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SS Whangape

Whangape was a cargo ship measured at, built in 1899 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co., Middlesbrough.[1] The vessel was constructed for the British Maritime Trust as Adriana, sold while on the slips to Elder, Dempster & Company and renamed Asaba.[2] Her engine was built by T Richardson & Sons, Hartlepool.[3]

"Whangape" (pronounced: fun gah' pay) is a Māori word meaning "waiting for the inside of the pipi."[4] The pipi is a bivalve mollusk native to New Zealand. Whangape was also the sister ship to SS Mont-Blanc, the munitions vessel under French registry that collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo on 6 December 1917 in Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada resulting in the devastating Halifax Explosion.[5] Plans used to build Mont-Blanc were slightly adjusted to build and launch Whangape as few months later.[6][7]

The vessel was completed on 1 March 1900 and sold to the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand.[8] After being chartered by the Royal Australian Navy, she took part in operations against the German colonies in the Pacific with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) during the First World War in 1914 and subsequently returned to her owners. Whangape was sold in 1928 to Chun Young Zan (Moller & Co) and renamed SS Nanking.

Fate

Nanking was scrapped in China in 1935.

External links

References

  1. SS Nanking / Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1933-34 Lloyd's Register Foundation, retrieved 15 June 2019^
  2. Miramar Ship Index R. B. Haworth, retrieved 23 June 2019^
  3. Tees Built Ships Tees Built Ships, retrieved 15 June 2019^
  4. (p. 86) Edwin Stanley Brookes. Frontier Life: Taranaki, New Zealand. With Maps and Sketches H. Brett, Shortland & Fort Streets, 1892^
  5. Joel Zemel, "SS Whangape (1900): A Brief History of SS Mont-Blanc’s Sister Ship", City News Everywhere, News 95.7 Halifax^
  6. Amended Plan of the Midship Section of a Steel Screw Steamer Mont Blanc, 6 May 1898 Lloyd's Register Foundation, retrieved 15 June 2019^
  7. Engine and Boiler Arrangement for Mont Blanc, 6 May 1898 Lloyd's Register Foundation, retrieved 15 June 2019^
  8. SS Nanking / Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1933-34 Lloyd's Register Foundation, retrieved 15 June 2019^