Was interested in this photo of HMNZS Hawea but more particularly the wooden hulled vessel…

Was interested in this photo of HMNZS Hawea but more particularly the wooden hulled vessel Wairua. Remember when Algie was Bosun of the yard and moving Wairua from the corner of the basin to a berth a few metres away and often wondered what she had been and what happened to her. Does anybody else remember her??

Found some info here – With a view to converting them for use as magnetic minesweepers, the Naval Board in June 1942 had got Cabinet authority to purchase two wooden steamers, the Wairua for £25,000 and the Ruawai for £4000.5 On the advice of the Captain Superintendent of the dockyard, however, it was decided not to buy the latter vessel. The Wairua arrived at Lyttelton at the end of August 1942 for conversion and there she remained for more than two and a half years.

In October 1942 orders were given to stop all work on the vessel. The Government had recently requisitioned six coastal vessels for comsopac for use as supply ships in the South Pacific islands and it was thought that the Wairua should be returned to trade. Three months later, however, War Cabinet decided against this and work on the vessel was resumed. Progress was intermittent and slow, and at the beginning of October 1943 work was again stopped, probably for the reason that an additional magnetic minesweeper was quite unnecessary.
The Naval Board then decided that the Wairua should be adapted to service the outlying islands in the Auckland area, but when a prospective purchaser inquired about her, the Board informed the Treasury that it had no objection to the sale. Tenders called for brought one offer of £2500 which was not accepted and the vessel was laid up. In March 1945 the Wairua was sold to the Marine Department for £1000 for use as a ferry steamer between Bluff and Stewart Island. The cost of the purchase and partial conversion of the little vessel was £32,887 17s. 4d., and this sum, less the £1000 paid by the Marine Department, was written off as ‘nugatory expenditure’.

I guess she ended back at the Navy Base when the new Wairua started the run to Stewart Island and was later disposed of..

More here on Minesweepers – http://ift.tt/1DTXMDS


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