Sourced from the collection of D. Wright
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Originally laid down in 1920 at the Dublin Shipbuilders Co Ltd, she was never finished, and was transported to Henry Robb in Leith, where her frames were reassembled and she was built from scratch, with her 620 bhp Fairbanks Morse diesel engine producing a service speed of 8.5 knots.
She became the first ship to be built by Henry Robb for the New Zealand trade, after Captain A.F. Watchlin of Auckland placed an order for her. She was launched on 1 October 1929, and handed over a month later, after which she was placed on the trans-Tasman timber trade.
Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
"Port Waikato" was chartered by Holm & Co. from the Watchlin Shipping Line in 1939 for the Chatham Islands run - she became the only means of communication between this outpost and the New Zealand mainland during World War Two.
Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
In January 1948, the Watchlin company was acquired by the Union Steam Ship Company, and the ship remained on a bareboat charter to Holm for the Chathams run, on which she was largely employed until November 1958, when, on a voyage from the Islands to Lyttelton, she broke down with a cracked cylinder and was towed to her destination by HMNZS Kaniere.
She remained in a state of disrepair and was eventually laid up in Wellington and sold to Lanena Shipping Company in Hong Kong, for where she sailed under tow in February 1959. She was broken up in Hong Kong two years later.
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