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Kali
Built
1959
LR No.
5282067
Gross
2880
Net
1412
Dimensions
100.18m x 13.26m
Registered
Nuku'alofa
First Arrival
9 April 1985
Last Sailing
16 June 1988
Names
Poolta
Kali
Ali
Mahan
Sublime
Blue Pearl
Ocean Success
Years
1959-85
1985-88
1988-89
1989-90
1990-92
1992-95
1995-99

Built in Leith for Union Company, she was launched on 10 March 1959 and is powered by one 1750hp G. Clark & NEM diesel, producing a service speed of 11 knots.

She has three 10 tonne derricks, which were replaced by cranes when she was lengthened by 18.29 metres at the Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong in 1968 and converted into a unit load and container carrier.

Photographed as "Poolta". Sourced from the USSCo Facebook page

Union employed her in the Australian mainland / Tasmanian trade while sporting their flag on her flagstaff, but on 30 April 1976 "Poolta" changed hands, Bulkships Container Pty Ltd acquiring the ship.

Warner Pacific Line took over management of the vessel when she came into Segment Holding's ownership via bareboat charter in 1985, and, crewed by nine Tongans, she served on the Pacific Islands trade for four years, with tallow a regular cargo loaded at Onehunga for the journey north, after taking on bagged cement at Westport.

Photographed as "Poolta". Sourced from USSCo Facebook page

"Kali" served the Cook Islands run in her latter years, but was withdrawn from the service after hitting a rock near the Kermadec Islands in 1988, a bent tailshaft, propeller and rudder the price paid for fishing by trolling close to the reefs in the area.

She limped into Auckland, where temporary repairs were carried out. The cost was uneconomical, however, so Hetherington Kingsbury, the vessel's charterers, sold the ship to United Arab Emirates interests. There was a sting in the tail, however.

Renamed "Ali", and still crewed by some of Warner's Tongan crew, she proceeded to the outer anchorage at Auckland, and remained there until financial matters were settled to Warner's satisfaction before resuming her voyage to The Gulf, from where her crew flew home to Tonga.

She was broken up in Alang in June 1999.
Some of the information above is sourced from "Ocean Of Light", the autobiography of Peter Warner, and is used with his kind permission.

Sourced from the Union Steam Ship Company Facebook page



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