SS Waikato
SS Waikato was a refrigerated cargo ship built for the New Zealand Shipping Company. She became famous in 1899, when she was involved in a drifting incident, when she broke down off the South African coast and drifted for 103 days before being discovered and towed to Australia.
Background
The ship was built in 1892, by William Doxford & Sons of Sunderland for the New Zealand Shipping Company. She measured long, by wide, and deep. She was designed for trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, her refrigerated chambers had capacity for 70,000 carcases of frozen mutton, and she could also carry six or seven thousand bales of wool.She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine, via a single propeller.
1899 drifting incident
On the night of 5 June 1899, when the Waikato was on a voyage from London to Wellington, located approximately from Cape Agulhas the ship's propeller shaft sheared within the stern tube, a location impossible to repair at sea, disabling the ship. Reaching land in a small boat was ruled out as too dangerous, due to the distance and strong currents, and so the crew decided that they had no alternative other than to drift and hope that they would be sighted and put into tow.From then on the ship was adrift for the following 103 days, some days drifting as much as, often drifting in random directions, and doubling back on their previous course. On 28 July the ship was sighted by the barquentine Takora, which attempted unsuccessfully to tow the Waikato. On 2 August they sighted a Danish ship, Aalbuy which refused to tow them, but refreshed their food provisions. Finally, on 15 September the ship was sighted by a tramp steamer Asloun and taken into tow, where she was taken to Fremantle, Western Australia, arriving on 12 October. By the time the Waikato was found, she had drifted about in total, and in an easterly direction.