OLD STEAMER’S END

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 87, 6 January 1933, Page 7

OLD STEAMER’S END

Wakatere to be Broken Up

LINK WITH ’NINETIES Dominion Special Service. Auckland, Jan. 4. After 30 years’ sea service and six years’ idleness in Auckland harbour, the one-time favourite passenger steamer Wakatere is. to be beached at St. Gary’s Bay at high water to-morrow afternoon. She will be broken up for scrap, which will probably be melted down in a Japanese foundry. The Wakatere was a steel paddle steamer of 441 tons, and was owned by the Northern Company, which ran her in the Thames and Coromandel- passenger service, and also utilised her .at times for excursion work. The passing of the Wakatere is of considerable interest because she is a link with, the 'nineties and the days of prosperity on the goldfields. The gold rush in the early days of 1896 was primarily responsible for the company’s decision to purchase a vesseh She was launched on' the Clyde in May, 1896, being originally designed for the Isle of Man packet service. She was bought on.the stocks owing to her suitability for the Auck-land-Thames trade. A fast steamer was required for the work, and the Wakatere attained a speed of 16 knots on her trials, which was regarded as eminently satisfactory. This helped to give the meaning to her name, which is “swift canoe” in Maori. /