STEAMER SIMPLON SOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 259, 3 November 1933, Page 8

STEAMER SIMPLON SOLD.

WAB ACTIVITY RECALLED. The small steamer .Simplon has been sold by Mr. C. B. Madden to Mr. Wilson McKie, of Auckland. The Simplon, which has been laid up in the Waitemata Harbour for over three years, is an -iron .vessel of 184 tons, and was built at Inverkeithing in 1898. She is of deep draught and steamed out to-New Zealand.

The Simplon during the whole of the war period, in company with the NoraNiven, was operated by the Naval authorities for the purpose of locating and exploding floating mines laid by German commerce raiders around -the coasts of .New Zealand. The -hazardous nature of this undertaking is Evidenced by the fact that both vessels, and their crews narrowly avoided destruction .off Farewell Spit in 1917,' when' a floating mine became^entangled and; exploded on the trawl wire. -

After the war the Simplon was taken over by the Auckland City Council and used as a deep-sea trawler for the municipal fish market, a business "that failed in its object of providing cheap fish for the public, and resulted in a heavy financial loss. Recently the vessel was used as a tug by the Auckland Launch and Towboat Company, Limited. Some three' and a half years ago the vessel again changed hands and was extensively refitted to enter the fishing industry again. Mr. McKie has not yet decided as to what use he will put the Simplon.. ■