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GMV Aramoana in Wellington Harbour, 1965
History
Name	Aramoana
Namesake	Māori: Sea Pathway
Route	Wellington - Picton
Builder	William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton
Cost	$NZ 4 million
Yard number	1502
Launched	24 November 1961
Completed	1961
In service	13 August 1962
Identification	IMO number: 5021671
Fate	Laid up 1983, sold 1984 Scrapped at Alang in 1994
General characteristics
Tonnage	4,160 GRT
Length	112.2 m (368 ft)
Beam	18.6 m (61 ft)
Draught	4.73 m (15.5 ft)
Installed power	6 × English Electric 16CSVM diesel engine
Propulsion	4 x electric drive motors, 2 per shaft
Speed	19 knots (22 mph)
Capacity	788 passengers 30 rail wagons 70 motor cars
Crew	90

GMV Aramoana (a Māori-language word meaning sea pathway) was a roll-on/roll-off train ferry operating across Cook Strait between 1962 and 1983.

History

Government Motor Vessel (GMV) Aramoana was built in 1961 for the New Zealand Railways Department to link the North and South Island rail networks. She was the last vessel built by William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, on the River Clyde. She arrived from Scotland on 26 July 1962 and entered service on 13 August. In 1965, she was joined by the similar, but slightly larger, Aranui.

On 10 April 1968 Aramoana was the largest of the rescue vessels when TEV Wahine, a New Zealand inter-island ferry of the Union Company, foundered after striking Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Aramoana's two motor lifeboats were lost in the very heavy seas.

In July 1977 Aramoana left Wellington to be rebuilt by Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore to carry 800 passengers to meet the increased traffic, following the withdrawal in 1976 of the Union Company's Wellington to Lyttelton service. It re-entered service in December 1977.

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 renamed Captain Nicolas V, and renamed Najd II the following year.

On 16 July 1992, the Najd II, took on board 240 Chinese illegal immigrants from a beach at Thailand destined for the USA. Sailing east instead the shorter western route they limped to the coast of Africa before finally stopping at Mombasa, Kenya, in September 1992. By then the ship was in too poor a condition to continue and the immigrants eventually were transferred to a second smuggling vessel, the Golden Venture which beached near New York on 6 June 1993.

Aramoana was laid up at the United Arab Emirates port of Ajman in 1993. In 1994 she left Ajman towed by a tug and was broken up on Alang beach on the western shore of the Gulf of Khambhat in India.

Layout

A combined vehicle deck could carry 70 cars and 30 rail wagons on three tracks.

Service

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). 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 its 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.

In 1985 she carried Muslim pilgrims on the Red Sea.

References

1. Stott, Bob (1981). The Cook Strait Ferry Story. Southern Press. p. 44. ISBN 0908616015.
2. Rail-Road Ferry Vessel MV Aramoana Railway Gazette 12 January 1962 pages 45-48
3. Inter-Island Ferry Will Link Islated Rail Systems Railway Transportation May 1962 pages 26-28
4. "MV Aramoana". New Zealand Maritime Index. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
5. Ferry ship service Railway Gazette 31 August 1962 page 245
6. NZR Rail/Road Ferry Placed in Service Railway Transportation September 1962 page 4
7. Robinson, Murray. "The Wahine". Retrieved 26 February 2012.
8. Castell, Marcus (2003–2007). "The Turbo Electric Vessel WAHINE, 1966-1968". The New Zealand Maritime Record. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
9. Aramoana departs Rails September 1977 page 19
10. "New Zealand's Cook Strait Rail Ferries". NZ National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
11. Rail Ferry Refit Network January 1978 page 27
12. New look for Aramoana Rails March 1978 page 16
13. Aramoana up for sale Rails March 1984 page 179
14. Pioneer ferries sold overseas Rails January 1985 page 144
15. The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe
16. New Zealand Rail Ferry Network December 1964 page 2
17. New Zealand's Rail Ferry Australian Transport January 1965 page 35
18. "The floating bridge - Cook Strait ferries". New Zealand History Online. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
19. "Cook Strait Rail Ferries". New Zealand History Online. Retrieved 21 August 2011.

• Cook Strait ferries
• Ships built on the River Clyde
• 1961 ships
• Train ferries