MORE ABOUT THE OTAGO.

Evening Star, Issue 4306, 14 December 1876, Page 4

MORE ABOUT THE OTAGO.

There is a slight dash of romance in the history of the Otago, which was one of the handsomest and swiftest steamers employed by the Panama and' New Zealand Company in their intercolonial trade. She was a Clyde-built, vessel, having been launched * from the yard of Messrs Lowrie and Co. about eight years ago, and on the collapse of the P. and N.Z. Company she was taken up, to China for sale. Well knowing her worth and capabilities, and being desirous of possessing her in tcddi*' tion :to other of the vessels which bad passed into their hands Messrs M‘Meckan, Blackwood, and Co. despatched Captain Underwood, the present commander of the s.s. Arawata, on a roving commission to the East, to follow up and find out the Otago, and bring her back with him, if money could do it. In this he was entirely successful, and after some difficulty in tracing her from port to port, obtained and returned with her to Melbourne, the passage being perfoimed under canvaß, r and being one. of the fastest ever - made .fVojn China to this port without steam. This is thTfifth 'steamer lost by the owners during-the last fifteen or sixteen years, the others, being .the Oscar, South Australian, and Hangitoto in New Zealand waters, and the Gothenburg- off the Queensland coast. The loss of the Otago is covered by insurance, to the extent of 1,15,000, in the Southern Insurance Company, but this rc presents little more than half her value, and she could ill be spared at the present time.

The insurance is distributed amongst Tihirteen other companies, and a portion of the risk is held in Sydney.— ‘ Argus.’