DOMINION TRANS FORTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11760, 21 February 1919, Page 6

DOMINION TRANS FORTS.

LUOKY WAR RECORD a 8 VESSELS EMPLOYED ONLY TWO SHIPS SUNK] The transports engaged in the work of carrying N«w Zealand’s army overseas were essentially lucky ships While under New Zealand charter conveying New Zealand troops only one met with mishap—the Athenic, which went aground at Jamaica, with the thirty-ninth reinforcements on board She was subsequently got off, but nut before her contingent, which had three weeks’ stay at Port Royal, had sailed in a Dutch boat via New York en route to England The only snips actually sunk by submarines were the Aparima and the Waitemata, which met their fate soon after they were transferred to the Imperial Government “New Zealand charter” thus spelt “good luck” to ships that sailed under it The shortest voyage to Egypt was 85 days, the longest (Main Body) 48 days; the shortest to England (thirty-first and thirty-seennds) 49 days, and the longest (the Ihirtyninlhs) 83 days. It required no fewer than 111 ships, aggregating 7fi4,011 tons, to transport the New Zealand Expeditionary Force aboard. These ships represent actual separate sailings with troops and horses from New Zealand ports, and are exclusive of mounted rifle drafts which sailed from the loth onwards.