The above image, from the collection of maritime historian Reuben Goossens, is of the twin-screw cruise liner m.v.Wanganella bearing the livery, comprising two narrow silver hoops situated high up on black funnels, of Hong Kong’s Hang Fung Shipping and Trading Company Limited (恒豐有限公司). This luxury liner was manufactured by Harland and Wolff of Belfast, and launched as the m.v.Achimota on December 17, 1929. In September 1932 she was purchased by Huddart Parker Ltd of Melbourne Australia and renamed the m.v.Wanganella. Following a thirty-year long career as a trans-Tasman cruise liner and hospital ship during the war, she was, on 15 August 1962, taken over by Hang Fung of Hong Kong. Under the direction of Hang Fung’s manager, Paul D. Alderton, the Wanganella was then re-registered in Hong Kong and re-painted in the Hang Fung colours. Re-crewed with 36 European officers and 120 Hong Kong Chinese stewards and other crew-members, she began operating as a Hong Kong based Pacific cruise liner. However, due to the Sydney based parent company’s sudden desire to divest themselves of their shipping assets to once more concentrate on their core business as scrap metal merchants, the Wanganella was subsequently sold on to new owners in mid-1963, and their Hong Kong subsidiary, Hang Fung Shipping and Trading Company Limited, was gradually wound down. During her short-lived time under the management of Hang Fung’s Paul D. Alderton it was remarked on how well-maintained she was, and how smart she always looked; an observation that is much in evidence in the above image.
See also: 1962 - Paul D. Alderton and the s.s.Tung Feng | Gwulo