AVE ATQUE VALE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5452, 24 July 1929, Page 2

AVE ATQUE VALE.

PASSING OF THE “WAIMARIE.” DESTINED FOR SHIPBREAKER. On Monday a favourite ship of years gone by, the s.s. Waimarie, left her moorings near the old Puke wharf, where she had been lying desolate and rotting for the last seven years, and commenced her last voy■age —this tirpe to meet the fa’:e ef many a fine ship ; ignominy at the callous hands of shipbreakers. Lacking the tall masts and hull of beautiful symmetrical lines associated with the departed day of sail, the Waimarie was not very good to look upon. Yet she was a sturdy little packet that did yeoman service in her time, and remains endeared in the memory of many who travelled in her as passengers.

Launched at Logan’s, her builders, at Auckland, in 1896, and engined by A. and G. Price, of Thames, she steamed her'maiden trip in the April of that year. Wednesday, April 22, 1896, at 6 p.m., saw her first departure from Paeroa to Auckland, a service she remained in for 25 years. On that first voyage she was commanded by Captain W. N. Sullivan, now at rest in Peace Haven, with Mr T. Richards, who is living in retirement at Auckland, as mate, and Mr J. Free man, the present master of the s.s. Taniwha, as second mate. Her maiden voyage was marred by grounding on a sandbank just below the junction of the Ohinemuri and Waihou rivers nearly opposite a house where Mr N. Kenny lived at the time and which was last occupied by Captain 3;u;lsbury. To float her she was lightened by easily-handled cargo being taken off by barges, and she. left again for Auckland the same evening still carrying. heavy machinery, destined for the Waihi mine, in order to keep to her schedule.

The Waimarie was designed along the same lines as the s.s. Taniwha, only slightly smaller, and. was built with a view to handling heavy freight to cope with the mass of mining machinery moving in the early days. She has had a short life as far as ships go, and one practically without untowara incident. The most exciting thing that happened to her was a fire in a hold containing lime, which necessitated her steaming to Thames, where the local brigade doused the flames. The vessel finally left Paeroa at 7 o’clock yesterday morning in tow of a tug, cutting for the last time as the s.s. Waimarie the waters of a river she knew so well. She may return again, but only, as an unrecognisable ghost of her. former self, for when she reaches Auckland there is the possibility that after all her superstructure is removed her hull will be cut down to about the old saloon deck and what remains turned into a scow. For, built of seasoned heart of kauri, she remains in many respects in as good condition as on the day she first slid slowly into the waters of the Waiteipata. ?