SHIPS OF THE PAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18631, 12 February 1924, Page 8

SHIPS OF THE PAST.

TWO STEAMERS CONDEMNED. TE ANAU AND PATEENA SOLD [BE TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, Monday. The Union Company's steamers Te Anau and Pateena have been condemned and sold to the ship breakers, Messrs. Todd and Borlace, •of Dunodin. The To Anau was one of. the Union Company's first passenger ships. The Te Anau was built at Dunbarton ijj 1879. Of only 1623 tons, the Te Anau is' a poor specimen of steamer compared to the vessels now running in the intercolonial passenger service, but there was a time when the people of New Zealand were proud of her. Her arrival in this country in 1880 was to a certain extent a red letter day in the annals of the Union Company, as she was one of the first vessels which the company had had built to their own order. Nearly all the steamers owned by the company up to that time had been purchased from other companies. The Te Anau is a sister ship to the Rotomahana, but of less power. The Rotomahana, which is the same age as the Te Anau, was first put on the intercolonial run. The two vessels carried a large number of excursionists from New Zealand to Sydney at the time of the exhibition there in 1880.

The Pateena is a steel steamer of 1212 tons, and was built at Glasgow in 1883. She was purchased by the Union Company in 1891 from the old Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, along with the Flora, Talune, Oonah, Corinna, Flinders, Inangarua, and Morton. The Flora, Corinna, and Oonah are still in commission and the Talune is laid up at Auckland. She is being used as s a coal hulk at present.