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Guardian Carrier
 Leaving Onehunga - Taken by Chris Howell, www.shipspotting.com
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Buit at Grangemouth as a general cargo vessel, she was powered by two six-cylinder diesel engines which produced 1235hp, and a service speed of 10 knots.
She was chartered from West River Shipping, a joint venture between Tunnel Portland Cement Company, William Cory & Son and F.T. Everard & Sons, in 1963, and converted to a bulk cement carrier, entering the trade for NZ Cement Holdings' subsidiary company, Guardian Cement Co., in 1964.
 Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
One of her earliest jobs entailed shipping cement to Deep Cove, Doubtful Sound, for use in the Lake Manapouri power project.
She was registered in London until 1967, which was when NZ Cement Holdings acquired her and re-registered her in Dunedin.
 Sourced from Nelson Photo News
She could carry 1625 tonnes of cement, and did so regularly until the arrivial of "Milburn Carrier" in May 1972. After this, "GC" operated in a relieving capacity until being laid up for sale in Nelson on arrival from Onehunga on 21 January 1975.
 Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
A further two years elapsed before she changed hands, with Canada's St Lawrence Cement Company renaming her "Robert Koch" and putting her into service between Clarkson, Lake Ontario, and Buffalo, Lake Erie, via the Welland Canal.
She initially departed Nelson for her new career on 7 April, but returned the next day with engine trouble, eventually leaving New Zealand behind for good on 16 April 1977.
 She was converted to a barge in 1984, and had a notch cut into her stern to enable her to be propelled by a pusher tug. It was when she was being pulled by a tug, while carrying 2000 tons of cement approaching Oswego on 15 December 1985, that she broke free of her tow in heavy seas, eventually grounding on a rocky mud-covered shelf at Sheldon's Point.
The pounding of the heavy seas soon took their toll, with severe hull damage resulting in water ingress into her holds. When the engine room flooded, she settled on the bottom in sixteen feet of water, and given the time of year her superstructure became ice-laden.
4000 gallons of bunker oil were able to be extracted before she was declared a total loss. She was broken up at Levis in 1987.
 Sourced from the Transpress NZ Blogspot
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