Wanganella

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During the 1930s, the TSMV Wanganella was a top-rated trans-Tasman passenger liner, with accommodation for 304 First Class and 104 Second Class passengers. She plied her trade between Auckland, Wellington, (New Zealand) and Sydney and Melbourne in Australia between January 12th, 1933 and July 25th, 1962. Each crossing of the Tasman Sea took three and a half days. The Wanganella had a break from the trans-Tasman trade during WWII when she served as a Hospital ship for the Australian Government. During the 1950s and 1960s, airline competition made trans-Tasman shipping less viable. In 1963 she was moored in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand and used as hostel for construction workers building the Manapouri Power Station. In April 1970 a tug towed her to Hong Kong, then later Taiwan where she was scrapped.

[edit] History

The Wanganella was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland and launched on December the 17th, 1929. She was originally christened Achimota, and destined for use as a mail and passenger liner for the West African trade. The commissioning owners, The Royal Mail Group, suffered financial trouble as a result of the Great Depression, and Harland & Wolff sold the Achimota to defray building expenses. The vessel was bought by the Melbourne-based Australian shipping company Huddart Parker at a bargain-basement price in September 1932, and commenced regular service on the 12th of January, 1933.

During her time she had her fair share of excitement. On the 28th of December, 1937 she collided with a trawler off the coast of New South Wales. On the 19th of June, 1940 she assisted with the rescue of passengers of the RMS Niagara after that ship hit a mine and sank off the coast of Auckland.

Australian ex-POWs being transferred to the hospital ship Wanganella two days after their liberation from Batu Lintang camp, Kuching, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo in September 1945.

During WWII, as a Hospital ship between May 1941 and 1946, she carried wounded and sick evacuees from the Middle East, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Borneo and the South Pacific.

On her maiden voyage after the war, the Wanganella had a narrow escape when she ran aground on Barrett Reef (later to claim the Wahine with 51 lives lost) at the entrance to Wellington Harbour in New Zealand. On the 19th of January, 1947, making its first trans-Tasman voyage after the war, the Wanganella struck Barrett Reef just before midnight and stuck fast. The weather conditions were unusually benign, and remained so for the 18 days the ship spent on the reef. (Such benign weather is still known in Wellington as Wanganella weather.) No-one was injured, and the passengers were taken off the ship the morning after the accident. The damage she incurred put her out of action for twenty-two months, mainly as a result of industrial action while she was laid-up in a floating dock for repairs.

The Wanganella was caught up again in industrial action; this time in the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute. This bitter 151-day-long industrial battle between the employers and the watersiders in New Zealand arose when watersiders refused to work overtime. The New Zealand Government, hand-in-glove with the employers, was determined to smash the union and introduced Emergency Regulations. The army was brought in to work the wharves. The Wanganella became involved in smuggling money and manpower between Australia and New Zealand. The Wanganella's Australian crew carried thousands of pounds to New Zealand from various unions in Australia, in support of their New Zealand comrades.

In 1963 a last-minute reprieve from the scrapyard came from engineers tendering for the contract for construction of the Manapouri Power Station in New Zealand. Between 1963 and 1970 the Wanganella was moored in Doubtful Sound to be used as a hostel for workers building the tailrace tunnel, and the Wilmot Pass access road.

[edit] Specifications