FREIGHTER FLORA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 284, 30 November 1944, Page 6

FREIGHTER FLORA

LAST VOYAGE TO-DAY

OLD HULK TO BE SUNK

Sixty-two years of useful service will end to-day when the oil hulk Flora, at one time a well-known unit of the Union Company's fleet, is towed out of the harbour to be sunk beyond the 100-fathom line, north of Great Barrier Island.

The Flora was purchased recently by Mr. F. Appleton to be stripped of useful material and machinery. Before that she had been used as an oil hulk after she had become too old for further sea-going service. For her last voyage she will be handled by the Auckland Launch and Towboat Company.

Built in 1882 at Hull, England, the Flora (1283 gross tons) had an eventful career while in the Union Company's Pacific Islands service.

In 1916 she was disabled near Papeete when a shaft broke in the engineroom. The vessel drifted for four days and a half while the engineers tried to effect repairs. The engines were temporarily fixed on the fifth day, but soon broke down again. A French steamer then hove in sight, and towed the Flora into Papeete three days later. The steamer Mapourika was sent from Wellington, but when she arrived at Papeete the Flora's engines had been repaired. In order not to place too much strain on the temporary repairs, the Flora was brought back to Auckland in tow, the voyage taking 13 days.

Again in June, 1924, the Flora was disabled off Cuvier Island, the cause of the breakdown being a broken pin in the crankshaft. The steamer put into the west bay of Great Mercury Island, where repairs were effected. From there, facing a heavy northerly gale and on a lee shore, the vessel battled her way back to Auckland.