SS Wairuna

SS ''Wairuna'', originally called D/S ''Schneefels'', then SS ''Gibraltar'' and SS ''Polescar'', was a cargo steamship that was launched in Germany in 1913. She had a varied career spanning three decades under successive German, British and New Zealand owners before being scuttled in the North Atlantic in 1945.

Building

The ship was built by Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft of Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein. She was launched on 13 November 1913 and completed on 1 January 1914. She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of that heated three 185 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of .

The ship was launched as D/S ''Schneefels'' for the Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (DDG Hansa). D/S stands for ''Dampfschiff'', just as "SS" stands for "Steamship" in English. DDG Hansa gave many of its ships names ending in ''-fels'' ("rock"), (''e.g.'' D/S ''Freienfels'', D/S ''Uhenfels'', D/S ''Wachtfels''), so that collectively they became known as the "Fels ships".

First World War

On 5 August 1914, a week after the outbreak of the First World War, ''Schneefels'' was in the Mediterranean a mile off Europa Point when the Royal Navy captured her and took her to Gibraltar. She was judged to be a prize ship and was renamed ''Gibraltar''. She was posted to Moudros in the Aegean Sea where she served as a store ship until 1915. From then until 1916 she served as a water carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.

In August 1916 the ship was returned to general cargo duties. She remained in UK Government ownership but was placed under the management of Houlder, Middleton and Company and renamed ''Polescar''. In 1917 her management was transferred to G Heyn and Sons of Belfast. On 14 March 1917 she was northwest of Ireland when an enemy submarine on the surface chased her, but she outran it. On 25 September 1917 she was unloading at Dunkirk to Le Havre. About southwest of St Catherine's Point she was damaged by a torpedo fired by the German submarine SM ''UC-71'', but ''Polescar''s crew managed to beach the ship to prevent her from sinking.

Between the wars

The British-India Steam Navigation Company bought her in January 1919 but sold her the next month for £146,000 to the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand.
The Union Line renamed her ''Wairuna'', which had been the name of a cargo ship sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser in 1917.

In 1921 the Union Company had her converted to carry oil cargo in her double bottoms. On 5 August 1925 ''en route'' from San Francisco to New Zealand ''Wairuna'' ran out of coal north of Auckland. She had radioed distress messages and was rescued by another Union Company ship, the ''Waihemo''.

On 4 February 1933, a day after leaving Newcastle, New South Wales, ''Wairuna'' lost a blade from her propeller. She completed her voyage to Auckland on its remaining blades. On 2 March 1936 she collided with Glasgow Wharf at Napier, New Zealand. Wharf piles were damaged but the ship was unharmed. On 8 February 1937 she was in San Francisco when fire broke out in her cargo of copra. The ship was extensively damaged, with some buckling of her plates.

Second World War and after

During the Second World War ''Wairuna'' continued in merchant service in the Pacific. In 1945 the Union Company sold her to the UK MoWT. The MoWT appointed J&J Denholm to manage her, and she served as a store ship on the River Clyde. On 5 August 1945 she was at Greenock when a fire destroyed much of her upperworks.

In October 1945 ''Wairuna''s hulk was loaded with 8,432 tons of unused chemical ammunition and on 30 October she was scuttled in the North Atlantic beyond the continental shelf, 120 nautical miles (138 miles; 222 km) northwest of Ireland. Her wreck is at in of water.

''Wairuna'' was one of four redundant cargo ships that the Admiralty used to dispose of chemical ammunition in the same area of the North Atlantic in 1945. The others were on 11 September, on 1 October, and on 30 December.

Relic

The ship's bell has been preserved. It is cast brass and bears her original name ''Schneefels''.

References

External links

* — includes photographs of the ship as ''Wairuna'', and of her preserved bell bearing her original name ''Schneefels''
* — includes another photograph of the ship as ''Wairuna''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wairuna
1913 ships
Maritime incidents in October 1945
Prize warfare
Scuttled vessels of the United Kingdom
Ships of the Union Steam Ship Company
Steamships of Germany
Steamships of New Zealand
Steamships of the United Kingdom
World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
World War I merchant ships of Germany