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Tasi
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Built in Tonsberg, she had a crew of seventeen and was powered by two 1750hp Werkspoor diesels, providing a service speed of 14.5 knots. The propulsion arrangement was unusual in that the two motors were connected to the propeller shaft via a complex gearbox which included some oversized gear wheels, meaning it could run on one engine only.
She was operated by Fred Olsen and Sofrana Line before Warner Pacific Line chartered her from her Vanuatu owners for the Pacific Islands trade. She was subsequently sub-chartered to the Cook Island Line, a joint venture with Warner Pacific, and named "Tasi", which means "one" in Samoan, but was also the name of the son of the Honorary Fakafonua, the local noble of Peter Warner in Tonga.
She had three decks, and was designed for pallet carrying. She was originally a side loader, but the side doors had been welded closed before Warner Pacific took delivery of her, with Sofrana having installed a small freezer in one of the lower holds.
Under Warner Pacific, she would load cement from the Golden Bay Cement Company's Tarakohe outlet as a base cargo before taking on general and freezer cargo at Onehunga or Auckland.
Sadly, on 8 August 1986, en route from Tarakohe to Onehunga, she suffered a sad and premature fate, a victim of cargo shifting in heavy seas near the top of the South Island. The pictures below, extracted from the NZ Herald of the time, tell their own tale - her list is fifty degrees!
She sailed at 0900 under the command of Captain Polong Tau'alupe, and at 1735 she was sixty miles north-east of Farewell Spit sailing in a heavy southerly when some pallets of cement slid from the starboard side of the ship, prompting her to develop a 38 degree list. The chief officer had failed to prop and lash the cargo securely.
Three vessels - "James Cook", "Akebono Maru" and "Pacific Shogun" - came to her aid, the first-mentioned arriving at 0200 on 9 August to find "Tasi" creeping slowly south towards Tasman Bay, inside a line between Farewell Spit and Cape Egmont, and about half-way between the North and South Islands.
Soon after "James Cook"'s arrival, one of "Tasi"'s engines failed, the gear wheel connecting the engines to the shaft having been ruined - not ideal given her predicament, and the ensuing conditions, which were a 50 knot south-easterly gale and a 20 foot sea running. But she was maintaining her stability and in no danger of capsizing, so the convoy continued south.
 Heading for Nelson under escort
At 1700 on 9 August, "Tasi" entered Croiselles Harbour, twenty miles north-east of Nelson, and after anchoring in Squally Cove - her list was now forty degrees, and the port lifeboat almost in the water - was boarded by an inspection party, including the Marine Division's Principal Surveyor of Ships, Captain Steve Ponsford.
 Anchored in Croiselles Harbour while assessments take place
Next morning, work commenced on removing the cement cargo, which involved a barge with a mobile crane, brought in from Havelock, and a helicopter. The crane lifted nets of bagged cement from the ship to the barge, from where the helicopter flew the netted cargo to shore for repalletising and trucking to Nelson.
"Tasi" eventually set off for Nelson to complete the discharging and restowing process, one which was still ongoing in early September, by which time the ship's list had reduced to ten degrees.
By that time, she'd had her engine room pumped out by the Nelson Fire Brigade, the cause of the flooding being a fractured inlet manifold. It never rains ... When finally floating upright, it was found that the stresses had warped the hull, thus misaligning the engines and propeller shaft and damaging the gearbox to the extent that a new one was required, at a cost greater than the ship's worth.
 Alongside at Nelson
She was alongside for over a year in Nelson while insurance matters were resolved and creditors - who were owed $117,000 - were paid off, and eventually departed for Nuku'alofa on 6 November 1987, at a speed of four knots - a voyage which took around a fortnight.
She was subsequently sold for scrap, and broken up in Kaohsiung in May 1988, having been towed there by the former "Ile De Lumiere".
As it turned out, this would have been "Tasi"'s last voyage in New Zealand, regardless of how events unfolded. Upon arrival in Onehunga, as part of their charter agreement, the Triad Maritime Company were going to rename her "Rarotai".
 As this lovely little ship should be remembered Photo copyright G. Ferguson
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Some of the information above is sourced from "Ocean Of Light", the autobiography of Peter Warner, and is used with his kind permission.