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MONOWAI (1890)
Service dates: 1917-1926
Official number: 84497
Shipping lines: UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND
Ship type:
Passenger/Cargo Ship.
Career
- 11.12.1889
- Launched.
- 18.03.1890
- Left the yard for trials.
- 04.04.1890
- Delivered as Monowai for Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand at a cost of £81,624. She steamed Clyde to Port Chalmers, a total of 21,764km (13,524 miles), without stopping.
- 12.1890
- She was the finest passenger ship on the San Francisco service (she had replaced Mararoa).
- 1894
- Her fasted passage from San Francisco delivered the mails from London to Auckland in a record 31 days.
- 10.1894
- Withdrawn to replace the lost ship Wairarapa.
- 1895
- Resumed her trans-Pacific service with Oceanic’s Alameda and Mariposa.
- 1897
- Replaced by Moana. Transferred to the trans-Tasman route.
- 1900
- Trooped New Zealand/South Africa during the Boer War.
- 15.10.1901
- Off Bluff she shed her propeller and drifted.
- 18.10.1901
- When she failed to arrive at Hobart Makoia set out to search for her. Her estimated drift was correct and she was towed into Port Chalmers on 25th October.
- 09.1907
- Suffered engine failure during a voyage from Sydney to Auckland. Again it was Mohoia who found her and towed her into Sydney on 15th September.
- 26.12.1910
- Suffered a fire while at Dunedin.
- 15.08.1914
- Carried troops to Samoa arriving at Apia on August 30th where the German garrison surrendered.
- 01.07.1917
- Takeover of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand by The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company agreed.
- 07.09.1920
- Finished service and laid up at Port Chalmers.
- 1926
- Reduced to a hulk.
- 12.1926
- Towed by Katoa to Gisborne.
- 12.12.1926
- Sunk as a breakwater at Whareongaonga Harbour, Gisborne.