SS Maheno

Last updated

StateLibQld 1 256139 Maheno, the steamship whose hull now lies rusting on the beach at Fraser Island, ca. 1905.jpg
Hand-coloured postcard of the SS Maheno
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgNew Zealand
NameSS Maheno
Owner Union Company, Dunedin
Port of registry Wellington [1]
RouteNew Zealand — Australia
Builder William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton
Yard number746 [1]
Launched19 June 1905 [1]
In serviceNovember 1905
Out of service1935
Identification Official number: 117588 [1]
FateWrecked, July 1935
General characteristics
Type Ocean liner
Tonnage
Length400 ft (120 m) [1]
Beam50 ft (15 m) [1]
Depth31 ft (9.4 m) [1]
Propulsion
Speed17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) [2]
Capacity
  • 420 passengers: [2]
  • 240 × 1st class
  • 120 × 2nd class
  • 60 × 3rd class

SS Maheno was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand that operated in the Tasman Sea, crossing between New Zealand and Australia, from 1905 until 1935.

Contents

She was also used as a ship by the New Zealand Naval Forces during World War I; as His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1. She was washed ashore on Fraser Island by a cyclone in 1935 where the disintegrating wreck remains as a popular tourist attraction.

Construction

The 5,000-ton steel-hulled ship was built by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, Scotland, and launched on 19 June 1905. [1] At 400 feet in length and 50 feet in the beam, she was powered by three Parsons turbines, giving a speed of 17.5 knots. She could carry up to 420 passengers: 240 in 1st class, 120 in 2nd and 60 in 3rd, and also had a refrigerated cargo hold. Accommodation for first class passengers included a dining room, smoking room, and music room with Bechstein grand piano. The ship was lit by electricity, and was fitted with all the latest safety equipment, which included Clayton sulphur dioxide fire extinguishers. [2]

Service history

The ship was named after Maheno, a township in Otago. [3] The ship entered service on 18 November 1905, and was employed on routes between Sydney and Melbourne via ports in New Zealand and Hobart, Tasmania. She also made regular voyages between Sydney and Vancouver. [2]

World War I

The New Zealand hospital ship Maheno Hospital Ship Maheno.jpg
The New Zealand hospital ship Maheno

During World War I Maheno was converted into a hospital ship using money raised by an appeal by the Earl of Liverpool, the Governor-General. She was fitted with eight wards and two operating theatres, and had a medical team consisting of five doctors and 61 orderlies from the Army Medical Corps, a matron, thirteen nursing sisters, from the newly formed New Zealand Army Nursing Service and chaplains. [4] In accordance with Article 5 [5] of the 1899 Hague Convention she was repainted white overall, with a broad green stripe along her sides, and large red crosses on the sides and funnels. [6]

HMNZHS Maheno arrived at Moudros, the naval base of the Gallipoli Campaign, on 25 August 1915, and the next day was off ANZAC Cove, loading casualties from the Battle of Hill 60. Over the next three months, she carried casualties from Gallipoli to Malta. They were cared for by members of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service including Evelyn Brooke. [7] Maheno arrived back at New Zealand on 1 January 1916 to refit, then returned to Egypt in February to collect patients for transport back to New Zealand. She then sailed to the UK, arriving at Southampton on 3 July 1916, just after the start the Battle of the Somme. Until October 1916 she operated in the English Channel, returning large numbers of wounded and sick troops from the Western Front to England.

Maheno sailed back to New Zealand in December 1916, and then made six more voyages between New Zealand and the British Isles, bringing back patients. [4] There were criticisms of the Maheno making several trips to New Zealand to refit or to transport wounded soldiers home when most could have gone in a troopship; and also that the ship has been run by the governor (Liverpool) as "His Exc’s pet patriotic hobby". The chief medical officer was William Collins on her first voyage and James Elliott on her second and third voyages. In 1915, Collins "raised hackles by denying nurses their officer status and deluding himself that he could command the ship's commander, the master" (Captain McLean). In 1917, British Major Gretton was critical of the staff and said that Liverpool "puts his friends on the ship when they want soft jobs" and that the ship was nicknamed "Liverpool’s yacht". The complaint got as far as the Secretary of State for the Colonies; Liverpool said Gratton behaved like a cad. [8]

At the war's end in November 1918, Maheno was released from military service and returned to her business owner to resume her commercial life.

