SALE OF THE ALBION.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 120, 23 May 1887, Page 4

SALE OF THE ALBION.

That once good and favourite old steamer Albion -was sold at Sydney recently by auction for £500. A Captain Brown was the purchaser. The Albion originally formed one of the fleet of fine steamers with which Messrs MMekan, Blackwood, arid Co. carried on their intercolonial services. The Albion was employed in the New Zealand trade in conjunction with the steam- ' ships Tararua, Alhambra, Claud Hamilton,; Otago, Omeo, and latterly the Arawata and Ringarooma. Those steamers are indelibly connected with the rise and progress of NewZealand. Those steamers were the means of conveyance from Australia to the gold rushes on the West Coast and in Otago, and when the first fever had subsidea a remunerative trade had grown up between Maoriland and Victoria. Of the.old fleet the Otago was lost at Char land's Mistake. The Tararua disaster at Waipapapa, on the New Zealand coast', was one of the saddest in the history of the mercantile marine of the world. The Omeo has been turned into a sailing vessel. The Alhambra is a collier, the Claud Hamilton is laid up, and the poor old Albion has been sold for little better than old iron.