Shipping Corporation of NZ
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COASTAL RANGER

GRT: 2,926
Net: 801
Dwt: 2,610
Length overall: 366' 4"
Beam: 56' 5"
Draught: 16' 3"

Built: 1967
Builders: Taikoo Dock & Engineering Co. Ltd., Hong Kong

Twin screw roll-on/roll-off cargo vessel (and a relatively handsome one at that) fitted with a stern door (no ramp) and a 15 ton crane.

Engines: 2 x Oil 2SA each 10cy. 500 x 700mm. 8,000bhp by British Ploar Engines.
Service speed: 16.5 knots

Former & Subsequent Names:
As built: Hawea
1976: Coastal Ranger
1979: Iniochos Express II
1985: Broken up at Split.

Built for the Union Steam Ship Co. of NZ Ltd for their new Auckland-Lyttelton-Dunedin-Lyttelton-Auckland weekly roll-on/roll-off cargo service as Hawea. Transferred to the Trans Tasman service in 1972 with Wanaka taking over the coastal run.
Sold to the New Zealand Ministry of Transport in 1976 and run under charter by SCONZ on the Wellington-Lyttelton service as a replacement for the passenger/cargo ferry Rangatira. This was all quite political and the ship provided three return trips per week between the two ports and quite often less. Laid up at Lyttelton in 1978 and during her long sojorn there even managed to appear in a TV car advertisement. One other claim to fame - she was the first in the fleet to wear the new clockwork orange hull colour. She also relieved Coastal Trader while that ship was on survey.
Eventually sold in 1979, she was renamed Iniochos Express II and ran in the Mediterranean until 1985 when she was broken up at Split.
An innovative ship that didn't even last 20 years. Sad.