EMPIRE JANE
Shipbuildervessel built by
Alexander HALL & Co.
(Footdee, Aberdeen)
Date1944
Object NameTUG
MediumSTEEL
ClassificationsShip
Dimensionslength 105 3/12' x breadth 27 1/12' x depth 12 3/6'
Gross Tonnage: 232 ton
Gross Tonnage: 232 ton
Object numberABDSHIP001585
Keywords
Yard Number: 699
Subsequent Name: TAIOMA
Fate: scuttled Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, 19 March 2000.
Propulsion: Steam
Description: Empire class tug
Owners:
1944: Ministry of War Transport
General History:
Brought to New Zealand for use in Wellington Harbour. Owned by Union Steamship Co., sold to British Petroleum (NZ) Ltd. in 1975 and operated at Wellington Harbour until laid up in December 1977. TAIOMA was one of the first tugs on hand when the Lyttleton - Wellington ferry T.E.V. WAHINE ran aground in 1968.
Donated by Sir Bob Owens to be preserved onshore at Tauranga Historic Village as a memorial to the merchant service's war dead in 1979 until scuttled as an artificial diving reef on 19th March 2000 off Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Dive New Zealand, Team Taioma by Angie Belcher:
'A lone bugler played the Last Post as the last crew of the TAIOMA climbed into an inflatable and moved away from the tug. Ever so slowly and gracefully the tug sank lower and lower in the water. It was a rather moving burial at sea. Then with a final gush, a flick of the stern and a last puff of black soot from the funnel, the waters wrapped around the TAIOMA. She sank upright and proud to the sandy bottom 27 metres below.'
Divers report that it is now possible to swim down the funnel and into the engine room.
Notes: Triple expansion engines with 16", 25" and 42" cylinders, 27" stroke. Boiler 16'0" diameter, 11'6" length, 200 lb. pressure (Builder's List in the Lloyd's Library of the Aberdeen Maritime Museum)
1862
