Shipping News Canty interest in tugs

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 7

Shipping News Canty interest in tugs

Canterbury interest in tlie Wellington tug fleet, rekindled ■ recently by a picture showing! the Taioma being taken to the Tauranga District Museum, is said to be a leftover of the| Lyttelton-Wellington ferry ser-l vice. Early-morning arrivals and I early-evening departures gave ferry passengers an obstructed deck view of shipping movements at both ports. One reader whose memory goes back a little longer than Captain H. J. Gordon, played a part in the delivery of the Taioma The tug was built by Hall and Company at Aberdeen. She was launched in June, 1944, as the Empire Jane and immediately went to Singapore with her sister Empire Shirley, which later became the Tupahi. Both vessels were bought by the Union Steam Ship Company 14 months later to replace the Terawhiti and Natone. The Empire Shirley towed the Empire Jane from Singapore to New Zealand by way of the Celebes Islands, where the vessels were refuelled before the two weeks of steaming along the northern coast of Australia through Torres Strait, and around Cape York on the northern tip of Queensland. The Empire Jane raised her own steam for the Tasman crossing and arrived at Wellington! still equipped with three gun i mountings used at Singapore. I For years the Taioma towed j the oil barge Hinupahi round! Wellington harbour. The Tupahi was sold and went to Fiji. Mr L. A. Manderson recalled' tne fate of the other tugs, in-1 eluding the Terawhiti, sold in I 1947 and later sunk off the Aus-i tralian coast.

The Natone was sold to a Wellington syndicate for conversion to a housa boat. She was

5! last seen rotting on her side in 1 Pelorus Sound. ! An earlier tug, Tola, was re- ! turned to the New Zealand Navy s and was eventually scrapped at ! Devonport. Other small craft which served as tugs at the turn of the cenI tury and remembered by Mr ! Manderson included the Togo, I Pelican. Duco, and Mana, which ■ were all used mainly to tow a fleet of about 30 coal hulks then ' moored off Kaiwharara in Wei-! i llngton Harbour. ARRIVALS . Saturday Union Hobart (7.59 a.m.), 4637, Capt. G. J. Tedd (U.S.S.). ■ Holmdale (11.20 p.m.), 911, , Chatham Islands, Capt. H. C. F. Hunt (U.S.S.). SUNDAY ■ Nil. DEPARTURES . Saturday Nil. Sunday i Union Hobart (4 p.m.), 4637, . Wellington. Capt. G. J. Tedd ; (U.S.S.). I EXPECTED ARRIVALS 1 Coastal Trader, Auckland, today. 1 Kangourou, Wellington, today. • Iron Baron, from sea. today. Union Lyttelton, Wellington, April 17 ’ Coastal Trader, Dunedin, April, 18. i| Kolle D, Nauru Island, Aprili ’ 18. PROJECTED DEPARTURES j Coastal Trader. Dunedin, todav.i Union Lyttelton, Wellington., April 17. i Coastal Trader, Auckland, April I 18 ’ VESSELS IN PORT , Hanka Sawicka, Cashin Quay No. Khudozhnik Deyneka, No. J West. I Holmdaie, No. 7 est. I