Floral Ship

Est. 1939.  Charles Cameron created the Floral Ship using a wire netting foundation covered in packed earth and planted with succulents such as echeveria, lime-green pyrethrum and blue lobelia. A 1940 Bay of Plenty Times article remarked that, ‘Perhaps nothing that Tauranga has produced in recent years has been so much photographed and created so much interest as the representation of a launch… Its fame has spread far afield.’

“A floral ship sits proudly on The Strand, Dressed in a dainty cloak of cactus green, She looks so stately with an air so grand, And reigns o’er all our hearts like any queen” (Kathleen Gunn, 1941).

Map No. 36.
Ngā Tapuwae ki Te Papa |
Footprints on Te Papa.

More on this story with images coming soon. Please keep an eye on this page for updates. Thank you.