NEW SHIPPING COMPANY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27538, 21 December 1954, Page 11

NEW SHIPPING COMPANY

WELL-KNOWN VESSELS IN FLEET BRITISH AND N.Z. FIRMS ASSOCIATED "The Press" Special Service WELLINGTON, December 19. A new shipping company, known as the Avenue Shipping Company, Ltd., with a capital of £1,500,000 has been formed by Birt, Potter and Hughes in conjunction with the New Zealand Shipping Company. Six well-known vessels, the Enton, Kaikoura, Kaimata, Kaipaki, and Kaituna will comprise the fleet and bear the names of Irish counties. The Kaituna, now the Armagh is discharging at Wellington, and the five other ships are to be renamed Lietrim, Wicklow, Antrim, Waterford and Westmeath. The Avenue Shipping Company revives the title of a concern managed in 1924 by Potter Bros. Ltd. John Potter’s shipping activities date from the sixties, and J. E. Birt, whose name is perpetuated by one of the leading shipping and airway agencies in Australia, Birt and Co. (Pty.) Ltd., entered the field in 1877. Twelve years later there came an amalgamation between Birt, Potter and a group known as Allport and Hughes, with the retention of separate entities. In 1895, the Federal Steam Navigation. Company was founded by Mr Hughes. More developments occured in 1924, when Birt, Potter and Hughes, formerly brokers, registered themseWes as steamship owners with the Enton and Winton. The Enton was replaced by a new motor-ship which is now the Lietrim. The Armagh, formerly the Swedishbuilt Kaituna, was laid down for the Trans-Atlantique Steamship Company, and sold to the New Zealand Shipping Company while on the stocks. The Doxford-built Kaipara, completed in 1938, becomes the Waterford, and the Kaikoura, built on the Clyde the previous year by Sir Alex. Stephens, is now the Wicklow. The Westmeath, was formerly the Kaipaki. The oldest ship in the group is the Denny-built Kaimata, completed in 1931 for Trinder and Anderson, and acquired by the New Zealand Shipping Company as part of its contribution to the M.A.N.Z. Line. She now bears her third name Antrim. The “K” vessels were lucky in surviving World War II intact, and, although the loss of more Maori names is to be regretted, they frequent the Australian and North American coasts more than they do New Zealand ports. The Company however, is building three new ships for its share of the M.A.N.Z. Line, and the first of these, the Whakatane, is in service.