SALE OF STEAMERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 13

SALE OF STEAMERS.

THE NGAIO AND REGULUS. VESSELS TO BE BROKEN Ul\ (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) NELSON, Friday. The Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company has sold the steamers Ngaio and Regulus to F. 15. Jackson and Company of Auckland, shipbreakers. For a long time negotiations were in progress for the purchase of the Ngaio for conversion into a houseboat for the Sounds, but those negotiations lapsed.

The Ngaio, of 1203 tons, formerly the Union Steam » Ship Company's Mapoulika, was built by W. Denny and Bros., Ltd., Dumbarton, in 1898, for the West Coast trade, and on her fifth voyage to the coast she nearly became a victim of the Grey bar. A roller lifted the vessel's stern out of the water and carried her broadside on to North Tip. Relaunching her was a difficult problem, but eventually a cradle was built round the vessel, the breakwater was cut through, and she was taken to the other side. The Maponrika was stranded again in 1900 on Mabel Island, near Picton. In 1921 the vessel was purchased by the Anchor Company for the WellingtonNelson service. She has been tied up since 1930.

The Regulus, of .'584 tons, was 011 c of the company's freighters for many years. Formerly she belonged to the Westport Coal Company, being built in 1907 by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., at Newcastle. She has been laid up for several years.