SALE OF STEAMER

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1934, Page 14

SALE OF STEAMER

UNTON COMPANY’S WAIKAWA. BOUGHT BY GREEK FIRM. According to an announcement in a British shipping journal, the Union Company’s trans-Pacific cargo steamer Waikawa has been sold to Rethymnis and Kulukundis, Ltd., London, for £13,500, the vessel to be delivered in New Zealand early next year. The announcement also states that the Waikawa is to retain her British registry. The buyers of the Waikawa are Greek shipowners, with a registered office in London. . Their present fleet includes 13 steamers, all named with the prefix Mount. Each steamer has been renamed and one of the vessels has had four different names previously. All the present vessels are registered in Panama, and fly the Panamanian flag. The Waikawa is the second steamer to be sold by the Union Company to Greek buyers within two months. The Waihemo was sold in October, and before leaving Wellington early this month she was transferred to the Greek registry and renamed Evinos. Another trans-Paci-flc steamer, the Waitemata, was sold to Japanese buyers early last year. The Waikawa is a steel steamer of 5677 tons, built at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1919. For a number of years she has been engaged in the trans-Pacific service, bringing cargo from Pacific Coast ports to New Zealand and Australia. The vessel is at present en route to the Pacific Coast to load again, and she is due to return to New Zealand toward the end of January.