SHIP WITH A HISTORY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 25 May 1926, Page 9

SHIP WITH A HISTORY.

TEMEHANI AT AUCKLAND. Mine-sweeper, mystery ship, rumrunner, tie a sine .seeker and Island trader, the small steamer Temeliani, which arrived unexpectedly at Auckland last Saturday evening, has been a’t these. At the present time .she is on her way from Papeete to Sydney, where she will be converted into a fishing trawler. The Temehani (says an Auckland paper), which was compelled to put into this port for coal, provisions and fresh water, has had a number of exciting incidents crowded into the dom-para-tivelv lew years she _ has been afloat. Designed as a mine-sweeper, she was launched in England in 1916. Under the name of “Gunner” she did good work as a sweeper, but was, later converted into a mystery ship, guns being mounted on deck and four torpedo tubes instated below. In this role she proved her worth by sinking one submarine and 1 by arriving in port with another as a prize. After the armistice, the Temeha.ni was acquired by a syndicate, and employed as a rum-runner. All went well with the little vessel until she was seized off the American coast. She was then detained for some months and later sold as. a prize. The Temehani’s next adventure was a. voyage to Cocos Island in search of treasure, but the Californian syndicate which had purchased the vessel failed to make a success of the venture, and at the finish had not sufficient funds to pay the wages of the craw. For the latter reason a writ of arrest was served on her for debt. Later she was sold by the sheriff. Following this ignominy the Temeliani was purchased by a Chinese company for trade among the islands of the Eastern Pacific, . but business was not of the best, and owing to the competition of auxiliary sailing vessels the former mystery ship was compelled to lay up at Papeete.. She was idle for ten months, but some weeks ago she was bought bv her present owner, Captain F. T. Gladstone Dunn, and on her arrival at Sydney the steamer will be converted into a trawler.