandringhams used on the service covered the distance in three to four hours, depending on the winds, at a cruising speed of 128–138 knots. On arrival the flying boats would alight on a lagoon situated a mile north of the twin peaks of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird. The return leg departed later the same day, landing at Sydney after dark with the aid of a flarepath of battery-powered lamps. A passenger on a Rose Bay–Lord Howe Island service recorded his impressions:
TEAL Short Sandringham ZK-AMH Auckland being returned to the water from the TEAL slipway at Mechanics Bay, Auckland, in March 1950. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
TEAL Short Solent ZK-AML Aotearoa II in the later livery on the hard-standing at Mechanics Bay, Auckland around 1952. (R.N. Smith Collection, copyright to aussieairliners.org)
TEAL Short Solent ZK-AMM with its engine cowlings open at Mechanics Bay, Auckland, in March 1950. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
TEAL Short Solent ZK-AMM moored at Papeete, Tahiti, in October 1952. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
On 10 September 1952 Sandringham VH-BRD Princess of Cairns was at its moorings on the Brisbane River when it was struck by a fishing vessel during the night and sank. It was later salvaged after being purchased for conversion to a nightclub at Coolangatta, but while under tow in an unseaworthy state it capsized again. This time it was not recovered, and was replaced by a former Qantas example. As well as maintaining the schedules the Sandringhams were also used for some charter work, including fishing trips to Lake Eucumbene in the Snowy Mountains, and ‘flying boat cruises’ to destinations such as Tahiti.
TEAL Short Solent ZK-AMM at full power for take-off from Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, in March 1950. (Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington)
From 1954 onwards the scheduled flying boat services were slowly run down. The stops at Townsville and Cairns were deleted and the flying boats then just operated Sydney–Brisbane–Hayman Island. In 1957 the routes to Tasmania were transferred to a new parent company, Ansett ANA, and in March 1958 Ansett Flying boat Services was placed under the control of another Ansett company, Airlines of New South Wales, although it retained its own operating identity. By 1959 the only flying boat services still operating were those between Sydney and Lord Howe Island and the occasional charter flight. The Lord Howe Island services were to continue throughout the 1960s, despite the loss of VH-BRE Pacific Chieftain. On 3 July 1963 she was on the first leg of an 8,500-mile charter cruise around the islands of the South Pacific when she broke free from her moorings at Lord Howe Island during a violent storm, capsized and was damaged beyond repair. After being stripped of all usable fittings she was sunk outside the reef. A Sunderland V was purchased from the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a r
eplacement in December 1963. This was converted to a forty-two-seat civilian configuration (although not to full Sandringham specification) by Ansett at the Rose Bay base, registered as VH-BRF, and given the name Islander.
TEAL Short Solent ZK-AMN Awatere undergoes engine servicing at Evans Bay, Wellington, in October 1950. (Evening Post Newspapers image)
A TEAL map of the airline’s Coral route from Auckland to Tahiti. (via author)
Contemporary travel fashions are shown off on the balcony of the flying-boat terminal at Rose Bay, Sydney. (Qantas Heritage Collection)
During the early 1970s the two Ansett flying boats were still carrying around 5,000 passengers between them each year. The services to Lord Howe Island were being subsidised by the Australian government, and were being hampered by the many operating restrictions placed upon them. By 1972 the flights out of the busy Sydney Harbour were only continuing under sufferance, with none at all permitted at weekends. The departure times from Sydney were governed by the tide states as well as the forecast weather at Lord Howe Island. Operations into the lagoon here were restricted to a ‘window’ of from two hours before high tide to two hours after, and at certain times of year the area was subjected to severe tropical storms. There were no refuelling facilities on the island, and so the aircraft always had to depart Sydney with enough fuel for the round trip. Towards the end of the year Sir Reginald Ansett, chairman and managing director of Ansett Transport Industries, issued a statement warning that Lord Howe Island could lose its air service within six months:
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