 The dredge was named the FW Payne and was operated as a gold dredge for Barrytown Gold Dredging Co Ltd in Barrytown, located on the West Coast of the South Island.All the original equipment was British, including the two surviving Richardson electric motors and bucket drive cog wheels, and a Vaughan gantry crane.The dredge originally had approximately sixty buckets, and the Richardson RGP motors were supplied by cable with power from a land-based generator plant.