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HAURAKI (1922)
Service dates: 1922-1942
Official number: 146533
Shipping lines: UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND
Ship type:
General Cargo Ship.
Career
- 28.11.1921
- Launched. The hull was then towed to Whiteinch for the installation of her engines at Barclay, Curle & Co Ltd. The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand had ordered the engine earlier in 1921.
- 1922
- Ran trials.
- 17.03.1922
- Delivered as Hauraki for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand at a cost of £317,600. She was the first motor ship in New Zealand waters. The ship was designed for any type of cargo including horses. She served mainly trans-Pacific service but also to Europe.
- 1940
- Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport. She remained on the North American routes.
- 02.1942
- Her new war route was Sydney/Colombo/Aden/Port Said/Haifa.
- 06.1942
- Left Sydney for Colombo via Fremantle.
- 12.07.1942
- Captured by two Japanese raiders Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru (both Osaka Syosen) in the Indian Ocean. She was taken to Penang and renamed Teifu Maru. Next she was taken to Singapore where the deck crew were imprisoned at Changi where five of them died. The engineers were retained to work the old diesel engines which the enemy did not understand and which the crews persistently gently sabotaged. Sent to Japan where the machinery was overhauled, taking months as ‘worn out’ parts had to be replaced.
- 11.1943
- Eighteen months after her capture she became the transport Hoki and made one trial coastal voyage. The Union engineers were then removed.
- 21.01.1944
- Loaded coal at Yokohama and left for Truk.
- 17.02.1944
- Bombed en route and sunk by a US carrier-based planes at Truk, Caroline Islands.