Item #CL194-114 RMS “Niagara”. Reginald Arthur Borstel, Aust.
RMS “Niagara”
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RMS “Niagara”

c1917. Oil on canvas, signed and captioned lower left and centre, 53 x 66.5cm. Crazing, slight stains. Original frame.

Owned by the Union Steam Ship Company, the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Niagara, an ocean liner launched in 1912, was intended for the Australia–Vancouver, Canada service. She was nicknamed the “Titanic of the Pacific” due to her size (13,415 tons) and “speed at transporting mail and passengers between New Zealand, Fiji and Canada.” However, after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, she was renamed “Queen of the Pacific.”

In June 1940, while carrying a secret consignment of gold from the Bank of England to support the British war effort, the Niagara struck a mine off the coast of Auckland and sunk. No lives were lost, and in 1941 a salvage team recovered 555 gold bars. In 1953 a further 30 gold bars were recovered, leaving only five unaccounted for as of 2011. Ref: NZ Herald, 27.3.2018; Wiki; Flotilla Australia.

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Item #CL194-114

Price (AUD): $1,550.00  other currencies

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