AN AGED VESSEL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 82, 6 April 1912, Page 15

AN AGED VESSEL.

MUUQOGBf LEATES LYTTELTON. A STEAMER WITH A CAREER,

One of the most interesting vessels in Australasian, waters is the little steamer Mullogh, which, for fifty-three years, had preserved an almost unbroken connection with the shipping history of Lyttelton, and which ended her connection with the port this week (states the Lyttelton Times), when she left for Timaru. With, perhaps, the possible exception of the Stonnbird, of Wellington, the Mullogh js the oldest steamer on the active list in Australasia^. Waters. Her original register is an interesting document, and shows her to have been built at Belfast, Ireland, in 1855. Her builders were Messrs. Coates and Young, who are stated to have been the predecessors of the famous firm of Harland and Wolff. The Mullogh was built at Queen's Island, Belfast, the birthplace of many famous steamers. It is a far cry from -the 59 tons of the Mullogh to the 45,000 tons of the Olympic, but both vessels were built on almost the, same site. The Mullogh is still propelled by a singlecylinder high-pressure engine of 15 horsepower (nominal).. It, .is a solidly-built .engine, andllit as g'ooi to^day,'or- evjen better, than when first fitted into th« vessel. The Mullogh was a highly important vessel when she first arrived at Lyttelton, a* is proved by the following paragraph from the morning paper of that time: — "In steam enterprise, we begin at the other end from our neighbours in Otago. A boat of no ambition has just been added to our fleet in the Mullogh, a little craft capable of carrying 60 tons measurement, at some small rate, under steam, but with the precision which ia the characteristic of all steamers, the Mullogh came down from Sydney in twenty days, a fair passage for such a nutßhell of' a craft. She is a screw boat, having her machinery packed in most diminutive compass, and stowed in the extreme stern, co that ample room is left for merchandise." Shortly after ehe was built, the Mullogh came out to Melbourne, the passage occupying 145 days. For about three years she was running cargoes of shells from Broken Bay to Sydney. In 1859 she came over to Lyttelton, and for some years traded regularly to the Heathcote River. In 1861 she made a trip to Port Chalmers, with passengers on th^ir way to ihe Gabriel's Bully gold rush. In 1878 she was taken Tound to the West Coast, and was engaged in carrying coal and other cargoes between Greymouth and Hokitika for a few months, when she went aground at the entrance to the latter port. She was subsequently refloated and" brought back to Lyttelton, and after several years' "runping to Heathcote and Banks. Peninsula ehe was laid up in Rotten Row somewhere about 1882.. For twenty years- or more she remained without turning her screw, but in 1904 she was acquired ' by a t syndicate, who had her thoroughly overhauled and repaired and fitted out as a trawler. About four year* and a-half ago she was acquired by Mr. W. R. Cooksley, who has now sold her to Mr. Cannon, of Timaru, where she will be employed in trawling.