Union Steamship Company of Australia & NZ
“Union Steam”, a New Zealand-based fleet founded in 1875, lays claim to having become, by the mid-20th Century, one of the leading shipping lines of the world. It owes its origins to the energies of a merchant John Jones (who arrived in Otago, New Zealand from Australia in 1843), James Mills (a New Zealander born in 1847 and at 21 years of age managing the Harbour Steam Company) and John Darling (later Union Steam's first superintending engineer). The Company has operated world-wide, and especially passenger and cargo services between its home country and the Australia/Pacific area, as well as having close links with the Canadian-Australasian Line. The number of vessels passing through its ownership since 1875 now approaches three hundred. The line’s links with Australia were strengthened by application of Australian crew conditions
The company’s Maunganui served as a troopship during the Great War and it had a variously-sized fleet of about fifty ships as the Second World War opened, many remaining in local service through the war years. The experiences and fate of others were notable:
Ship |
Event |
| Monowai (gt 10852) | Taken over by the New Zealand Government October 1939, converted to Armed Merchant Cruiser, later to Landing Ship, Infantry and from 1944 to troopship, including repatriation of Russian prisoners-of-war. |
| Komata II | Sunk 8 December 1940 off Nauru by German raider Komet |
| Awatea (gt 13482) | Evacuee- and troop-carrying duties 1940. In 1941 requisitioned by British Ministry of War Transport as troopship world-wide. Sunk by German bombers of Algiers 11 November 1942. |
| Maunganui (gt 7527) | Requisitioned by the New Zealand Government January 1941, converted to a Hospital Ship |
| Wahine (gt 4436) | Periodically operated as troop- and evacuee-ship during the 1941-1945 Pacific campaign. |
| Rangatira (gt 6152) | Periodically operated as troop- and evacuee-ship during the 1941-1945 Pacific campaign. |
| Matua (gt 4166) | Periodically operated as troop- and evacuee-ship during the 1941-1945 Pacific campaign. |
| Hauraki (gt 7113) | Sunk, Caroline Islands 17 February 1944 |
| Kalingo (gt 2047) | Sunk off New South Wales coast 18 January 1943 |
| Wairuna (gt 5832) | Scuttled North Atlantic 30 October 1945 |
Under Union Steam Ship Co. Management, for mention as connected
Ship |
Event |
| Niagara (gt 13415) | Struck mine, sank, New Zealand coast 19 June 1940 |
| Aorangi (gt 17491) | Requisitioned by British Ministry of War Transport 1941 for trooping. Evacuation duties 1942. Used as a Depot Ship and Casualty Clearing Station Normandy 1944 |
| Limerick (gt 8734) | Torpedoed by Japanese submarine off Cape Byron New South Wales 26 April 1943 |
| Underwood (gt 1990) | Heavy-Lift capable, requisitioned 1941 in United Kingdom at completion of build, sunk by a German E-boat near the English Channel 6 January 1944 |