Running aground on Fraser Island

At the end of its commercial life, on 3 July 1935 Maheno left Sydney under tow [9] by the 1,758-ton ship Oonah, a former Tasmanian Steamers Pty. Ltd. Bass Strait ferry, built in 1888, which along with the Maheno had been sold to the shipbreaker's yard Miyachi K.K.K. in Osaka, Japan. [10] The ships were linked by a 900-foot (270 m)6.75-inch (17.1 cm) wire rope. [9]

On the afternoon of 7 July, [10] about 50 miles from the coast, [10] the towline parted in a cyclone. Attempts to re-attach the towline failed in the heavy seas, and the Maheno, with a skeleton crew of eight men aboard, drifted off and disappeared. [9] The Oonah, with its steering gear temporarily disabled, broadcast a radio message requesting assistance for Maheno, whose propellers had been removed. [11] Maheno was subsequently found on 10 July by an aircraft piloted by Keith Virtue, beached off the coast of Fraser Island. [12] The crew had set up camp onshore, waiting for the Oonah to arrive, which it did on 12 July. [13] The wreck was also the location of the marriage of Dudley Weatherley and Beatrice McLean (instead of at Townsville), at the invitation of Captain Takaka, to notes from the ship's Bechstein piano. [14] [15] [16] The stranded ship was also used as a venue for an experiment in 'rocket mail' in August 1935. [17]

The ship was subsequently stripped of its fittings, [18] but attempts to refloat her failed. The wreck was subsequently offered for sale, but no buyers could be found for it. [19]

Wreck

Maheno has remained at the location since, slowly corroding away. Owing to the now dangerous condition of the ship, access is prohibited. [20] The Australian Department of Defence lists the wreck as a site of unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination. [21] [3]

Annual Anzac Day services are held at the site of the wreck and a replica of the ship's bell is located there. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

SS <i>Yongala</i> Passenger steamship that was wrecked in Queensland, Australia

SS Yongala was a passenger steamship that was built in England in 1903 for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She sank in a cyclone off the coast of Queensland in 1911, with the loss of all 122 passengers and crew aboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K'gari</span> Sand island in Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia

K'gari, also known by its former name Fraser Island, is a World Heritage-listed sand island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. The island is approximately 250 km (160 mi) north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fraser Coast Region local government area. The world heritage listing includes the island, its surrounding waters and parts of the nearby mainland which make up the Great Sandy National Park. In the 2021 census, the island had a population of 152 people. Up to 500,000 people visit the island each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Kingsford Smith</span> Australian aviator (1897–1935)

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.

RMS <i>Niagara</i>

RMS Niagara was a transpacific steam ocean liner, Royal Mail Ship and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1912 in Scotland and sunk in 1940 by a mine off the coast of New Zealand.

<i>Kyarra</i> Cargo and passenger luxury liner torpedoed and sunk near Swanage

The Kyarra was a 6,953-ton steel cargo and passenger luxury liner, built in Scotland in 1903 for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company.

HMAT Warilda

HMAT Warilda was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the First World War, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dicky Beach, Queensland</span> Suburb of Caloundra, Queensland, Australia

Dicky Beach is both a beach and coastal suburb of Caloundra in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Dicky Beach had a population of 1,921 people.

HMS <i>Buffalo</i> (1813) Royal Navy storeship (1813–1840)

HMS Buffalo was a storeship of the Royal Navy, originally built and launched at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1813 as the merchant vessel Hindostan. The Admiralty purchased her that year after she arrived in Britain. She later transported convicts and immigrants to Australia, before being wrecked in 1840.

SS <i>Gothenburg</i> British steamship wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef

SS Gothenburg was an iron-hulled sail- and steamship that was built in England in 1854 and sailed between England and Sweden until 1862. She then moved to Australia, where she operated across the Tasman Sea to and from New Zealand until 1873, when she was rebuilt. After her rebuild, she operated in the Australian coastal trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maheno, New Zealand</span> Rural settlement in Otago, New Zealand

Maheno is a small North Otago township south of Oamaru in New Zealand. The area has 75 residents. A number of the town's streets are named after places in Tyne and Wear, England, such as Whickham, Felling, Heworth and Jarrow. One of two New Zealand's hospital ships in World War I, the SS Maheno, was named after this town.

<i>Manunda</i> Australian ship

TSMV Manunda was an Australian registered and crewed passenger ship which was converted to a hospital ship in 1940. During the war Manunda saw service in both the Middle East and Pacific Campaigns, specifically New Guinea. She resumed her passenger duties after the war, before being sold to a Japanese company and finally broken up in 1957.

