NEW GOVERNMENT SHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1055, 20 August 1930, Page 16

NEW GOVERNMENT SHIP

MATAI IS HANDSOME VESSEL CAPTAIN’S ADVENTUROUS LIFE The new Government steamer Matai, which left England on Friday last for Wellington, is expected to arrive at the capital early :ln October. The Matai, which is to replace the Tutanekai, is an oil-burning steamer 228 feet in length, with a beam of 35 feet. She has been designed for a speed of lli knots, and was launched in July at Hebburn-on-Tyne by Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., Ltd., which firm is responsible for her delivery in New Zealand.

With clipper bow and cruiser stern,, she is a handsome ship. Designed primarily as a lighthouse maintenance steamer for the Marine Department’s use, the Matai has also been fitted up to act, when needed, as the GovernorGeneral’s ofFicial yacht. On the bridge deck special accommodation has been provided for their Excellencies and their staff. In this respect the vessel’s chief use will be to take their Excellencies on trips to the Islands. An interesting personality will be found in the master who is bringing the Matai out, Captain Manning, who, in the course of his lengthy career, has delivered about 60 new vessels to all parts of the world. He is 74 years of age and first visited New Zealand as a lad of 17 on the full-rigged ship Sanspariel. For 25 years he served as a master with the General Steam Navigation Company, of London, and then temporarily retired from the sea. While on a visit to London he was induced to take a new vessel out to Savannah, and that trip marked the opening of a new lease of sea life. Toward the end of last year he brought out the Otago Harbour Board’s new dredge Otakou, and there were many thrilling moments in the voyage of 94 days, the vessel at one stage running short of fuel.