SPEEDY ROTOMAHANA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 4 April 1925, Page 7

SPEEDY ROTOMAHANA.

PERFORMANCES RECALLED.

A ONE-TIME GREYHOUND

AND WELL-KNOWN TRADER.

Of rakish appearance, with stately clipper bow, the old steamer Rotomahana, now in her forty.-sixth year, may possibly enjoy another lease of life, and see further useful service, this time among the China seas. The old vessel has been sold to Melbourne buyers for the sum of £1700, but under the conditions of the sale cannot be utilised in the Australian or New Zealand trade. It has, however, been rumoured that she will be sold to the ship-breakers.

Whatever her destiny the Rotomahana will leave behind her a record equal to that of any vessel yet known in Australasian waters, for during a lengthy period she was considered the best of .the Union Company's fleet, and was universally popular in the various services in which she was engaged. Up till a few months ago the vessel was sailing under the flag of her original owners and during the year 1922 wa3 doing as much as sixteen and a-half knots per hour while engaged in the Melbourne-Launceston passenger service.

The keel of the Rotomahana was laid early in the year 1879 and within six months she was launched from the yards of William Denny and Company, at Dumbarton. Of 1777 tons gross and 915 net, with a length of 298 ft, a breadth of 35ft, and a depth of 23ft, she was built of steel throughout. On her maiden voyage to New Zealand she" astonished shipping men with her speedy performance, and was soon hailed as the greyhound of the New Zealand and Australian traders. At the top of her foremast she carried a gilded model of a greyhound _s a symbol of her speed. In every way she was a beautiful ship. Her raking masts, tall funnel and graceful bow with sheering bulwarks, gave her the appearance of a yacht rather than that of an intercolonial trader. On arrival in these waters she was commissioned in the Australian and New Zealand passenger trade and in her running called at Melbourne, Hobart, Bluff, Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington, Napier, Gisborne, Auckland and Sydney, with a visit every alternate trip to Opua for coaling. In' the latter service I she ran in conjunction with the comi pany's Manapouri, Mararoa and illfated Wairarapa, which was lost on the j Great Barrier with appalling loss of life. j Later she was transferred to the . Wellington-Lyttelton ferry service and ran for many years with the Mararoa. The two vessels were keen rivals in speed and the palm is usually handed to, the Rotomahana,. which was built some five years before the Mararoa. With the growth of the ferry trade the Rotomahana was considered too small for the run and was taken to Australia for service between Melbourne and Launceston. Both for her speed and her sea-going qualities she was well patronised in the latter service. The Rotomahana was the first steel built vessel to cross the Line. She was built rather in the nature of an experiment and her subsequent performances proved her a wonderful ship. It is said that her arrival in New Zealand caused more interest among shipping men and excitement among the public generally than the advent of either the company's Niagara or motor liner AorangL On her first visit to the main and coastal ports of the Dominion the school children were given half-day holidays to inspect the vessel, which wa3 regarded as representing a new era in shipbuilding.

On commencing in the MelbourneLaunceston run the Rotomahana came into competition with the speedy Loongana, and although always a worthy rival was compelled to acknowledge the latter vessel as her -mistress.