HER LAST VOYAGE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 283, 27 August 1935, Page 8

HER LAST VOYAGE

Kaitoke at Wellington

SCRAP METAL FOR JAPAN

Paying her last visit to 'Wellington, the Kaitoke, which was sold gome months ago by the Union Company to Japanese buyers, for breaking up, arrived at midday yesterday from Westport and berthed at the King's wharf to load about 750 tons of scrap metal. She is to leave again to-morrow for Gisborne to load a further 1000 tons before leaving for Japan on her last voyage. Built at Middlesbro’, the Kaitoke was one of the numerous standardised ships constructed during the war and popularly known as “war babies.” She was launched In November, 1918, as the War Palace, but when sold later to private owners was renamed Cape Colony, With several other ships of similar type, such as the Kaiwarra, Kaikorai and Kawatiri, the Kaitoke was acquired in 1920 by the Union Steam Ship Company. The Kaitoke, in her weatherworn paintwork, bears evidence of her long idleness during the three years she was out of commission at Auckland. Her former name of Cape Colony’, cut in the steel plates, shows up on her bows under the perished paintwork. She flies the Japanese merchant ensign—a red sun on a white ground—• but no house flag, but her change of ownership is further shown by the substitution of Osaka for Wellington as her port of registry. Captain Jiro Inaya is in command of the Kaitoke, which has a total complement of 32 Japanese, including three deck officers, three engineers and a wireless operator. In recent years many steamers well known in New Zealand have been sold to Japan for scrapping, among the more recent being the Maheno, Oonah, Komata and Kaimanawa, In addition several smaller vessels have been broken up in New Zealand and shipped as scrap to Japan. Two of these, the Kurnalpi and Ahuriri, form part of the Kaitoke’s cargo, while portions of the old Gisborne tug Pelican will be loaded at Gisborne. Two further vessels, the Ngaio and Regulus, which have been laid up at Nelson for the past five years, were bought recently by F. E. Jackson and Co., Ltd., Auckland, and are to be broken up at Nelson and shipped to Japan as scrap metal. Most of the 750 tons of scrap to be loaded at Wellington by the Kaitoke consists of old railway material, but there is also a vast assortment of motor-car parts and other scrap steel and many large oil-drums which are tightly packed with their like in a broken-down condition.