Built as a sail-steam vessel by the yard of Jas Eltringham at South Shields, England for the Steam Packet Co. Ltd. at Auckland, New Zealand.
1873 Launched under the name SOUTHERN CROSS.
Tonnage 262.50 gross, 138.66nt, dim. 135.2 x 23.7 x 9ft.
Powered by an auxiliary compound steam engine of 50 nhp. (250 hp), speed 8½ knots.
Three masts, ship rigged, one deck.
11 Nov. 1874 registered in Auckland, under command of Captain Francis Holmes.
1878 Sold to Auckland Steam Ship Co. Ltd., Auckland, a one-ship owner. Used in the service between Auckland and the Fiji Islands.
Nov. 1880 there was so much cargo to transport, that a ship of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, the TAIAROA was chartered for one voyage.
When the Auckland Steam Ship Co. Ltd., tried to purchase the TAIAROA, the Union Line refused the offer. The Union Line intentions were to open themselves a service to Fiji.
To manage a one ship company is not so easy, and when the Union Line offered £8.500 for ship and goodwill, the Auckland Steam Ship Co. accepted the offer, and the SOUTHERN CROSS was sold to the Union Steamship of New Zealand in 1881.
1881 Her tonnage given as 282.2 gross, 158.3 net, schooner rigged.
26 September 1881 she made her first voyage from Auckland for the new owners to the Fiji Islands.
1882 Registered at Dunedin, New Zealand.
September 1897 her tonnage given as 295.9 gross, 174.7 net.
During 1897 the Local Government of Tahiti accepted a new law to give subsidy for an inter-island shipping line, later extended to the Marquesas Group. The SOUTHERN CROSS was chartered from the Union Line under the following conditions.
The SOUTHERN CROSS needed to be registered at Tahiti, and under French flag, renamed in CROIX DE SUD. And under this name with homeport Papeete, and as registered owner F.C.R. Cramond the manager of the Union Line office in Tahiti; she was used in that area.
Passenger accommodation for 36 passengers, (24 saloon and 12 fore cabin), sometimes she carried deckpassengers.
When cargo volume increased the CROIX DE SUD was to small, and an other ship of the Union Line the MAWHERA was chartered.
11 June 1901 again registered at Dunedin, and renamed SOUTHERN CROSS by the Union Line. She was thereafter only used as a hulk.
1906 All usable parts removed, and on 24 April 1906 towed to the Cook Strait (the strait between the South and North island of New Zealand) and scuttled.
On Fiji 1980 6c sg 596
Source A Century of Style by N.H. Brewer. New Zealand Ship Register.