AKAROA’S ARRIVAL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24820, 9 March 1946, Page 8

AKAROA’S ARRIVAL

WIVES AND DEPENDANTS OF SERVICEMEN

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 8. “It was an exceptionally happy trip and they were the best crowd I have had on board,” said Captain W. H. Hartman, when the Shaw, Savill and Albion vessel, Akaroa, arrived from England with-208 passengers, including 92 women and children who were wives and dependants and fiancees of New Zealand servicemen. The composition of the group was: Army, 21 wives, one fiancee, two children; Navy, 20 wives, four children; Air Force, 35 wives, one fiancee, eight children.

The weather was excellent during the voyage, said Captain Hartman, who was formerly marine superintendent at Wellington for the company, and who was awarded the 0.8. E. for meritorious sea service in the Merchant Navy during the war. He was master of the 27,155 tons motor-liner Dominion Monarch, on its maiden trip in 1939. The Akaroa may truly be regarded as a New Zealand ship. Thousands of Dominion servicemen have travelled on her during the war. At the head of one of the staircases is a photograph of Banks Peninsula and the town and port of the name of which she bears. An addition is a Maori carving done by Captain Hartman himself, which graces another stairway. It is a red, white and blue ‘‘V” sign, and the letters R.N.Z.A.F. underneath commemorate the time the Akaroa took New Zealand airmen to England for training in 1940.