SOLD TO CHINESE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume V, Issue 457, 26 June 1937, Page 6

SOLD TO CHINESE

MARAMA SOON TO LEAVE DOMINION Record Of War Service Press Association —Conyr’ght. Wellington, June 22. The graceful Marama, for many years a familiar ship in ports on the New Zealand coast and in Australia, is soon to leave Wellington for the last time. The Union Steam Ship Company announced that as it has been decided to replace the Marama with the Maunganui in the Welling-ton-South Island-Melbourne service next season, negotiations were opened up for the disposal of the Marama, and a sale has now been completed, the buyers being the Linghua Dock and Engineering Works, Ltd., ’China. The war-time activities of the Marama have been forgotten by ma-jy. She was the first hospital ship to pass through the Panama Canal. During the hazardous days when the ship was dressed in white, with a huge red cross painted on each side, she carried many thousands of patients. Five times the Marama returned to New Zealand with wounded soldiers. On December 1, 1915, the Marama arrived at Wellington to take on board her staff of.doctors and nurses, and load medical stores and comforts. Four days later she steamed out of Port Nicholson. In the middle of the following year the ship was eri-

gaged in the cross-Channel service, running for the most part between Southampton and Le Havre, or Boulogne. At that time the British offensive on the Somme was in progress and a large proportion of the wounded carried by the ship were casualties from the Somme front. Every patient received the same treatment, whether British or German. On one trip the Marama carried no fewer than 413 wounded Germans who had been made prisoners. Early in 1917 the ship was several times storm-tossed by the heavy gales which swept the English Chanel. On January 13 she left Southampton for New Zealand with 560 patients, most of whom were cot cases. Two days out from Southampton she picked up 13 survivors from the British tramp Broadwood, which had been sunk by gunfire from a German U-boat. On the same trip she passed a Spanish steamer which was being attacked by an enemy submarine. As a hospital ship the Marama travelled 250,000 nautical miles, and she consumed 70.000 tons of coal. Her average speed when rushing Homeward with casualties was 311.64 miles a day, or 12.98 knots. Operations on Board Although the vessel carried more than 20,000 patients, the percentage of > deaths was surprisingly small, the actual figure being only 13, including two drowned- Some complicated operations were performed on board : the ship under very adverse circumstances. One of these was on a ship’s fireman, who had his tongue t removed and tubes inserted in his ■ windpipe and gullet so that he might breathe and take food. For more f than a week he was kept in this criti- ■; cal condition, but. the operation was successful. At Alexandria he missed his passage, and his subsequent fate was never known. Although the Marama was never molested by an enemy submarine, the . .danger from mines was ever present, and her running was very much more hazardous than it has ever been since : July, 1919, when the war servee came . to an end. The Mystery Cylinder. No chronicle of the Marama’s career would be complete without reference to the famous ’’Marama’s Cylinder,” which became an object of mystery to people on both sides of the Tasman. This innocent-looking gas cylinder first attracted the attention of the Customs officials as it lay in the hold of the Marama at Wellington on November 10. 1933. Before the steamer left for Sydney that day, an unsuccessful search for silver coin "was made by the Customs officials, but the cylinder apparently aroused their suspicions, for, just as the ship was about to sail, the hatch coverings were removed, derricks were un•slung, and everything was made ready for the unloading of the mysterious metal bottle. Representations by the Union Company, however, resulted in the parties agreeing to suspend operations, and the Marama left 40 minutes late. When the ship reached Sydney the cylinder was found near the bottom of the hold, sealed by Customs, and placed in the strong-room for shipment back to Auckland. It was afterwards dispatched to Well ington. Shaped like a huge bottle, the cylinder was made of cast-iron, and was about 3ft 6in long. When it was eventually opened, it was found to be empty, but there was more than a suspicion that it had been sent across the Tasman several times previously filled with silver coin, which it could hold to the value of about £2OOO. The exporters, of course, would make a profit of 25 per cent., because of the newly-instituted exchange rate. The Marama was built at Greenock in 1907, and is a vessel of 6497 tons gross. The Makura, another former Union Company liner, was sold to Chinese buyers last year. F) R. TURNBULL—the Popular ; Tailor. Reliable workmanship: latest materials, styles; moderate prices. Orposite Past Offie*.