The run-down vessel has been a resident of Dunedin wharves since 1994, but plans by a trust to restore it to its former glory failed to stay afloat.
The Otago Daily Times understands scrap metal recycling business Everitt Enterprises is now the new owner of the vessel, but the company would not comment yesterday.
Built in Glasgow in 1910, Te Whaka was designed as Lyttelton's harbour dredge. It was decommissioned in 1987 after 77-years' service at the port.
The vessel was brought to Dunedin in 1994 by the Te Whaka Maritime Heritage Trust, which planned to return it to full working life as a 120-passenger vessel based in Steamer Basin.
The trust, which originally aimed to have the steamer operational in time for Otago's 150th anniversary in 1998, secured $50,000 from the Dunedin City Council to keep the project alive the same year.
A 2001 council report concluded that grant had been used correctly to upgrade the boat.
In 2008 the trust sold the vessel to the Auckland-based Clevedon Steamship Company.
Meanwhile, Port Otago commercial manager Peter Brown confirmed the port company was the owner of the vessel Neptune, which was severely damaged in a fire at Careys Bay earlier this year.
The vessel was at the Kitchener St wharf, and "we are considering all options", he said.
