[4] It was designed for trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, its refrigerated chambers had capacity for 70,000 carcases of frozen mutton, and it could also carry six or seven thousand bales of wool.

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.

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.

When at last steam was shut off, and an examination made, it was found that the tail-shaft had snapped in the stern tube in a place impossible to repair at sea without' cutting the stern-tube and tipping the ship, an experiment our engineers would not risk in such a rough and unsettled part of the ocean.

The Waikato carried a fair amount of square sail on her foremast, and we were able to rig a small jury mast as a main mast, but they might just as well have been set on the flagstaff, as they were continually blowing away without giving the ship steerage-way and, though several sea-anchors were tried, none of them were successful in keeping the ship's head to sea, and she drifted broadside, to the seas' rolling continually.

"At the time of our breakdown we were 120 miles from Cape Agulhas, and suggestions-were made that a boat should be sent to try and make for the coast, but the captain and officers thought that it would be almost impossible to reach land against the strong Agulhas current that runs down the South African coast, past Port Natal, East London; and Algoa Bay, so there was nothing for it but to wait in hope of being picked up.

Oil was used with very good effect when the seas were extra high".In 1905, the ship was sold to C. Andersen of Hamburg, Germany, and renamed Augustus.