After a 15-day visit, the Federal Steam Navigation Company's 10,984gt Durham sailed on January 8, 1965, on its final visit to Port Chalmers.
And on that call the ship secured a place in history as being the last Workman, Clark-built visitor to this harbour.
Durham is probably best remembered for serving in three periods of its career as a ship accommodating 40 cadets. But it was one of the last vessels to be built at Belfast by Workman, Clark.
The first of two sister ships (Yard Nos 533 and 534) ordered by Federal, Durham was delivered on September 21, 1934.
Sister ship Dorset, handed over on November 9, 1934, was bombed and sunk by aircraft on August 13, 1942, southeast of Cape Bon on passage from Gourock in that epic August 1942 convoy to Malta.
Durham remained in the fleet until November 1965, when it was sold to Greek buyers and renamed Rion on the Liberian register.
The ship arrived at Kaohsiung for demolition on March 26, 1966.
By then, there were only about a dozen other Workman, Clark-built vessels still trading.
The yard was established in 1880 by George Clark and Francis Workman.
The yard pioneered the development of the Charles Parsons steam turbine and, between 1905-13, inclusive, annual output placed them among the top five United Kingdom shipbuilding firms on four occasions.
The yard also established a reputation for high-class refrigerated cargo liners.
During the 1920s, the yard was beset by financial problems and in 1927 was forced into temporary liquidation.
The following year, a new company, Workman Clark (1928) Ltd, was formed.
Over the next few years, this succeeded in receiving quite a flow of orders.
But with the delivery of the tanker Acavus in January 1935, the yard was left with no further work and was closed down. Subsequently, the South Yard and engine works were taken over by Harland and Wolff while the rest of the facility was dismantled.
Incidentally, Acavus Durham was one of 14 of these builders' products that made 72 calls here from 1947.
Oldest were Shaw, Savill's Waimana of 1911 and the 1917-built sisters Mahana and Mahia. Completions from 1929-30 were Ellerman's City of Sydney and the Bank Line's Deebank, Forthbank, Irisbank, Taybank and Tweedbank.
Acavus also called and was in port at Dunedin on November 11-12, 1949.
The remainder were the Port Line's steamer Port Campbell (1922) and the motor ships Port Dunedin (1925) and Port Fremantle (1927).
These three vessels followed a long line of vessels built by Workman, Clark for two of the four companies that amalgamated to form the Commonwealth and Dominion Line Ltd (later the Port Line Ltd), which was registered at London on January 23, 1914.
One of these companies, the Tyser Line Ltd, took delivery of eight steamers from Workman, Clark from 1900-12.
Eleven others built between 1887 and 1914 were ordered by James P.
Corry and Company.
The last of these to be built, both large ships for their time, were the 9152gt Star of Victoria, completed in January 1914, and the 9136gt Star of England, delivered three months later.
Renamed Port Melbourne and Port Sydney respectively in 1916, they remained in the Port Line fleet until sold for demolition in 1948.
The initial C&D Line fleet contained the eight Tyser vessels and five from the Corry fleet.
With the exception of one that became a war loss, all adopted the William Milburn nomenclature of using the prefix Port in 1916.
The last Workman, Clark contributions to the fleet, were nine steamers, Ports Darwin, Denison, Bowen, Caroline, Curtis, Campbell, Auckland, Brisbane, and Wellington, completed in that order from 1918-24, plus the abovementioned motor vessels.
