Down the Hatch

Down the Hatch was a twice weekly printed troopship magazine published on board the HMS Mooltan (HMT 82) on its voyage from Wellington to Egypt between January and February 1944 during World War II. On board were the 11th Reinforcements of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (1st Draft 2nd NZEF) and Reinforcements of the Māori Battalion.

Originally published on 19 January 1944 as a typewritten magazine with a hand-drawn masthead on ‘paper (that had) to be cyclostyled from a typed stencil’ (19 January 1944: 1) due to the lack of a printing office on board the ship. At the time the ship only had ‘sufficient paper … available for approximately one copy per five men’ (19 January 1944: 1).

Initially the goal of the paper was to produce ‘a summary of news of the day … information concerning entertainment, leave, and the ships scandal … articles dealing with the history of the transport and a series of articles telling those of you to whom the East is still a land of mystery and glamour something of its realities and pitfalls’ (19 January 1944: 1). They asked for those on board to take part by submitting ‘articles of general interest, small scraps of information, sketches, and jokes’ (19 January 1944: 1). Down the Hatch also aimed to print a souvenir magazine containing the best articles and other material as a reminder of the journey, which it did on 5 February 1944 with proceeds going to two charities, the British and New Zealand Seamen’s Funds.

While it was produced ‘under difficulties by the unpaid and entirely voluntary efforts’ (5 February 1944: 10) of the editorial staff from the 29 January 1944 they were fortunate enough to ‘obtain at our last port of call some printer’s type and paper’ (29 January 1944: 1) and became from then on, a much more professional looking publication with more pages.

Down the Hatch also benefited from having official New Zealand war artist Captain Peter McIntyre on board, with several of his drawings featuring throughout Down the Hatch’s Souvenir number.

Down the Hatch finished with its last issue published on the 19 February. It was noted that ‘by the time this issue is in troops hands we shall almost have reached our destination and 'Down the Hatch' will have come to the end of its comparatively short, but, we hope, useful life’ (19 February 1944: 1).