SOLD TO SHIPBREAKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 136, 11 June 1929, Page 10

SOLD TO SHIPBREAKERS.

OLD STEAMER WAINUI.

FORMER PASSENGER SHIP.

In the forty-third year of her career, UlO Union Co.'s steamer Wainui has been sold to Messrs. Borlase and McKay, shipbreakers, of Dunedin, who will dismantle her and probably dispose of the hull by sinking it at sea. The Wainui is a steel vessel of 684 tons gross, built at Dumbarton in 1880. For the greater part of her life she was engaged in the Southern coastal trade, but in February, 1924, she was transferred to the Auckland-Gisborne passenger service. Eighteen months later she was withdrawn, the cargo steamer Waiinea having been chartered for the trade.

During the past two years the Wainui lias been laid up at Auckland, occasionally doing duty as a coal hulk. Negotiations with the buyers were finalised this morning, and it is expected that an early start will be made 011 the work of stripping the vessel of all the fittings worth keeping. The buyers, Messrs. Boiiase and McKay, have broken up many of the Union Co.'s old steamers. Their last job in Auckland was the dismantling of the old Wanaka about two years ago.