STEAMER FOR AUCKLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20725, 19 November 1930, Page 12

STEAMER FOR AUCKLAND

PURCHASE OF THE DUCHESS.

SERVICE TO KAWAU ISLAND.

WELL-KNOWN WELLINGTON SHIP

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. 1 WELLINGTON, Tuesday.

Negotiations for the sale to Auckland interests of the harbour ferry steamer Duchess, by the Eastbourne Borough Council, are understood to be practically completed. The ship, which has been laid up at Wellington for more than a year, has recently been given a partial coat of new paint- It is stated that the Duchess will shortly go to Auckland, where she will be employed in the passenger service to Kav.au. Built at Glasgow in 1396-97 by Mackie and Thomson, for the late Mr. J. H. Williams, the Duchess was specially designed for the Wellington Harbour ferry service, in which she has made many thousands of trips and carried hundreds of thousands of passengers. The vessel is a steel ship of 503 tons gross register, 145 ft. in length and 26ft. in width. Fitted with triple expansion engines, she attained a speed of 12.1 knots on her original trials. The vessel made the voyage to New Zealand from Glasgow under her own steam, assisted by a spread of canvas as she was then schooner rigged. Passing Farewell Spit on Saturday, October 2, 1397, the Duchess arrived off Wellington Heads in a howling northwest gale. She could not make port and after two or three days the master decided to run to Lyttelton. He returned to Wellington five days later.