Echo’s Last Strait Trip

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30835, 21 August 1965, Page 1

Echo’s Last Strait Trip

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 20. The 60-year-old scow Echo left Wellington today on the last of her 15,000 crossings of Cook Strait. Before the Echo left the harbour, former crew members wandered from bow to stern and below decks. It is 40 years since the

Echo made her first straits crossing with full sail and a two-stroke engine. Today, the scow has more modern engines. Two men who inspected her today were crew members when the Echo capsized off Wellington heads in November, 1932. They are Mr J. Moore, who was bosun, and the cook, Mr F. Madge. “We took to the lifeboats and got into Worser Bay, bailing all the way,” Mr Moore said. When they returned to the

Echo next day she was upside down, but after only three weeks was returned to service. The Echo, bought by T. Eckford and Company in 1920 for the WellingtonBlenheim run, was the last coaster in service between the two ports. During the Second World War, the scow spent a year and a half at Guadacanal. Economics and competition have caused the retirement of the Echo. She will either be sold or dismantled.