HISTORIC RELIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22889, 25 May 1936, Page 6

HISTORIC RELIC

SHIP'S BELL OF FIRST MONOWAI TRANSPORT IN TWO WARS. An interesting relic which is to find a permanent resting place in the Do- ' minion Museum is; the ship's bell of the first Monowai, which for many years was well-known in the intercolonial and New Zealand coastal trades, and was one of the first transports to leave the Dominion with troops for active service overseas. The Monowai was a single-screw steamer of 3433 tonH gross register, 330 feet in length and 42 feet in breadth, and was built for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Ltd., in 1890, by W. Denny and Brothers nt Dumbarton, on the Clyde. She was employed for several years in the San Francisco mail service and subsequently in the intercolonial and New Zealand coastal trades. The Monowai was one of the four transports which carried the 1000 officera and men of the Fourth und Fifth Contingents from New Zealand to South Africa during the war of 1890-1902. The Monowai sailed from New Zealand in March, 1900, the other ships being the Waimute (New Zealand Shipping Company), Maori (Shaw, Savill and Albion Company), and the Gymeric. The Monowai, when in the intercolonial trade in 1907, broke her rudder and was adrift for some time before she was piokecl up by the Mokoia and towed into Sydney. A few days after the outbreak of the Great War the Monowai and the Moeraki were requisitioned as transports to carry the Advance Expeditionary Force from New Zealand to Samoa. The Monowai, commanded by Captain H, H. Williams, and the Moeraki, commanded by the late Captain D. Maclean, left Wellington on August 15, 1914, carrying a total of 1413 rank and file.

Off the coast the transports were joined by H.M. ships Psyche, Philomel, and Pyramus, which escorted them to Noumea, New Caledonia, where the French cruiser, Montcalm, was lying. Next day H.M. Australian ships Australia and Melbourne arrived, and, after coaling, the combined force of six warships and two transports departed for Suva, where they arrived on August 26. Three days "Inter the ships arrived off Apia, Samoa, where the troops were disembarked on Sunday, August 30, the British flag was formally hoisted and the British occupation proclaimed, After her return to New Zealand the Monowai resumed her trading for several years, Shortly after the war the ship was sold by the Union Steam Ship Company to the Gisborne Harbour Board, which sank her for use as a breakwater in connection with its harbour works. The ship'*) bell has now been presented to the Samoan Committer, a small local organisation of ex-meinbors of the occupation force, who intend to hand it over for preservation as an historic relic in the Dominion Museum.