3-016-996 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The iron gun-boat Rangariri, built at Sydney for the New Zealand government, 1864. River-boat '...built by Messrs. P. N. Russell and Co., for the colonial government of New Zealand...This boat, which can turn easily in the space of a little more than her own length, may follow the bendings of such a river as the Waikato in its narrowest part, and may either be used as a steam-tug, towing flats for the conveyance of troops, or may be armed with a gun at each of the singular-looking portholes, which are closed with folding doors in the middle of the lower deck; while the bulwarks on each side are pierced with twenty or thirty loopholes for rifle-shooting, and the covered platform or tower amidships will afford shelter to a number of men, whose fire commands the river and its banks. The paddle-wheel is placed astern of the vessel, so as to take up less room'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.