When the "Matariki" was destroyed by fire, her owners established the Peninsula Ferry Company Ltd., which needed a new steamer for the Otago Harbour, to be completed no later than November 1909. Otago Foundry (John McGregor) won the contract. Using the engine selvaged from the 'Matariki' the boat was launched on the 13th of November 1909, Mrs Speight, wife of the chairman of directors of the new company, breaking a bottle of New Zealand wine across the bows, naming her 'Waikana'.