Xarifa (middle back), built by Henry Berg in 1874, leaves Wellington for Lyttelton, Christchurch, in January 1880.

Photographer unknown, reproduced courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (1/2-115807-f)

Henry Berg’s Girola (right of centre) and a Rob Roy canoe (centre, with white sails) on Wellington Harbour, 1886.

Photograph by William Williams, reproduced courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (1/1-025519-g)

HENRY BERG

(1834–1918)

Boatbuilder Henry Berg was an important player in the early days of yacht racing in New Zealand.

Danish settler

Henry Berg was born in Denmark. He was among the skilled boatbuilders attracted to New Zealand by the prosperous gold-rush years of the 1860s and 1870s. Yachting was increasing in popularity at this time, with boats designed specifically for racing.

Wellington success

Berg set up a boatbuilding business in Wellington. On commission, he built 16-ton cutter Xarifa (1874), the first lead-keeled boat in the city.

Xarifa dominated Wellington yachting for some time – until a couple of Auckland boats arrived on the scene. She won the 1880 Wellington Anniversary Regatta, earning the then astronomical sum of £250. Two years later, she won the lucrative Lyttelton Regatta.

Berg also built the vessels Garibaldi (1874), Florence (1878), Girola (as Lena, 1878), Xanthe (1888) and others.

HENRY BERG

Financial woes

An accident forced Berg out of work for five months, landing him in debt. A subsequent lack of work – in his own business and then with the Union Steam Ship Company – compounded his financial woes.

Also to fail were two later business ventures – a Wellington–Blenheim schooner service and a boatbuilding outfit in Queen Charlotte Sound.

These bankruptcies marked an unfortunate end to Berg’s otherwise noteworthy career. He had several sons who became boatbuilders around the country.