RUAHINE (From Daily Echo)

RUAHINE

3:51pm Wednesday 31st May 2006 in Historic Ships

For many years the 18,500-ton Ruahine called regularly at Southampton on homeward voyages from New Zealand.

The ship, whose name meant the "Old Lady'' in the Maori language, was ordered soon after the Second World War by the New Zealand Shipping Company and was launched on Clydebank in December, 1950.

Ruahine was slightly smaller version of the post-war Rangitane and Rangitoko, two of her partners on the UK to New Zealand run.

A twin-screw motor-ship, Ruahine could sail at 18 knots and accommodate 267 passengers and carry a large amount of cargo.

Normally she went out and home by the Panama Canal route. Passengers from Australia and New Zealand used to land at Southampton and the ship would then continue to London to discharge cargo.

When container ships, with their much faster turn-around times, were introduced Ruahine became redundant and she was sold in 1968 and renamed Oriental Rio and worked between the Far East and South America.

This was relatively short-lived and in 1973, when the liner was 22-years-old, she was broken up in Taiwan.