TEV Rangatira (1971) Informations

TEV Rangatira was a roll-on/roll-off vehicle and passenger ferry launched in 1971 for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. She is significant for having been the Worlds last surviving passenger ship with steam-powered turbo-electric transmission. (Modern turbo-electric ships, including RMS Queen Mary 2 and Millennium-class cruise ships such as Celebrity Millennium, have gas turbines.)

Rangatira had a varied existence, including six years 1977–83 as an accommodation ship and barracks ship. The Union Company sold her in 1986 and she returned to being a ferry. From 1986 onwards she passed through a succession of owners who renamed her three times and registered her under three different flags of convenience: as Queen M in 1986,Carlo R in 1990 and Alexander the Great in 2001.

After a failed attempt to convert the vessel into a cruise ship she was scrapped in 2005.

Rangatira is Māori for "chief (male or female), wellborn, noble". The 1971 ship is at least the sixth to carry the name. The first Rangatira was in service between Great Britain and New Zealand by 1857. The second was an iron-hulled steamship built in 1863 and wrecked in 1880. The third was a Shaw Savill Line steamship built in 1890 and sold and renamed in 1909. The fourth was a Shaw Savill Line steamship built in 1909 and wrecked in 1916. The fifth was the Union Company ferry TEV Rangatira (1930), a turbo-electric ship that was in service from 1931 to 1967.

The Union Company ordered the new Rangatira from Swan Hunter of Wallsend in Tyneside, England on 15 May 1969. She was launched on 23 June 1971 by June Blundell and undertook initial sea trials on 20 September or 20 December. Her completion was delayed by an industrial dispute at Swan Hunter so she was fitted out at Southampton, England. She was delivered to Union Steam Ship Company (UK) Ltd in January 1972 and sailed from England on 16 February carrying a cargo of motor cars. On 18 March she reached Wellington, New Zealand and discharged her cargo.

The new Rangatira had turbo-electric transmission, with twin turbo generators and electric propulsion motors built by AEI of Manchester. In addition she had bow thrusters for easier berthing. Compared with the more common reduction gearing between steam turbines and propeller shafts, turbo-electric transmission has lower energy conversion efficiency and an inferior power-to-weight ratio. But it gives quicker manoeuvrability, being able to change propeller speed more quickly and also give full power astern if needed.

Rangatira was built with capacity for 768 passengers (159 fewer than her predecessor TEV Wahine) and 200 vehicles.Rangatiras overnight cabins included one 6-berth, one 10-berth and one 12-berth dormitories.

The new Rangatira was to work the 200-nautical-mile (370 km) "Steamer Express" route between Wellington on the North Island and Lyttelton on the South Island, replacing the TEV Wahine that had been wrecked in Cyclone Giselle in 1968. On 28 March 1972 she made her first voyage from Wellington across Cook Strait and along the South Island east coast to Lyttelton. On this first trip she carried a full complement of 768 passengers.

As soon as the new Rangatira was in service, the TEV Maori was withdrawn and work began to strip her of equipment. However, on 18 September Rangatira developed a serious fault with her port turbine, reached Wellington at reduced speed two and a half hours late and had to be taken out of service for repairs. The Maori was quickly re-equipped and on 20 September was returned to service until Rangatiras repairs were complete and she able to resume duty on 16 October.

On 19 June 1973 Rangatira damaged her port rudder and propeller while berthing at Lyttelton. She was taken out of service for repairs, drydocked at Wellington on 20 June and returned to service on 2 July.

On 30 October 1973 Rangatira was en route from Lyttelton to Wellington when her starboard turbine suffered damage to a thrust bearing and a rotor. She reached Wellington over two hours late but was repaired and returned to service on 2 November.

For almost a decade the Steamer Express route had lost traffic between the North and South islands to its competitors. In 1962 New Zealand Railways had introduced its Cook Strait rail ferries on the 55-nautical-mile (102 km) route between Wellington and Picton, offering a much shorter sea crossing for freight and cars. Domestic aviation between the two islands was also expanding and becoming more affordable, especially after the National Airways Corporation (now part of Air New Zealand) introduced Boeing 737 aircraft in 1968.

Before the loss of the Wahine in 1968, the Maori and the Wahine were used to provide a regular two-ship overnight service between Wellington and Lyttleton with one ship departing from each port every night and arriving early the next day at the other port. Following the loss of the Wahine, the Maori, and after 1972 the Rangatira, provided a single ship service with a night crossing in one direction followed by a day crossing in the opposite direction. The day crossings proved to be very unpopular with passengers and the less frequent and irregular service was unpopular with both passengers and freight shippers. The perception created by the loss of the Wahine that the Lyttelton to Wellington ferry service was a less safe option hastened the decline of passenger numbers.

Rangatiras long route and the high fuel consumption of her turbo-electric propulsion made her uncompetitive from the start. Running her on the Steamer Express resulted in substantial losses, which by 1974 were at a rate of NZ$4 million a year. On 1 July 1974 the NZ Ministry of Transport chartered Rangatira for six months in order to keep the service running, and on 16 February 1975 the ministry renewed her charter for 12 months. In the 12 months to 31 January 1976 Rangatira earnt NZ$6.3 million but had cost NZ$10 million to operate. on 3 March 1976 Ministry of Transport renewed the charter "for a short period" until a more affordable replacement ship could be brought into service.

Rangatira worked the Steamer Express for four and a half years. In that time she made 2,096 crossings and carried a total of 832,260 passengers and 139,656 vehicles. However, that meant that her average loading per crossing was only 397 passengers (just over half capacity) and 67 vehicles (about one-third capacity).

On 14 September 1976 Rangatira left Lyttelton on her last inter-island crossing, reaching Wellington the next day. She was not replaced on the route: her withdrawal was the end of the Steamer Express service.

The Union Company hoped to sell Rangatira and thought it more likely to find a buyer for her in Europe than in New Zealand. Therefore, on 17 September 1976 she left Wellington to return to Britain to be laid up. She sailed via Papeete on Tahiti and through the Panama Canal, reaching Falmouth, Cornwall, England on 17 October.

In 1977 a Norwegian company, Sea Truck Trading of Stavanger, chartered Rangatira to be an accommodation ship in for workers building an oil platform at the Kishorn Yard in Loch Kishorn, Scotland.Rangatira was not an ideal accommodation ship, as her cabins were designed for overnight use rather than long-term residence. However, modifications for her new function were limited to alteration of her cafeteria. Then she left Falmouth on 12 March, reaching Loch Kishorn on 14 March.

Rangatira was in use in Loch Kishorn until May 1978. She visited Glasgow to be surveyed in October–November 1977 and again on 25 May 1978, when her charter to Sea Truck came to an end. On 18 March 1978 in Loch Kishorn the coastal tanker BP Springer collided with her, causing minor damage.

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