Port Otago has called its new tug Ōtepoti.
The company has a habit of giving new marine fleet vessels the name of historical predecessors.
There have been two New Era dredges, two Otago tugs and a pilot launch and tug that were both named Taiaroa.
Port Otago said in a statement given it was Port Otago’s 150-year anniversary, it felt right to use a name from the company’s history.
Tug Ōtepoti is named after the Otago Harbour Board’s tug Dunedin, launched 111 years ago.
Ōtepoti is the Māori name for the upper harbour area where Dunedin city was developed.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders had a chat with Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou upoko Edward Ellison, and they thought using the te reo version was appropriate.
The original Tug Dunedin was steam-powered and unfortunately "blew her boiler" — so spectacularly that it was condemned and eventually sunk by the USS Mills, which used it as target practice in 1964.
Ōtepoti should fare better, given it has no boiler to blow to pieces.
It is instead powered by the latest Caterpillar 3512 engines.
Tug Ōtepoti’s build in Damen’s Changde shipyard in China was now complete and it leaves for Port Chalmers in about a week.
It is expected to be in Dunedin sometime next month. — Allied Media