SS <i>Letitia</i>

SS Letitia was an ocean liner built in Scotland for service with the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She continued to serve with its successor company Donaldson Atlantic Line. At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, the British Admiralty requisitioned the ship for service and had it converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. She was withdrawn from this service in 1941 to become a troop ship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Jackson (diver)</span> Australian technical diver and author

Captain Trevor Jackson is an Australian technical diver, shipwreck researcher, author and inventor. In 2002 he staged what became known as the "Centaur Dive", which subsequently led to the gazetted position of the sunken Hospital Ship AHS Centaur being questioned. Jackson is the inventor of the 'Sea Tiger' lost diver location system, and an author on the subject of wreck diving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Inglis</span> New Zealand medical practitioner and surgeon

Tracy Russell Inglis was an Auckland medical practitioner, war surgeon and sports administrator.

SS <i>Coptic</i>

SS Coptic was a steamship built in 1881, which was successively owned by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the Japanese Oriental Steam Ship Co. before being scrapped in 1926. She was filmed by Thomas Edison in 1897 in one of his early movies. The movie is currently stored in the Library of Congress.

MV <i>E Evangelia</i>

MV E Evangelia is a shipwrecked 7,355-gross register ton (GRT) refrigerated cargo ship at Costinești on the Black Sea coast of Romania. She was built in Northern Ireland in 1942 as the Empire ship Empire Strength, was operated by Blue Star Line from 1942 to 1961, was bought by Greek shipowners in 1965 and wrecked in 1968. The ship had four names in her career, having been renamed Saxon Star in 1946, Redbrook in 1961 and E Evangelia in 1965.

SS Marloo is a shipwreck at Great Sandy National Park, Fraser Island, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 October 2002 but delisted in 2015.

SS <i>Marama</i>

The SS Marama was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand from 1907 to 1937. It was a hospital ship in WWI as His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2.

SS <i>Langton Grange</i> (1896)

Langton Grange was a refrigerated steam cargo ship built in 1896 by the Workman, Clark & Co. of Belfast for Houlder Brothers & Co. of London to transport meat and other produce from Australia and South America to United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Allan, Bruce (2012). "SS Maheno". Clyde-built Ship Database . Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "THE MAHENO". The Argus . Melbourne. 7 November 1905. p. 6. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  3. 1 2 "The wreck of the TSS Maheno – an ANZAC story". University of Melbourne. 20 July 2018. Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  4. 1 2 Elliott, J.S. (1923). "The New Zealand Hospital Ships". In Drew, H.T.B (ed.). The War Effort of New Zealand. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. pp. 127–137. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of Principles of Geneva Convention of 1864 (Article 5)". Lillian Goldman Law Library . 29 July 1899. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  6. ↑ "Hospital ship Maheno". Ministry for Culture and Heritage . 30 August 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  7. ↑ "Evelyn Brooke". nzhistory.govt.nz. NZHistory. 17 May 2017. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  8. ↑ McLean, Gavin (2013). The White Ships: New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships. Wellington: New Zealand Ship and Marine Society. pp. 78–80, 141. ISBN   978-0-473-24977-9.
  9. 1 2 3 "SHIPPING IN THE BIG BLOW: MAHENO MYSTERY". The Cairns Post . Cairns, Queensland. 10 July 1935. p. 7. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  10. 1 2 3 "SHIPS IN PERIL: ADRIFT OFF EAST COAST". Western Mail . Perth. 11 July 1935. p. 11. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "TWO STEAMERS ADRIFT IN CYCLONE". Adelaide Chronicle. 11 July 1935. p. 28. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "MAHENO LOCATED AGROUND AT FRASER ISLAND". The Morning Bulletin . Rockhampton, Queensland. 11 July 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "TERRIFYING ORDEAL ON THE MAHENO". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane. 12 July 1935. p. 13. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ McLean, Gavin (2013). The White Ships: New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships. Wellington: New Zealand Ship and Marine Society. pp. 183–185. ISBN   978-0-473-24977-9.
  15. ↑ Wedding photo, Townsville Daily Bulletin, January 20, 1936
  16. ↑ Wedding Footage, Hungarian Newsreel 632, March 1936
  17. ↑ "ROCKET MAIL". Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 – 1947). 12 August 1935. p. 4. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  18. ↑ "FITTINGS OF STRANDED MAHENO". Singleton Argus. New South Wales. 19 July 1935. p. 6. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "UNWANTED SHIP". The Sydney Morning Herald . 28 March 1936. p. 17. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  20. ↑ "Access to Maheno prohibited" (PDF). Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service . 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  21. ↑ "List of UXO Contamination Sites in Queensland". Department of Defence . June 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  22. ↑ Walton, Steven (18 February 2022). "The fascinating history of a WWI ship that has rested on a beach for 86 years". Stuff. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.

25°16′1.55″S153°14′18.75″E / 25.2670972°S 153.2385417°E / -25.2670972; 153.2385417

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.