the 'Rotomahana'

One of the USSCo ships, this was the first seagoing passenger ship built of mild steel, in 1879, by William Denny & Brothers. She was fitted with bilge keels for stability and in her day was the fastest ship in Australasian waters at 15.5 knots; dubbed the ‘Greyhound of the Pacific’. The Rotomahana paid her way on the trans-Tasman service, but so did slower ships that cost barely more than half her building price, so no similar ships were built. She was laid up in 1920 at Melbourne, sold to shipbreakers Power & Davies in 1925 and stripped. The hull was eventually scuttled in 1928 in Bass Strait.

The tonnage was 1,727 and length 90.9 metres (298 ft).