THE PAPANUI

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 16 September 1911, Page 5

THE PAPANUI

A CHEQUERED CAREER. The I'apanui has now apparently seen tile eiul of an unusually chctinercd career. She is a vessel of (i5Si tons gross, and was built by Messrs. Denny, at Dumbarton, to the order of the New Zealand Company, in ISDS. Towards the end of 1!)0] she put into Vigo, Spain, on lire, and before the Ihimes were extinguished 38,000 carcases of mutton had to be jettisoned. In April, l!)(l!l, a lire ■broke out on board the vessel while she was lying in dock in London. After repairs had been ell'ecied -lie was put in the lay-up berth for some time, and towards the end of the year sailed for Xew Zealand, her cargo including a quantity of railway material for Tasmania. After discharging the Xew Zealand cargo the I'apanui -ailed for Tasmania. to unload the railway consignments. While |Kissing through llass Strait she struck on W'atcrhouse Island, damaging her plates for a length of 250 feel on both sides of the keel. .She wits saved by her double .bottom, and was able to steam to Melbourne. The, lowest tender for nqwiring the vessel was £30.1100. and the company, considering this prohibitive, sold the vessel at auction. Iler new owners, liuding that she could be repaired in the East for about half that sum. ell'cctcd temporary repairs, and sought to leave Melbourne for Nagasaki. The shipping authorities declared the ship uiiseaworthy, but she .got away in defiance of them, with a Filipino crew on boanl and under the Xicaragtian Hag. On her return she entered trade to England under the auspices of a syndicate styled the Australian -Shipping Company. She was taking passengers Home in time for the Coronation at from £.'lß to £45 a head. Last May she put into Perim with her boilers leaking.