Moved from passenger vessels to Harbour Overview. The ship is a minor part of the photograph. DAS, Admin

View of Tauranga with
MATANGI ex MOURILYAN (1)

Australia

1908 - 1952

1,349 gross tons.

Lb: 220'7" x 36'2". (67.3 x 11 metres) Steel hull, twin screw steamship, passenger-cargo. Triple expansion engine making 11.5 knots.

Built by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Linthouse Glasgow for Howard Smith Co Ltd, Melbourne. Designed for the feeder passenger service from Townsville to the northern Queensland ports.

She was found to be of too deep a draught for some of the river ports as scheduled ports of call. She was chartered to AUSN to operate their Townsville/Cairns feeder service to that Company's main trunk line route from Townsville to Melbourne.

AUSN then placed one of their ships on the intended "Mourilyan" route. After that charter she saw sevice Melbourne to Warnambool, then variously in Queensland before being sold to the Northern Steamship Co., a New Zealand concern in 1923, and renamed Matangi.

Sold to another New Zealand Company, the Anchor Line (Anchor Shipping & Foundry Co, Nelson) in 1929. Unfit for further service she was laid up in 1950. Partially dismantled in 1952, hull left in tow 4 March 1957 for scrapping at Hong Kong

Details: Flotilla Australia

Photo Credits: The late Don Ross Collection/The Alexander Turnbull Library Nz

Cheers and GB

Gordy