SS Marama

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Hospital Ship Marama off Sinclair Head.jpeg
SS Marama serving as a hospital ship, 1915
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgNew Zealand
NameSS Marama
Owner Union Company, Dunedin
Port of registry Wellington
RouteNew Zealand — Australia & Trans-Pacific
Builder Caird & Company, Greenock
Cost£166,000
Yard number313
Launched1907
In serviceNovember 1907
Out of service1937
Identification Official number: 117,597
FateBroken up,
General characteristics
Type Ocean liner
Tonnage
Length420 ft (130 m)
Beam53.2 ft (16.2 m)
Depth31.2 ft (9.5 m)
Speed17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Capacity
  • 488 passengers:
  • 270 later 242 × 1st class
  • 120 later 214 × 2nd class
  • 98 later 32 × fore cabin or Interchange
Crew140

SS Marama was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand from 1907 to 1937. She was a hospital ship in World War I as His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2, and remains a symbol of New Zealand's contribution to the war effort. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Marama in Union Company livery Seascape view with islands and a passenger liner (AM 82211-1).jpg
Marama in Union Company livery

Built by Caird & Company at Greenock at a cost of £166,000 ($332,000), Marama arrived at Port Chalmers in November 1907. She was the largest and most powerful ship (though not the fastest) in the USS Co fleet. Initially, she sailed on the Horseshoe run to Australia, and occasionally in transpacific services.

Wartime service

During World War I, Marama was charted [3] by the New Zealand Government to serve as a hospital ship for the British Empire. She was renamed His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2. and given the prefix HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship). The ship was outfitted with a new hospital setup funded through a public fundraising campaign supported by Governor Lord Liverpool. [1] Her livery was also painted white in alignment with the Hague Convention on hospital ships [4] . Her crew consisted of civilian men from the country's merchant navy alongside army medical staff, including female nurses. [1]

Marama carried out four commissions for the NZEF from 1915 to 1919, [3] commanded by Dr P.R Cook, a C.B.E and Lieutenant Colonel [5] in the NZEF. [6] While her sister ship, the SS Maheno, served at Gallipoli, Marama did not reach Europe until after the Allied evacuation of the peninsula [7] [1] . Her primary role during the war was transporting sick and wounded ANZAC soldiers back to Australia and New Zealand, helping to free hospitals and convalescent beds in Britain and Egypt. [7] [8]

In July 1916, she also carried wounded soldiers and German PoWs directly from the trenches during the Battle of the Somme. [7] Sailing undermanned and at times severely over capacity, Marama completed 11 crossings of the heavily mined English Channel, carrying a total of 10,978 personnel. [7] Over the course of the war, Marama’s commissions took her to ports around the world, including locations in Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Central America, and the Pacific. [3]

Postwar service

After war service, Marama was refitted in 1920 for the transpacific services to San Francisco or Vancouver. In 1925, she was converted to burn oil, and was employed on the Tasman run.

The ship was sold to Shanghai shipbreakers of the Linghua Dock & Engineering Works, Ltd. in 1937, then resold to Kobe shipbreakers Miyachi K.K.K. and was broken up at their Osaka shipyard in 1938.

Marama Hall

Marama Hall, named after HMHS Marama, at the University of Otago University of Otago Marama Hall, Dunedin, NZ.JPG
Marama Hall, named after HMHS Marama, at the University of Otago

Marama Hall at the University of Otago is named after the liner, commemorating medical personnel who served aboard the two New Zealand hospital ships in World War I. [9] In 1919, the Ministry of Defence allocated surplus funds from the hospital ship's service to the university for the construction of the hall. [10] Building began the same year, and the hall was completed in 1923 under the architect Edmund Anscombe. [10] It was originally used as a gymnasium and drill hall for medical students, and is now part of the university's School of Performing Arts. [10] Displayed in the hall is a memorial board listing members of New Zealand's Medical and Dental Corps, as well as the New Zealand Army Nursing and Chaplains Department who served during World War I. [10]

See also

  • SS Maheno - sister ship; His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Hospital ships". NZ History. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  2. ↑ "The White Ships: New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 "Hospital ships' movements 1915-19". NZ History. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  4. ↑ McLean, Gavin (2013). THE WHITE SHIPS: New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships. Wellington: New Zealand Ship & Marine Society. ISBN   978-0-473-24977-9.
  5. ↑ "Staff officers of the Marama, New Zealand's second hospital ship, now on the way to the front". Kura Auckland Libraries. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  6. ↑ "Marama (Ship)". Kura Auckland Libraries. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Later service and legacies". NZ History. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  8. ↑ "THE HOSPITAL SHIPS". Papers Past. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  9. ↑ "Marama Hall". New Zealand Military Nursing. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "University of Otago Marama Hall". Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 8 December 2025.

References


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