NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR ANCIENT VESSEL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3025, 12 March 1917, Page 4

NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR ANCIENT VESSEL

The steamer Edina, tho Australian Steamships, Ltd., Hobson's Bay veteran, is,'from all accounts, to be givem a new lease of life. She is said to h® the oldest passenger steamer afloat, and, having been built of iron,. is claimed to be fit for much more activo service. She was built in 1854 at Glasgow, and the same year carried troops to the Crimea. Barclay and Curie were the builders. She caine to Australia in 1863, and was owned by James Henry, of Port-land, Victoria. She wa once more in the trooping business, taking' soldiers to New Zealand. She had' 300 on board, and Captain Bolls, was in command. After that sho ran. between Warrnambool and Portland, but in 1875 was bought by Smith and Co. (now the Australian Steamships, Ltd. One account states that on her first trip to Brisbane and Maryborough she carried only 20 tons of cargo, and about 25,000 ft. of timber back south. For over 36 years she has been running from Melbourne to C4eolong via. Hobson's Bay ports under command of Captain Forbes, who is still master, and who is as proud of his command to-day as he was vhen he joined her 36 years back. Tho chief engineer of the Edina is Mr. Hopton Noland, and he has been in the ship for 23 years. Mr. W. Burke, who lately joined the conipany's now steamer Macedon as cliief officer, 'was mate of the Edina for mauy years. The latest reports concerning the Edina show that sho is to Teceivo new boilers and! have her top hamper remodelled, thus starting out as a "giant" refreshed and ready for a further spell against tho wind and weather of Hobson's Bay.