A total of 18 shallow relief sculpted tiles showing the various vessels that have sailed from Te Hau Kapua (Devonport/Torpedo Bay). Beginning with the waka "Akarana ki Takapuna" and concluding with "Sea Bus Kea", a Fuller's Ferry that replaced the long serving Kestrel ferry in 1988. This final tile replacing at tile from the original set that had been damaged.

Originally set into a brick wall in the entry of the library, these terracotta relief works are made in a range of clays to achieve variation in fired colouring.

Brickell used images in the book ‘Steam on the Waitemata’ by transport historian W. W. Stewart (A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1972) as inspiration for the tiles, which were wood-fired in his kiln at Driving Creek, Coromandel. Following the delivery of the tiles, they sat loosely on top of book cabinets for a decade until the building was completed. During this time one tile was broken, and three others damaged. The council paid for replacement tiles to be made and Brickell used this opportunity to replace the ‘Toroa’ tile with one of the Kea ferry which had recently arrived in the city. This tile was made for Barry by Paul Lorimer. The Toroa tile is now in the collection of the Driving Creek Railways. Upon completion, the full set were installed in a wall in the library’s entrance foyer.

When the library was rebuilt by Athfield Architects (2013–2015) the tiles were rescued and reinstalled with each tile individually mounted in a discrete black metal bracket.

The top row tiles and their inscriptions are from L-R:

• Toroa i ti wai haere e whiti ki tama ki ra he matakitaki ma te nui o hua: Albatross of the sea – go and cross to Tamaki there to be admired by the many of hua: Akarana ki Takapuna;

• First Official Ferries 1854-1865: Whale boat;

• The first Devonport steam ferry: Emu 1860: Capt. Kreeft;

• Enterprise: Holmes Bros 1865;

• P.S. Devonport: Built 1870 AK: Owners: '70 Holmes Bros: '72 A.K. & N.S. Steam Ferry Co.: '81 Dev S.F. Co.;

• P.S. Takapuna: 1872-1911 A.K. & N.S. SF Co.: H. Niccol: 1881 D.S.F. Co.;

• Tainui 1875: Auckland & North Shore Steam Ferry Co.;

• PS Eagle 1886-1924; and

• P.S. Osprey 1887-1890: SCR 1926

Depicted from L-R on the bottom row are:

• P.S. Osprey 1887-1926;

• S.S. Albatross 1904-1960;

• S.S. Kestrel 1905-: S.S. Peregrine 1912-1959;

• S.S. Condor 1908-1936 3rd Version;

• Sparrowhawk 1911-59: Goshawk 1909-59;

• Takapuna 1925-1960: Makora "21 - "70: Ngoiro "14 - "59;

• Mollyhawk 1923-59: Eaglehawk 1926-59;

• George and Francis Peat renamed 1951: Ewen W.G. Alexander Alison: 1946-1959 diesel Ex Tasmanian Govt.; and

• Sea Kea Bus: North Shore Ferry Co. Ltd 1988-

See also:

• 'Waitemata ferries remembered at Devonport Library' on Timespanner

• Barry Brickell, 'Plastic Memories: 38 years of story-telling in clay' (Driving Creek Press, 2013)