Daily Photo – Still Boats in Deborah Bay

From Port Chalmers, I headed down the harbour road towards Aramoana – stopping on the way to see an old Torpedo Boat base. Tucked away in Deborah Bay, just around the bend from Port Chalmers, is the curious relic of the remains of Torpedo Boat Mole. It sounds like something out of a war film, but in fact it’s a small stone jetty built in the 1880s when New Zealand decided it needed a navy, or at least a few boats that looked like one. At the time, fears of a Russian invasion ran high, and several “torpedo boats”, essentially small, fast launches armed with spar torpedoes were stationed around the country, ready to defend the ports – just in case!

Dunedin’s was based here in Deborah Bay, sheltered and out of sight from prying enemy eyes. The mole itself was built to provide a base and slipway for the vessel, though the threat of attack never came, and the torpedo boat saw little action beyond the occasional exercise. Today, the remains of the mole sit quietly at the water’s edge, stones weathered and covered with a few picnic tables that are a lovely spot on a fine day, a reminder of a time when the nation nervously watched the horizon for warships that never appeared.