In late 1915 the Union Steam Ship Company outfitted its trans-Pacific liner SS Marama as the second New Zealand Merchant Navy hospital ship, after SS Maheno, to help evacuate wounded from Gallipoli.
The Merchant Navy
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SS MARAMA
Carousel slide 1 imageHMNZHS No. 2: One of two New Zealand Merchant Navy hospital ships during WW1
Carrying Museum heritage vessel Nautilus onboard in 1915
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Once SS Marama had been outfitted at Port Chalmers, she left Wellington for Suez on 5 December 1915 – but the evacuation of the Dardanelles had happened three weeks before.
She reached Alexandria on 18 January 1916 and proceeded to Southampton, then back to the Mediterranean to evacuate wounded from the fighting in Salonika. Until June she operated in the Mediterranean, calling at Marseilles and even at Sète where Nautilus took a pleasant spin on part of the Canal du Midi.
In July 1916 the Somme offensive started and the service pattern of both hospital ships, Maheno and Marama, became dominated by shuttle services from Le Havre or Boulogne to the southern English ports with desperately wounded soldiers, directly from the trenches to hospitals in England.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/boating/67931874/inside-the-marama-hospital-ship
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Carousel slide 1 imageWATCH: Soldiers aboard the hospital ship “ SS Marama" return home
31 August 1916
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MOTOR LAUNCHES ONBOARD
Nautilus: From Marama to the Museum
Learn more about SS Nautilus, one of the motor launches carried on board SS Marama during it's war service - now part of the Maritime Museum's collection and available for charters.
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Wallet of Private Andrew John Thomas Miller with details of his treatment onboard hospital ship HMNZS Marama during WW1. See more...
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