SS Waikato was a refrigerated cargo ship built for the

New Zealand Shipping Company The New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC) was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973. A group of Christchurch businessmen founded the company in 1873, similar ...

. It became famous in 1899, when it was involved in a drifting incident, when it broke down off the South African coast and drifted for 103 days before being discovered and towed to Australia.

Background

The ship was built in 1892, by

William Doxford & Sons William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a British shipbuilding and marine engineering company. History William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 1870 it was based in Pallion, Sunderland, on the River Wea ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

for the New Zealand Shipping Company. It measured long, by wide, and deep. It was designed for trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, its refrigerated chambers had capacity for 70,000 carcases of frozen mutton, and it could also carry six or seven thousand bales of wool. It was powered by a

triple expansion A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

, via a single propeller.

1899 drifting incident

On the night of 5 June 1899, when the ''Waikato'' was on a voyage from London to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, located approximately from Cape Agulhas (the geographic southern tip of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

) the ship's propeller shaft sheared within the stern tube, a location impossible to repair at sea, disabling the ship. Reaching land in a small boat was ruled out as too dangerous, due to the distance and strong currents, and so the crew decided that they had no alternative other than to drift and hope that they would be sighted and put into tow. From then on the ship was adrift for the following 103 days, some days drifting as much as , often drifting in random directions, and doubling back on their previous course. On 28 July the ship was sighted by the

barquentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing r ...

''Takora'', which attempted unsuccessfully to tow the ''Waikato''. On 2 August they sighted a Danish ship, ''Aalbuy'' which refused to tow them, but refreshed their food provisions. Finally, on 15 September the ship was sighted by a tramp steamer ''Asloun'' and taken into tow, where she was taken to

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, arriving on 12 October. By the time the ''Waikato'' was found, it had drifted about in total, and in an easterly direction.

Later history

In 1905, the ship was sold to C. Andersen of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany, and renamed ''Augustus''. In 1911 she was sold to Emil R. Retzlaff of

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin language, Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Po ...

, and then the following year sold again to Fratelli Accame di Luigi of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, Italy, and renamed again ''Teresa Accame''. In 1923 the ship was scrapped at Spezia.

References

External links

{{1899 shipwrecks 1892 ships Maritime incidents in 1899 Steamships of New Zealand Merchant ships of New Zealand Ships built on the River Wear