TSS Maunganui

The TSS Maunganui (later S/S Cyrenia) was a passenger vessel built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand and launched on 24 August 1911.[1]

First arrival in New Zealand waters, 1912
History
Name:
  • Maunganui (1911-1948)
  • Cyrenia (1948-1957)
Namesake: Mount Maunganui
Owner:
Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan
Yard number: 479
Launched: 24 August 1911
Completed: 5 December 1911
Out of service: 6 February 1957
Fate: Scrapped
General characteristics
Tonnage: 7,527 gross tonnage
Length: 430.8 ft (131 m)
Beam: 55.7 ft (17 m)
Draught: 31.2 ft (10 m)
Propulsion: Quadruple expansion engines, twin screw
Speed: 16 knots

Career

Launched in 1911 to carry the Royal Mail and served on the San Francisco and Sydney runs. She was employed as a troopship during World War I and World War II. She was sold to Cia Naviera del Atlantica, Piraeus in 1948 and renamed Cyrenia. She was sold in 1949 to Hellenic Mediterranean Lines and undertook service from Genoa and Piraeus to Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney, carrying Greek, Italian and Jewish refugees and migrants.[2][3][4]

Fate

On 1 November 1956 she left Melbourne for the last time, arriving in Savona, Italy, on 6 February 1957 for ship breaking.[5]

Cultural legacy

In Greece the S/S Cyrenia is prominent due to Nikos Kavvadias' poem "The Seven Dwarves on the S/S Cyrenia (Greek: Οι 7 νάνοι στο S/S Cyrenia) and Thanos Mikroutsikos' song mentioning the ship.[6][7] Kavvadias was the ship's radio operator.

Notes
  1. SS Maunganui, archived from the original on 21 September 2013, retrieved 12 September 2018CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. "History - Time line". T. S. S. Maunganui 1911 - 1947, Cyrenia 1947 - 1957. The New Zealand Maritime Record. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  3. "Union Line ofNew Zealand: SS Maunganui 1911 -1947 / Hellenic Medterranian Lines TSS Cyrenia 1947 - 1957". ssMaritime.com - with around 1,120 Classic Liners and Passenger-Cargo Ships online. ssMaritime.com. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  4. "JDC - Archives : S.S. Cyrenia". Joint Distribution Committee. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  5. Plowman, Peter (2006). Australian Migrant Ships 1946 - 1977. Rosenberg Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-877058-40-0.
  6. Νίκος Καββαδίας, Οι Εφτά Νάνοι στο s/s CYRENIA.
  7. Θάνος Μικρούτσικος, Οι Εφτά Νάνοι στο S/S CYRENIA
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