World War II merchant ships of New Zealand

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: New Zealand
Surnames/tags: Ships Merchant Marine

World War II merchant ships of New Zealand

Seven New Zealand merchant ships were lost to enemy action during World War ll. New Zealand merchant seamen from young teenagers to men of retirement age served on ships under the flags of every allied allied and friendly nation during the war. New Zealanders Thomas Burke and Edward Walls were 15-year-old deck crew killed aboard the British Steam Merchant ship Port Hunter when she was torpedoed off West Africa in 1942.

Union Steam Ship managed RMS Aorangi (sailing a Canadian-Australasian Line flag) was a luxury liner.

1939 - Troopship, chartered to transport troops from New Zealand to Fiji

later transported troops and airmen from Australia to Canada

Union Steam Ship Company HMT Awatea - a trans-Tasman ocean liner.

1937 - 1939 route linked Wellington - Auckland - Sydney

1939 converted to serve as a Royal Navy troopship.

1941 transport ed Canadian troops C Force to Hong Kong

1942 took part in Operation Torch; Allied invasion of Vichy French North Africa, sunk by enemy aircraft.

Union Steamship Company freighter MV Hauraki a freighter mainly on North American service

12th July 1942 MV Hauraki was captured by two Japanese armed merchant cruisers in the Indian Ocean Hokoku Maru and Aikpku Maru. MV Hauraki was sailed to Singapore where she was refitted as a Japanese troop transport vessel and re-named the Hoki Maru. Hauraki's crew were interned in several camps including Ōfuna prisoner-of-war camp in Kamakura, near Yokohama and the Mitsubishi Shipyard in Japan.

17 February 1944 - Bombed and sunk by US carrier planes at Truk, Caroline Islands

NZGSS Hinemoa - a New Zealand Government Service Steamer servicing lighthouses and coastal patrols. 1876 - 1944.

Supplied NZ Govt. castaway depots on remote subantarctic islands, and rescued shipwreck victims.

1886 - Captain John Fairchild survey of the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Islands

1889 - Captain John Fairchild survey of the Herekino Harbour and the Whangape Harbour entrance.

1891 - Captain John Fairchild survey of New Zealand's subantarctic and searched outlying islands for the missing ships Kakanui and Assaye.

1898 - Captain John Bollons was master; Bollons Island in the Antipodes Islands named for him.

1907 - Sub-Antarctic Islands scientific expedition for the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. Report published by Charles Chilton in 1909.

William Edward Sanders VC served aboard Cinema, later won his VC during WW1

1944 - decommissioned

Holmwood

1940 - Captured and sunk by German Raiders Orion and Komet

Union Steamship Company Kalingo

sunk by Japanese U Boat off Australia's east coast

Union Steamship Company Komata

sunk by German Raiders Orion and Komet

SS Kopara / USS Kopara (see image : Naval History and Heritage Command : NH 83230 SS Kopara)

1938 -

1942 - 1945 - served as a United States Navy supply ship in the Pacific; later returned to NZ owners

1966 - as Sarang / Cherry Chepat / See Hai Hong I; served in Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand

1980s - scrapped

Union Steamship Company Limerick

sunk by Japanese U Boat off Australia's east coast

Union Steam Ship Matua

Troopship operating in the Pacific

SS Maunganui Union Steam Ship:1939-1945 - served as a Hospital Ship in the Middle East.

1948 - sold to a Greek company and renamed Cyrenia

Union Steam Ship Monowai - a Union Steam Ship Company liner

1939 - Monowai was commandeered by the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy for conversion as an armed merchant cruiser. she was manned by a mix of naval regulars, reservists and merchant seamen.

Pamir - a German owned four-masted barque; a bulk carrier ('Flying P-Liner').

1905 - South American nitrate trade; traded between Chile (Valparaíso or Iquique) and Hamburg.

1914 - isolated in La Palma Island, Canary Islands.

1920 - finally returned to Hamburg - transferred to Italy as war reparation

1924 - bought by original owners, F. Laeisz Company & back in service in the nitrate trade.

1931 - bought by Finnish company, Gustaf Erikson for the Australian wheat trade

1941 - in port at Wellington & seized as a prize of war by the N Z Govt. Carried cargo to San Francisco & Sydney

1948 - commercial voyage to London & Antwerp - later returned to Erikson Line - carried Australian grain.

1951 sold to Belgian ship breakers - bought by Heinz Schliewen (German) & refitted as a sail-training ship.

1957 - sank off the Azores is a hurricane.

Union Steam Ship Rangatira

Troopship operating in the Pacific

New Zealand Shipping Company liner Rangitane

sunk by German Raiders Orion and Kometoff NZ East Cape; 15 killed, rest of crew prisoners aboard the German Kulmerland

NZGSS Stella - a New Zealand Government Service Steamer servicing lighthouses and coastal patrols.

New Zealand Shipping Company freighter Turakina

sunk by German Raiders Orion and Komet; first gun battle in the Tasman Sea 36 mostly British crew lost.

Union Steam Ship Wahine

Troopship operating in the Pacific