MV Kaituna II 1956-1975

This was the tenth ship of the Komata class and was launched by Barbara Twhigg, the daughter of Sir John Roberts, a director of Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand from 1903 -1931. The Komata class was a series of cargo motor ships built for the Union Company primarily by Alexander Stephen and Sons, named after the first ship to be launched, the MV Komata, in 1946. Their intended use was primarily the Trans-Tasman trade service, operating as cargo liners carrying timber, paper and other resources between Australia and New Zealand.

The Kaituna II was launched in 1956 and served coastal and regional routes before being laid up in Auckland in December 1974. With the advent of roll-on/roll-off vehicles and containerisation, the ship was no longer economical to operated. In 1975 the ship was sold to the Climax Shipping Corporation and renamed Climax Jade. In 1981 ownership was transferred to Maldives Shipping Limited, who renamed the ship Maldive Jade. There was a final sale and name change later the same year, when the ship, now the Fortune Seagull, passed to the Fortune Shipping Company Limited.

The Fortune Seagull operated for a further three years, before finally being laid up at Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1984. Early in 1985 it was sold to Pakistan Shipbreakers, arriving at Gadani Beach for scrapping on 23 January 1985.