Southern Cross (Melanesian Mission ship series)

This ship carried Bishop John Patteson to Nukapu where he was killed, His death was followed by the punitive expedition to the island in 1871 and 1872.

She was built in Auckland at a cost of about £5,000, of which £2,000 was contributed from a fund collected by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in memory of Bishop John Coleridge Patteson.

[citation needed] Southern Cross 4 (British Registry Official Number 98988) was a three-masted schooner, foremast, square-rigged, main and mizzen, fore-and-aft rig.

The ship was built in Wivenhoe, Essex, England by Forrest & Sons in 1891 at a cost about £9,000, which was contributed by Bishop John Richardson Selwyn and others.

This ship was built in Newcastle upon Tyne by Armstrong Whitworth & Co., with £1,000 towards construction contributed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London.

[10] Southern Cross 9 was built in Australia in 1962 at the request of the Bishop of Melanesia, Alfred Thomas Hill.

[citation needed] As of late 2009, the ship was based at the Taroaniara Anglican Mission Station on the Nggela Islands.