ROTOMAHANA (1879)

Service dates: 1917-1925

Official number: 75224

Shipping lines: UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND

Ship type:

• Cargo Ship

General Cargo Ship.

Career

06.06.1879

Launched.

14.07.1879

Ran trials.

1879

Completed and registered at Dunedin as Rotomahana for Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand at a cost of £58,250. She was then the largest mild steel vessel yet built and the first to be fitted with bilge keels. She was also the first ship in the Pacific to have steam steering gear.

08.08.1879

Maiden voyage London/Cape Town/Melbourne/Port Chalmers/Lyttelton/Wellington.

04.01.1880

During a cruise to show her off at the various ports she touched a rock off the Great Barrier Reef. One plate was dented and a few rivets started; had she been of iron, the smashed plates would have resulted in her loss. She was only out of service for 72 hours.

29.10.1882

Ran aground at the Bluff but without structural damage.

04.08.1883

Grounded off Waipapapa Point.

1885

Joined by Mararoa on the Sydney/Melbourne/Wellington service.

1894

Briefly on the Melbourne/Launceston service.

1899

Placed on the Wellington/Lyttelton overnight service.

1901

Refitted and given 4 modern boilers and her funnel was heightened.

23.01.1901

Collided with Kestrel off Godley Head.

19.12.1903

In a collision with Jessie Niccol at Wellington.

1910

Returned to the Melbourne/Lauceston service.

01.07.1917

Takeover of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand by The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company agreed.

16.12.1920

Replaced by Nairana and laid up at Melbourne. A scheme to preserve her as a museum failed on the grounds of expense.

04.1925

Sold for £1,700 to the shipbreakers Power & Davies, Melbourne. Her hull was stripped.

29.05.1928

Hull sank in Bass Strait 5½km (3½ miles) south-west of Port Phillip.

Ship technical details (PDF)