Aramoana and sister ship Aranui (pictured) were built to the same basic design |
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Career | |
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Name: | GMV Aramoana |
Namesake: | Māori: Sea Pathway |
Builder: | William Denny & Brothers Ltd, Dumbarton |
Cost: | $NZ 4 million |
Yard number: | 1502 |
Launched: | 24 November 1961[1] |
Completed: | 1961 |
In service: | 13 August 1962 |
Fate: | Laid up 1983, sold 1984 |
Status: | Scrapped at Alang in 1994 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage: | 4,160 GT (gross tonnage) |
Length: | 112.2 m (368 ft) |
Beam: | 18.6 m (61 ft) |
Propulsion: | English Electric six in number 16 cylinder 4 stroke turbocharged 16 CSVM diesel 10" x 21" design 900rpm, service 700rpm. Electric drive to 2 shafts. |
Speed: | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Capacity: | 788 passengers 30 railroad cars 70 automobiles |
Crew: | 90 |
Government Motor Vessel (GMV) Aramoana ("Sea Pathway" in the Māori language) was a roll-on roll-off train ferry operating across the Cook Strait between 1962 and 1983.
Contents |
Aramoana was built in 1961 for the New Zealand Railways Department to introduce a service linking the New Zealand rail network between the North and South Islands. She was the last vessel built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, on the River Clyde.[2] In 1965, she was joined by the similar, but slightly larger, Aranui. In 1978, Aramoana was rebuilt to carry 800 passengers at Port Chalmers, Dunedin.
In 1983, both Aramoana and Aranui were replaced by the significantly larger MV Arahura and were sold to the Najd Trading & Construction Company of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1984. Aramoana was initially renamed Captain Nicolas V and renamed again the following year to Najd II.
Aramoana was finally laid up at the United Arab Emirates port of Ajman in 1993. In 1994, the 32 year old vessel left Ajman towed by a tug and was broken up on Alang beach on the western shore of the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat state, India.
A combined vehicle deck could carry 70 cars and 30 rail wagons.
Aramoana was built to provide a railway service between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, later known as the Interislander. Initially, she provided one round trip per day (except Sunday).[3] In her first year of service, she carried 207,000 passengers, 46,000 cars and 181,000 tonnes of cargo. This was substantially more than her predecessor, the Union Steam Ship Company's ferry Tamahine, which had carried 60,000 passengers, 11,000 cars and 14,000 tonnes of cargo in the final year of service.[4]
In 1985, she carried Moslem pilgrims on the Red Sea.