Taranaki, 1126 tons, 228.2 feet length, 35.2 feet beam, 20.9 feet depth.
Lyttelton, 1111 tons, 223.8 feet length, 35.0 feet beam, 21.0 feet depth.
Westland, 1116 tons, 222.8 feet length, 35.1 feet beam, 21 feet depth.
Of the three, Westland was the fastest; in fact, many people considered her to be the fastest of the Shaw, Savill & Albion fleet. One of her best performances was a run of 72 days from Bluff Harbour to the Lizard, where she reported on 31st March, 1895.
Taranaki was sold to the Italians, when Shaw, Savill parted with their sailers, and, owned in Genoa, was still afloat when the Great War burst on Europe. The Lyttelton struck on an uncharted rock outside Timaru, when leaving homeward bound. Westland went to the Norwegians, she put into Moss, leaking, and was condemned there.
“Lutterworth” and “Lady Jocelyn.”
Besides the ships specially built for them, Shaw, Savill occasionally bought a ship; of these probably the best known were the Lutterworth and Lady Jocelyn.
The Lutterworth was a fast little iron barque of 883 tons, built by Denton, of Hartlepool, in 1868. Shaw, Savill & Co. sold her eventually to Turnbull & Co., of Lyttelton, N.Z. Whilst on a passage from Timaru to Kaipara in ballast, she was dismasted and abandoned in Cook Straits. She was, however, picked up as a derelict and towed into Wellington, where she was converted into a coal hulk.
The Lady Jocelyn was one of those early auxiliary steamers, which always seem to have had long and adventurous careers. She was originally the Brazil, owned by the General Screw Steamship Company, and was built as far back as 1852 by Mare, of London, her measurements being—2138 tons; 254 feet length, 39 feet beam, 24.9 feet depth. Of iron construction, she had a spar deck above her two decks, and no expense was spared in her construction.
As an auxiliary steamer, like most of her kind, she proved to be a money-eater, and when after a few years the company went into liquidation she was bought by Shaw, Savill and put into their emigrant trade as a sailing ship. Then as passengers began to desert the clipper for steam, freezing machinery was put aboard her. Finally Shaw, Savill laid her up in the West India Docks, and used her as a frozen meat store ship, for which owing to her size and the freezing machinery aboard she was well adapted.