NIAGARA passenger liner 1913

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The passenger vessel "NIAGARA" was built under yard no 415 on the yard of John Brown Co., Ltd., Clydebank, Glasgow, for the Union Steamship Co of New Zealand, Ltd., London.
17 August 1912 launched under the name "NIAGARA" a break with the tradition of the company to give the vessels Maori names.
Tonnage 13,415 BRT, 7,582 NRT., dim. 165.5 x 20.12 x 11.431tt, length between p.p.159.25m.
Two sets of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, 12.500 ihp., triple screws, speed 17 knots, 4 of her 8 boilers could be burned on coal or oil.
Passenger accommodation for-. 278 first-class, 224 second, and 191 third.
March 1913 completed.

She was specially designed for the Pacific trade between Australasian and the west coast of North America.
14 March 1913 she left for her maiden delivery voyage and arrived in Sydney on 28 April.
05 May left for her first voyage across the Pacific, made calls at Auckland, Honolulu, and arrived at Vancouver on 27 May.
When World War I broke out the NIAGARA was kept in the monthly service across the Pacific.
Between 1920s and the 30s, the NIAGARA connected Fiji with Australia, New Zealand, and Canada on its monthly voyages, when she made call at these islands.
1931 Transferred to the Canadian Australasian Line Ltd., London, (managed by the Union Steamship Comp.) a newly formed company a joint venture between Canadian Pacific and the Union Steamship Co.

In 1935 was in collision with the cargo vessel KING EGBERT in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Vancouver, after temporary repairs at Vancouver she sailed to Sydney.
Her last voyage (voyage 163) was when she arrived in Auckland from Sydney on 17 June 1940, after loading and embarking passengers, she sailed on 18 June bound for Vancouver under command of Capt. W. Martin and a crew of 203, with onboard 146 passengers, general cargo and half of New Zealand’s stock of small arms ammunition, to replace British losses in France. Also included in the cargo stronghold were 295 boxes (590 bars) of gold with a value of about £2,500,000.
When steaming with fine weather in the fairway between Bream Head and Moko Hinau (off Whangarei) on 19 June at 03.40 a.m. a violent explosion occurred, the hatch covers of the forward hold were hurled in the air, and many passengers and crew were thrown from their bunks. Water was rapidly filling the holds, and the order to abandon the ship was given almost immediately.
The crew and passengers left the NIAGARA in 18 lifeboats. At 5.32 a.m. the NIAGARA sank in 70 fathoms of water. Passengers and crew were saved but not until the next morning at 11.00 a.m. when they were picked up by the coastal steamer KAPITI and other small boats.
The NIAGARA was lost due to running on a mine, laid down by the German auxiliary cruiser ORION a few days before.

The gold on board was urgently needed in England to purchase the most needed war material in the U.S.A.
An Australian firm the United Salvage Pty., Ltd. Was given de order to retrieve the gold.
The value of the gold recovered by this company was £ 2,360,000 only 35 bars of gold were left behind.
In April 1953 a British salvage vessel arrived on the scene, and this team onboard the FOREMOST 17 succeeded to recover 30 bars in 79 days. Only 5 bars are still in the wreck, maybe buried in the mud near the vessel.

Fiji 1999 $1 sg1046, scott?

Sources: Passenger ships of Australia & New Zealand by Peter Plowman. A Century of Style by N. H. Brewer. North Star to Southern Cross by John M. Maber. New Zealand Shipwrecks by C.W.N. Ingram.




"NIAGARA" leaking oil
The story about the wreck of "JACOB LUCKENBACH" leaking oil reminds me that New Zealand has it's own version, although not as severe.
From "New Zealand Marine News", journal of the New Zealand Ship & Marine Society:-
"NIAGARA"
Early in 1999 concerns were raised about oil leaking from the wreck of the liner "NIAGARA", mined and sunk on 19th June 1940 on a voyage from Auckland to Suva, Honolulu and Vancouver. Owned by Canadian Australasian Line, of 13,415 BRT tonnage and built in 1913, at 3.40a.m. she struck a mine laid by the German raider "ORION" in the fairway between Bream Head and Moko Hinau Island, and by 5.32a.m. had sunk in 438 feet of water. The epic story of the recovery of gold ingots from the sunken vessel by salvors working from the old steamer "CLAYMORE" between December 1940 and December 1941 is well recorded. The quantity of heavy fuel oil bunkers on board her when she sailed is unknown; her bunker capacity was the equivalent of 4,300 tonnes, but much of this would have been lost when she first sank, with two large holes blasted in her starboard tanks by the initial mine explosion. Subsequent blasting during the salvage operations on her gold would probably have released more, but no mention of any oil appears in the gold salvage story.
However, doubtless a substantial quantity remained on board, and it is this which is leaking from her corroding bunker tanks into the surrounding sea. She is often reported as having sailed "fully fuelled and stored" for her voyage to Vancouver. However, at this period, with the European war raging but with the war with Japan not yet started, she may well have been carrying minimum fuel oil bunkers from New Zealand. She perhaps intended to fill her bunker tanks at Honolulu or Vancouver to give her a round-trip range in order to minimise fuel oil off-take from New Zealand stocks.
Michael Pryce, Wellington, New Zealand