THE TAVIUNI SUNK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 87, 3 October 1911, Page 5

THE TAVIUNI SUNK

COLLISION IX SYDNEY HARBOR. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright Received 2, 9.30 p.m. Sydney, October 2. By a collision in the harbor the island steamer Taviuni was sunk by the French mail steamer Nera. The Nera was starting on her outward voyage, and the Taviuni was inward bound. The Nera had its rudder badly twisted, and one plate in the port quarter fractured. The Taviuni's stern is submerged, and she is lying on her port side with her bows above water. i The cargo, including 20,000 bags of copra, is valued at £25,000. Received 3, 1.10 a.m. Sydney, October 2. After the collision the Nera put back for repairs.

The Taviuni was at one time a popular passenger boat in the island trade. Rome time ago, while proceeding to Westport to load coal, she took the ground near the breakwater. After a tremendous amount of work, which included the cutting through of the breakwater, the vessel was re-launched into the Buller river. She was patched up and towed to Dunedin (one of the longest tows undertaken on these coasts by a tug-boat), where she lay idle for a considerable time. A collier was afterwards required, and the Union Company decided to convert the Taviuni into a coal boat,, and her passenger accommodation gave way to cargo space. She wa6 engaged for a time as a relief vessel from the South Island to New Plymouth and the West Coast, and was afterwards transferred to the Islands-Sydney run in the fruit trade. It is said that the repairs to the Taviuni after her sojourn at Westport were a very costly atom, being almost as much as the original cost of the vessel. The sunken vessel's tonnage was 1465.