Otago was built by Lobnitz and Co on the Clyde. I had heard that the OHB bought her on the stocks and she worked in Dunedin from 1958. She was up to the minute for steam ships -oil fired water tube boilers and fully enclosed triple expansion engines (quite boring in the engine room for a steam enthusiast).
When OHB finally pensioned her off in the '70s, she lay unwanted for some time and then Burns Hubber bought her via NZ South Fish Export Co and she had a big refit in Lyttleton.
BP chartered her to survey the oil pipeline and other jobs off Taranaki for a goodly sum but the jobs for a big steamer on the coast dried up. She came to Auckland and scuttlebutt circuited that she was to be used for various salvage jobs on old shpwrecks but nothing eventured.
Her machinery was removed and two diesels sat on the aft deck for some years to no avail.
She then was shifted from pillar to post offending a succession of local bodies until, while laying in a river up the firth of Thames, time ran out and she was seized, de-oiled and sunk in he usual old ship burial place off Cape Colville.
She joined a lot of mates.
BP chartered her to survey the oil pipeline and other jobs off Taranaki for a goodly sum but the jobs for a big steamer on the coast dried up. She came to Auckland and scuttlebutt circuited that she was to be used for various salvage jobs on old shpwrecks but nothing eventured.
Her machinery was removed and two diesels sat on the aft deck for some years to no avail.
She then was shifted from pillar to post offending a succession of local bodies until, while laying in a river up the firth of Thames, time ran out and she was seized, de-oiled and sunk in he usual old ship burial place off Cape Colville.
She joined a lot of mates.
