The hospital ship Marama – His Majesty’s New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2.

His Majesty’s New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 2. and given the prefix HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship).
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.

History

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. 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, 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 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.[

N.Z. Hospital Ship S.S. Marama
Production
David James Aldersley; photographer

Army personnel face David De Maus’s camera at Port Chalmers, officers and nurses in the foreground, other ranks perched wherever HMNZHS No. 2 (Marama) offered room. The army did a better job of recording its personnel than the Union Company’s civilian crew.

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