Taioma was built in 1944 for the Royal Navy as the Empire Jane , and was purchased by the Union Steamship Company for use in Wellington along with Empire Shirley (Tapuhi)
Taioma was one of the ships dispatched to help rescue survivors from the TEV Wahine, which sank on April 10 1968
In 1975, she was sold to BP. In late 1977 she was laid up, and in 1978, she was purchased on behalf of the Tauranga district museum by R A Owens, and she was lifted ashore and was used as an exhibit until 2001, when she was scuttled as an artificial reef
Telegraph credit: Runar_MountainView
