The ship which on one occasion carried passengers to their doom and later ran aground on a treacherous reef was a home for rats
. The ship was the ill-fated Joyita which lie on her starboard side with about a 45 degrees list at Levuka.
Two Fiji Times reporters, who had made a spot inspection of the ship, saw rats scurrying from the wheelhouse to the aft of the ship.
An article on the not so striking discovery was published in The Fiji Times on Wednesday February 27, 1957.
According to the article published, one of the rats had perched on top of the wheelhouse and ran to the aft of the ship – later disappearing down a hatchway.
The Joyita had run aground on Horseshoe Reef on January 8, 19587 while on a journey from Buca Bay ports to Suva.
Later, the vessel was towed off the reef and beached at Levuka. The Joyita lay about three feet of water at low tide, about 50 yards from the shore.
Marine engineers were then waiting for a Spring tide to refloat the ship, it was to enable them to haul her further up the beach and make repair to her hull.
The ship’s engines had been removed and taken to the local workshop of the Fiji Construction Works.
The stem of the Joyita had a four to six inch split on the starboard side of the hull, which was held together by two 10-foot planks bolted on each side.
Only a skeleton framework remained of the front of the wheelhouse and wires from lifeboat derricks hung forlornly into the sea.
The white and green painted hull was chipped and scarred.
The twin exhaust pipes above the afterdeck were covered with rust and the canvas on the deck had been torn and ripped by strong winds.
