After the steamer Waimana featured in this column a fortnight ago, the Dunedin waterfront scene that appeared in the ODT the following Saturday (100 years ago - from our archives) could not have come at a more appropriate time. For one of the vessels in the illustration was Rangatira.
These two vessels and another named Pakeha were notable in introducing a new generation of refrigerated emigrant/cargo liners to the Shaw, Savill & Albion Company fleet.
All three were Belfast-built, twin-screw, 13.5-knot steamers that had limited first-class passenger berths but could accommodate about 1000 steerage passengers in the tween decks.
To recap, Waimana, the third to enter service, was handed over from the Workman, Clark yard in November, 1911. Here for the last time in September, 1951, it arrived at Milford Haven on January 27, 1952, to be broken up by T.W. Ward.
Pakeha was handed over by Harland and Wolff in August, 1910. Like Waimana, it was also mocked up to resemble a Royal Sovereign class battleship early in World War 2. Of the steamer's four postwar visits to this harbour, three were made to Port Chalmers and the final one to Dunedin on September 12, 1948. It also was broken up by T.W. Ward, but at their Briton Ferry yard, where it arrived on May 3, 1950.
Both of these ships enjoyed interesting careers, with life-spans of 40 years that included surviving two world wars. But the career of Rangatira, the first of the trio to enter service and the second ship of the name in the fleet, was of much shorter duration.
Workman, Clark handed over this 10,118gt steamer, several years later given as 7469gt, in February, 1910. The ship served in the role for which it was built until it arrived in Sydney in the early stages of World War 1. There, it was converted into a transport by the naval dockyard.
By early 1916, the ship was back to cargo-carrying duties. A few weeks later, one of the engineers is said to have noticed that it was to commence its 13th voyage on a Friday. Apparently he was told to keep this discovery to himself, as nobody else appeared to have thought about it.
And so Rangatira, loaded with one of the biggest general cargoes to be put into a vessel for Tasmania and New Zealand, left London on its ill-fated voyage.
On March 30, 1916, it went aground on Robben Island at the entrance to Cape Town harbour, and became a constructive total loss. The ship lay there for about five months before it started to break up. During this period, it had been possible to salve a large amount of the cargo.
Besides the Shaw, Savill trio there was a fourth steamer, the slightly larger 10,898gt Zealandic, completed for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff in October, 1911.
Chartered by the Aberdeen Line in 1926 as Mamilius, it joined the Shaw, Savill fleet as Mamari in 1932.
Bought by the Admiralty at the outbreak of war, it followed a similar path to Pakeha and Waimana, which were converted into dummy battleships. But in the case of Mamari, it was altered to resemble the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes.
Decoy duties over, the vessel was proceeding to a shipyard for conversion back to a refrigerated cargo vessel when it was wrecked off the East Anglian coast on June 4, 1941.
