OLD SHIP FOR THE BREAKERS'

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 14 June 1939, Page 4

OLD SHIP FOR THE BREAKERS'

AUCKLAND HULK FORMER FRENCH MAN-OF-WAR j I United I'iess Association I AUCKLAND. 13th June. i Another of the old ships lying in I Auckland’s "Rotten Row',” a formerl French man-of-war, Eure, has* been sold to the ship breakers and is to be beached at Shoal Bay for dismantling. While this is being done the men engaged on the task will live on board

|i the Taniwha, which also was recently j sold by the Northern Steam Ship Co. I to the same firm for breaking up. When , the Eure’s teak and oak timbers and j metal work have been recovered, the i Taniwha will be beached for the same purpose. j Little is known of the Eure’s service j ir the French navy. Her last station, j however, was at Noumea, New Calej donia, where she was probably sent on j patrol among French possessions, whose inhabitants were not so friendly to white people in those days as they are now. That she has seen battle is evidenced by the fact that, when she

came to Auckland, her sides bore signs of shot marks. She was bought by the Northern Steam Ship Co. for use as a hulk a few years before the war. The French Government sent her to Sydney, and from there she was towed across the Tasman in 1912 by the Joan Craig. Since then she has spent her days as a hulk, though oblong ports for her guns in the remnants of her poop and forecastle indicate her former status. Though the Eure has outlasted her usefulness as a hulk, her timbers are still remarkably sound, and it is considered on the waterfront that she has ben a particularly well found ship. All her limbers are teak and oak.