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.

Contents

History

Marma in Union Company livery Seascape view with islands and a passenger liner (AM 82211-1).jpg
Marma 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. During World War I, she was outfitted as a hospital ship and renamed His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2. and given the prefix HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship).

After war service, Marma 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 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. [1]

See also

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

Citations

  1. "Marama Hall". New Zealand Military Nursing. Retrieved 2 October 2019.

References