TAHITI’S CAREER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1053, 18 August 1930, Page 1

TAHITI’S CAREER

MANY ADVENTURES IN 26 YEARS EXCITING WAR SERVICE The Tahiti’s career has been Strang * and eventful. She has been involved in almost every kind of incident with which a passenger liner could be associated, from wrecks to record-break-ing. During the war she was used as an American troopship, carrying soldiers to France; at one time she was the fastest passenger steamer on the Pacific run; fires have broken out on board; she grazed a coral reef near Papeete and she was involved in a disaster in the Sydney Harbour which cost 43 lives. The Tahiti was bought by the Union Steam Ship Company in 1911 from the Elder Dempster Company for =£loo,ooo. Formerly she iiad been the Port Kingston and was engaged in th 2 mail service between England and th » West Indies. The Tahiti is now 26 years old. She was built at Glasgow in 1904. After her purchase by the Union Company, she was immediately renamed the Tahiti and placed on the San Francisco-Well-ington-Sydney mail service. When war broke out in 1914 the Tahiti was one of the first vessels to be commandeered as a troopship by the New Zealand Government, and she was one of the convoy which carried the Main Body Expeditionary Force to Egypt. She continued to carry troops, and on one occasion, when near Sierra Leone, there was a serious outbreak of influenza aboard and several deaths occurred. LOANED TO U.S.A. In 1917 the Tahiti was loaned to the American Government and transported troops to France from that year until the end of the war. After the Armistice had been signed she returned to New Zealand from England, reaching Auckland on July 4, 1919, with 1,300 soldiers on board. While crossing the Atlantic on that trip she nearly collided with a large steamer in a fog. Onlj' the quick action of the officers in ordering “Full speed astern” saved a disaster. Second-* afterward those on the Tahiti saw through the fog the hull of a steamer pass at full speed only 100 ft. away. In 1920 the Tahiti was converted into an oil-burner and distinguished herself by lowering the steaming record between Wellington and San Francisco. She made the voyage in 16£ days, arriving at Wellington three days'ahead of her schedule time. Her average speed was 16 knots Three years later, on March 24, 1923, she logged 389 knots which, until the arrival of the Aorangi, was a steaming record for the Pacific run. FIRE ON BOARD

In 1922 a fire broke out on board the day after the Tahiti sailed from Wellington for San Francisco Although every effort was made to extinguish it, the fire gained and the vessel’ had to return to Wellington, from which'she sailed again four days later. Several men lost their lives on th» Tahiti during fumigation operations at San Francisco. Mr. Donald McDonald, now master of the Kaituna. was then chief officer and won the King’s gold medal and the American gold medal for rescuing men who were overcome by the strong fumes. The Grey cliff e tragedy, which occurred in the Sydney Harbour on November 3, 1927, is still a vivid memory. While leaving the Sydney Harbour on her way to Wellington, the Tahiti rammed the ferry steamer Greycliffe and cut her in two. Fortythree people were drowned and 50 were taken to hospital. Last year, on June 22, the Tahiti grazed a reef as she entered the harbour at Papeete and developed a list and a leak. She returned to Sydney, where repairs were effected. Now some mysterious mishap seems to have ended the career of an adventurous vessel.