LADY ROBERTS SOLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1069, 5 September 1930, Page 16

LADY ROBERTS SOLD

STEAMER NOW AT APIA STRIPPED OF FITTINGS The hull of the Lady Roberts, the well-known Government steamer, has been sold at Apia. Samoa, for £2O ss. The vessel was completely stripped, the fittings and gear having been taken ashore and disposed of previouslv. The buyer is Mr. .T. Hellesloe. The Lady Roberts and her sistership, the Janie Seddon. were ordered by the Hew Zealand Government for use in connection with harbour defence works. They were built at the cards of Fleming and Ferguson. Ltd., Paisley, Scotland, in 1901. and were named’ after the wife of Earl Roberts and tho wife of the Dominion Premier. Mr. R. Seddon. The Auckland boat, the Lady Roberts, proved unsuitable for her intended work owing to her inability to move easily in shallow harbour and coastal waters. She was, nevertheless. a sturdy and well-built craft, and was occasionally used for transport purposes, although she was not designed as a cargo boat. Long periods of idleness were spent at her moorings at -Devonport. The steamer commenced a service between Apia a.nd Pago Pago, under the command of Captain C. R. Willcocks. She drifted on to a reef in Apia Harbour during a severe gale in 1926, and lay holed on the rocks for about a month. She later proceeded to Suva under her own power for permanent repairs.