REWA SOLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1001, 18 June 1930, Page 11

REWA SOLD

WILL BE USED AS BREAKWATER IN THE GULF LAST OF FAMOUS BOAT The Rewa, once a famous sailing vessel, is to be used as a breakwater at Moturekareka Island in the Hauraki Gulf. She has been sold by the firm of George IT. Scales, Limited, to Mr. Charles Hanson, of Moturekareka Island, and within a few days, when the tides and weather are favourable, she will be removed from her present moorings in the upper harbour. Thus passes the largest of the sailing vessels afloat today and one of the most famous of her time. For some years past the Rewa has been moored in the upper harbour, but her plates have been eaten away with rust to such an extent that there was a danger of her sinking and becoming a menace to shipping. During the past few weeks certain parts of the rigging and spars have been stripped from the vessel, but the masts will be left on her when she goes to her last resting-place. She is not to be completely stripped as has been recorded on several occasions. The Rewa is a four-masted barque and on her final trip arrived in Auckland from England in August 1922, and since that time she has remained at anchor in the Waite mata Harbour. Built in ISS9, by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company, Ltd., at Whitehaven. England, the Rewa is constructed of steel and is 309 ft long with a 46ft beam and a depth of 25ft and is 2,999 tons gross. For many years she was known as the Alice A. Leigh and was owned by the Liverpool firm of John Joyce and Company, being employed in the nitrate trade to South America, with occasional trips to San Francisco and Australia. Soon after the war she was purchased by G. H. Scales, Ltd., and her last voyage was from New Zealand to London and back.