SS Marama

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.

SS Marama serving as a hospital ship, 1915
History
New Zealand
Name	SS Marama
Owner	Union Company, Dunedin
Port of registry	Wellington
Route	New Zealand — Australia & Trans-Pacific
Builder	Caird & Company, Greenock
Cost	£166,000
Yard number	313
Launched	1907
In service	November 1907
Out of service	1937
Identification	Official number: 117,597
Fate	Broken up,
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	6,437 GRT 3,952 NRT
Length	420 ft (130 m)
Beam	53.2 ft (16.2 m)
Depth	31.2 ft (9.5 m)
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Capacity	488 passengers: 270 later 242 × 1st class 120 later 214 × 2nd class 98 later 32 × fore cabin or Interchange
Crew	140

History

Marma 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, Marma 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.^[1]

See also

SS Maheno - sister ship; His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1.