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Niuvakai
 Berthing at Onehunga in 1981.
Taken by Chris Howell, www.shipspotting.com
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Built in Rostock, she was powered by one 1650hp Deutz diesel engine, producing a service speed of 12.5 knots. She had accommodation for four passengers.
Initially ordered for a Russian account, she ended up being built for German owners, who operated her in European waters before she was purchased for GBP 196,000 by the Tongan Copra Board in November 1963 to transport coconuts from Tonga to Pago Pago.
This trade did not eventuate, so she was put on the Tonga-Fiji-Australia route, under the management of the Tongan Shipping Agency. She was withdrawn from this service in 1972, but Warner Pacific Line put her to good use on a service from Tonga and Samoa to Los Angeles - her first cargo north was timber - before introducing her on the Pacific Islands run to New Zealand.
Over the next decade, which included a transfer of ownership to Suva's Dolphin Shipping, she made such an impact from Tonga's perspective that in her honour, Tonga's Crown Prince, Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala, christened a multi-purpose island trader with the same name in March 2014.
The original "Niuvakai" was broken up in Kaohsiung in October 1984.
 Sourced from www.shipstamps.co.uk
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