Country of registration:
Shipbuilder: William Denny & Bros
Build location: Dumbarton
Build year: 1879
Built for: Unknown
LengthxBreadth 83 metres, Tonnage 1652. Passengers 204. Propulsion Single screw steam. Speed 10.9 knots. (Lennox Herald & New Zealand Times, Feb 1880) says .. The Te Anau brings the number up to 17 vessels now belonging to this energetic and prosperous steamship company . . Her fittings and appointments... are luxurious. On the top deck ...officers’ and engineers’ cabins and mess rooms, and a spacious and comfortable room for enjoying ‘the wee’ [a smoke]. There is also an apartment called the Bridal Chamber, fitted up exclusively for young couples taking a tour. .. Then, coming up from the saloon, there is a platform which leads into the special hall, 16 ft long, for the amusement of the passengers. Amongst the furnishings here is an elegant grand piano, surmounted by a large mirror . . . the windows are of stained glass, curtained with red silk curtains, and the lounge sofas are of Utrecht velvet. The lamps, locks, etc of this room, as also of the other rooms, are all of silver. Descending, we come to the saloon, which occupies the whole of the main deck behind the engines, whilst forward for three-fourths of her length are the staterooms for the sleeping accommodation of her passengers. The saloon is fitted up in the Grecian style of decorative art: . . . the double panels are of maple, the mouldings are cedar and satinwood, and there is a band of mahogany between each half panel. The columns are fluted, filled in with gold, whilst the cornices are likewise gilded. Here tables are set down which will accommodate about 90 to dinner. The staterooms, which branch out forward, will accommodate about 130 first-class passengers. Each room has a wash-hand basin...and pneumatic bells communicating with the pantry. The second cabin is situated forward, and gives accommodation to about 85 second-class passengers. [The ship] is built entirely of steel, with watertight bulkheads and a double bottom aft for water ballast.