AITO harbour tug and MEHERIO

[aukepalmhof]

The tug depict on this stamp is identified as the AITO.
Built as a tug under yard No 108 by S.I.C.C., St Malo for the Port Autonome Papeete, Tahiti.
Tonnage 171 grt, dim. 26.62 x 7.68 x 4.12m.
One KHD engine ?hp, speed 11.5 knots.
1996 Completed under the name AITO.

20 November 1994 wrecked on the Caroline Atoll.

Source: Watercraft Philately 1992/51. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz
Compendium of Australasian Merchant Ships 1831-2008 by R. Tompkins.

The two ships, one on the slipway the other near is given by Log Book that the vessel on the slip is the MEHERIO, the other looks the same most probably a sister, but can not find a name. The vessel off the slipway is sitting on piles and it looks she is used as an office by the yard and can not be moved
There are more vessels under the name MEHERIO sailing in the Pacific the II and III but she were built in 1981 and 1989 after the stamp was issued.

She was built as a cargo- passenger ship under yard No.chd2 by the yard of Varnier in Rouen, France for the Govt. Generale de la Polynesie Francaise.
10 June 1960 launched as the MEHERIO (1) (Siren)
Tonnage 194 grt tons, dim. 38.74 x 8.19 x1.25m.
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2010 In service IMO No 5230868, owned by French Polynesia Govt. Ports, Papeete, Tahiti.

( Log Book 7/96 gives that she was a LCT built in 1954, but not any ship given under that name and built in 1954 I can find, maybe she is the vessel on the piles.)

French Polynesia 1972 28fr sg153, scottC83.

http://www. Equasis.org http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Compendium of Australasian Merchant Ships 1831-2008 by R. Tompkins.