TO BE SCRAPPED

Northern Advocate, 20 July 1935, Page 13

TO BE SCRAPPED

FATE OF OLD STEAMERS,

[Per Press Association.— -copyright.) NELSON, This Day.

The Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company has sold the steamers Ngaio and Regulus to F. E. Jackson and Co., of Auckland, shipbreakers. For a long time negotiations were in progress tor the purchase of the Ngaio for conversion into a houseboat tor the Sounds, but those • negotiations lapsed.

The Ngaio. of 1,203 tons, formerly the Union Steamship Company's Mapouriki, was built by W. Denny Bros., Ltd. Dumbarton, in 1898 for the West Coast trade, and on her fifth voyage to the coast, she nearly became a victim of the Grey bar. A roller lifted the vessel's stern out of the water and carried her broadside on to the north tip. Relaunching her was a difficult problem, but eventually a cradle was built round the vessel, the breakwater was cut through, and she was taken to the other side. The Mapourikl was stranded again on 1900 on Mabel Island. - near Picton. In 1921 the vessel was 1 purchased by the Anchor Company ! for the Wellington-Nelson service. She 1 has been tied up since 1930. I The Regulus, of 584 tons, was one of I the company's freighters for many j years. Formerly she belonged to the I Westport Coal Company, being built j in 1907 bv Swan, Hunter & Wighnm. | Richardson. Ltd., at Newcastle. She i lias been laid up for several years.