Built as passenger- cargo vessel under yard No 285 by the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company, Hong Kong for the Government of Fiji at Suva, as the Governor General yacht.
1939 Launched under the name VITI, she was named after the original name of Fiji.
Tonnage 676 grt, 307 net, 440 dwt., dim. 51.05 x 9.93 x 4.29m. (draught), length bpp. 48.52m.
Powered by two 5-cyl. Taikoo Sulzer diesel engine, 550 bhp., twin screws speed 10 knots, during trial reached a speed of 12.4 knots.
Consumption 4.7 tons of fuel oil a day full speed.
Accommodation for 8 officers, 30 crew and 30 passengers.
July 1940 delivered, total building and delivery cost to Fiji £97.000.
Homeport Suva.
She was built for the inter-island service in the South-west Pacific region, administered by the Western Pacific High Commission at Suva, Fiji.
17 April 1941 hired by the Royal Navy of New Zealand, refitted in an auxiliary patrol vessel.
Armament 1 – 4 inch gun, 2 – 3pdr. guns and a couple of Bren MG.
Crew 55 under command of Comdr. James Mullins.
During World War II used for patrol and mine sweeping duties around Fiji.
February 1948 sold to Tasman Steam Ship Company Ltd., Auckland for £27.000, and arrived 28 May 1948 at Auckland.
Refitted a second hold was fitted in with refrigeration equipment, and could carry thereafter 200 tons of frozen cargo with a temperature -20 degree Celsius.
22 October 1948 sailed from Auckland for Sydney with a cargo of frozen fish, thereafter used regular between New Zealand and Australia.
After 1954 chartered sometimes by New Zealand Governments Departments.
09 September 1961 arrived at Auckland from Ballina, N,S,W. with a two foot hole in her bow, she got the hole when she ran on to a rock off the Whangerei harbour heads.
The next five years with a succession of owners and creditors she lay idle on the Auckland waterfront.
October 1961 sold by tender to C.A. Odell, Suva.
1963 Her owner is given as J.J. Enwright, of Seafoods Ltd., Whangarei/Suva.
19 March 1966 dry-docked at Devonport for six days; ten sold to M.J.Batty & Co. (Panama) Ltd., Panama and renamed AUDREY B
09 November 1966 towed to Whangarei by the tug OTAPIRI, where she was refitted.
She left then for Hong Kong and thereafter as reported worked in small ports at Thailand and Vietnam.
1969 Vessel derelect at Bangkok and no longer commercially useable.
1986 Was she deleted from Lloyds Register.
On Fiji 2005 83c sg?
The stamp you can find on http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/marken0510.htm
Source: http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/viti.htm Ships of the Royal Navy vol II by Colledge. The Era of Coastal Shipping in New Zealand. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/show/181919