FROM STEAMER TO HULK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15618, 26 May 1914, Page 8

FROM STEAMER TO HULK.

OLD VESSEL SCUTTLED.

a THE TERRANORA'S HISTORY. o ,_ A srwx-BTO/r steamer, claimed to be tho first of its kind in New Zealand, was! 0 towed into the Hauraki Gulf a few days E ago and scuttled, after having been a«o----lm ciated with the Auckland coastal services ,_ for over 30 years. The vessel was the e Northern Steamship Company's old paddle steamer Terranora, which, up to the year 1906 was engaged in carrying passengers r between Auckland and various coastal e ixji-ts. but in that year was condemned (li and turned into a hullj. { Tho terranora had an interesting his- , ton-. Sho was built in lftfß at Glasgow ' by Messrs. 1). and W. Henderson, and was constructed as the result of a requisition received from Australia for a paddle - steamer to fulfil the combined purposes of i: passenger and cargo steamer, and to act r,aa a tug boat as required. At the time l of her construction, the Terranora prea.sented a practical example of tlicadvanta: ages offered by the use of mild steel in -tho building of light draught cargo steamers, and also for ships and steamers cenl j erally. ..-'.. | The trial trip of tho vessel took place -! on September 13. 1878. when she steamed i from the Meadowside Dock, on the.Clyde. • r A distance of four miles was run against i -: the tide, giving a speed of over nine miles 1 3 per hour. Having completed her official , ; trial with results that were' deemed highly •: successful the Terranora was loaded with I 1 1 200 tons of coal, and spare gear and sea '« I stores. , Sho left' the Clyde thus ! freighted ' i on September 26. 1878, and made a sue- 1 » • cessfu '. voyage to Australia, under her i i. own steam, via the Suex Canal, arriving i ; eventually at Sydney without injury to l , j hull or machinery of my kind. When ' , near her destination, the Terranora earned 1 •■her, first public recognition by towine a i stranded ship off the rocks on the Am(trahn.n coast. . ' ' ! €mplpyod in tho Australian c river trade °, gome years, the Terranora , was purchased by a Catholic priest in } laranaki, subsequently passing into the J hands of a Waitara syndicate Sho was < employed round ; the Turanaki . coast for 1 some time, andl was then acquired ov the ,Nw.Zealand , Government, who employed \ ,h«.in cable laymg and ligEhouso work. i: The vessel • was . then laid up for i eon c a&wht^ in &<&*& Harbour, ' after which she was purchased by an r .Auckland syndicate, and employed ii, tho c I Thames passenger and cargo service durm: thp mining boom days at tho Firth of l Pliames, under the command of Captain « Black and others. Some years later The 3 (BEE was purchased;by the Northern l Company and proved a* most profitable a vessel to'the company during itb many ? years she was employed in the various l coastal services. In 1906 the old fiteamcr was condemned as ,unfit for *t£S& -5? ■" Her engines were removed and broken m r for scrap-iron, and the vessel com p tell *