REWA SOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 141, 17 June 1930, Page 8

REWA SOLD.

JO MAKE A BREAKWATER. LARGEST BRITISH SAILEit. . , MANY YEARS IDLE. The four-masted barque Rewa, the largest British sailing ship still afloat, has been sold .to a settler on one of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. He intends to sink her to make a breakwater. Workmen are at present engaged in dismantling the vessel, where she lies off Chelsea, and she is expected to leave in a few days in tow of a tug for her final resting place. For seven years the Rewa lias lain at anchor in the stream, with only an old watchman—formerly her sailmaker— aboard. She was bought soon after the war by Geo. H. Scales, Limited, but the venture was not successful, and she went out of commission.

A few months ago the Auckland Harbour Board called the attention of the owners to the fact that some of the Rewa's plates were so badly rusted that she was in danger of foundering and becoming a menace t.o navigation. There was little chance of her ever going to sea again, although the surveyors stated that the replacing of the rusted plates would render her seaworthy. The •work, of dismantling her commenced some weeks ago, and the hull was offered for sale for breaking up.