23-05-2025
Net finishing touch to Seafarers' Corner
The Historic Iona Church Restoration Trust committee member Rachel Day in front of a hand-made cargo net in the church's Seafarers Chapel. PHOTOS: PETER MCINTOSH
One of the final steps has been completed in the large-scale renovation of a Port Chalmers church, honouring past and present seafaring men and women.
Tucked away in the corner of the church's nave is the "Seafarers' Corner", a section of the church used in its early days as a place for all the sailors passing through Port Chalmers to find "solace and peace".
Last month, a hand-crafted cargo net made by a local man was put up to separate the seafarers' corner from the nave.
Historic Iona Church Restoration Trust committee member Rachel Day said the space never looked how it does today, but what they had set up was a "modern interpretation".
"We're trying to give it a certain sort of respect," she said.
The creator, a net maker of many years, told the trust he had a 19th-century cargo net ring which would be great to use in a net to separate the space from the rest of the nave.
Iona Church.
The net was made from Donaghy's rope and a marlinspike was used to weave the net.
"Rope has been so vital to this country's history, from ... Māori, Polynesians and Europeans' connection to the sea — this is an ancient, universal craft."
The corner was still used, but many of the sailors who now visited the church were Filipino and other East Asian workers coming into port from cruise ships and other boats, Ms Day said.
"There isn't really an open Catholic church in Port Chalmers, so they're drawn to here. They can see the church when they come into harbour."
They came to "sit and pray".
