NGAIO STILL FOR SALE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27403, 16 July 1954, Page 13

NGAIO STILL FOR SALE

SYNDICATE LOOKING FOR BUYER PURCHASE THIS YEAR POSSIBLE The Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company, Ltd., of Nelson, still owns the 3566-ton Ngaio, which has been laid up since she made her last trip in the inter-island service between Nelson and Wellington 15 months ago. Two Christchurch men are trying to find a buyer for the ship. They are Mr G. W. Hazeldine and Mr P. D. Scrimgeour, who have formed a syndicate which has taken part in negotiations without success. At one stage this year the ship took on stores, a crew was ready and the vessel was prepared for sailing. But financial arrangements with a prospective purchaser in the United States broke down and the transaction came to nothing. The Ngaio is at present tied up at a berth at Eastbourne. If negotiations which began last week and are now going on with an unnamed prospective buyer are successful the vessel may sail from New Zealand waters before the end of the year. Built in 1929 by the Bethlehem Corporation in San Francisco for the Hawaiian trade, the Ngaio was first named Hualalai. She was purchased by the Anchor Company, refitted and renamed, and put on the Cook Strait run.

The company, however, made substantial losses, and on the operation of the passenger service for the year ended September 30, 1951, lost £35,516. In November of that year the company announced it would abandon the service. The Government appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate the matter and to find ways and means of maintaining the run. The company was granted permission for increases in fares for both passengers and cars, and decided to postpone the withdrawal of the vessel.

The Wellington Maritime Cargo Workers’ Union (Permanent) agreed to take steps to increase the quantity of cargo handled and thus assist the company to make the service pay. Although the rate of losses lessened the decline in the numbers of passengers carried continued. In the first week of November, 1952, the Ngaio was up for sale. The twin-screw vessel, although classed at Lloyd’s as being capable of only 13J knots, was driven by her double reduction-geared turbines at 15 knots on her last crossing from Nelson on April 17, 1953. The first prospective buyer of the Ngaio mentioned was the Government of Tasmania, but negotiations with Sydney brokers were fruitless. The Central Navigation Corporation, an American concern, then became interested. The vessel, with its berth accommodation of 239, and 1500 tons of cargo space, was tempting for a proposed 1400-mile tourist passage on the American-Pacific Coast between Los Angeles and Acapulco, Mexico, especially as replacement cost would be about £ 500.000.