The Rangitiki, Rangitata & Rangitane were conceived of in 1925 and ordered in 1927 for the New Zealand Shipping Company for use on their United Kingdom - New Zealand service, as competition for other shipping lines. The order was placed with the John Brown Co, Glasgow, all three ships entered service during 1929. The regular service route was London - Curacao - Panama - Papeete - Wellington & Auckland. As an added attraction for the passengers the ships were routed to include Tahiti and Pitcairn Island, at the latter a two hour stopover allowed the local islanders to come out to the ship to trade their hand made curios with the passengers.

These were the first diesel powered ships ordered for the New Zealand Shipping Company. The existance of a contract between the British postal authorities and the shipping company allowed the use of the title 'Royal Mail Ship' for these three vessels.

The ships could be expected to make two and a half round trips each year. It would take thirty five days to travel from London to Auckland followed by twenty eight days to unload & reload the ship. Then it was another thirty five days back to London followed by forty two days to unload & reload prior to heading back to New Zealand.

Initially the ships operated from Plymouth but by the mid-1930's were operating out of the docks in London's East End. During the World War II their sailings were transferred to Liverpool.

Rangitiki

The Rangitiki was launched on August 29th 1928, her trials revealed an unstable condition when in ballast. Topside modifications were made to alleviate this condition prior to entering regular service. The Rangitiki departed Southampton on her maiden voyage February 15th, 1929 to Wellington, New Zealand, sailing via Madeira and the Panama Canal. Journey time was about five weeks. After completing the return trip to the United Kingdom the ship underwent further modifications to improve her stability. These alterations affected the bridge structure including the associated deck, shortening of the two funnels, and the adding of more permanent ballast. These changes were made to the other two vessels prior to their delivery from the shipyard.

The next ten years would see the three ships working between the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The ships would provide an avenue of emigration for many starting a new life in New Zealand, whilst on the return the ships, with their large refridgerated holds would carry much meat, dairy products and wool.

With the arrival of World War II the ships continued to make their long journeys across the globe, though their 'passengers' would now have special needs, such as the transport of many children from the United Kingdom to safer places such as Australia, and later for the movement of troops to many destinations. These movements were fraught with danger, particularly on the North Atlantic crossing with the threat of attack by U-Boats, surface raiders and aircraft. In November 1940 the Rangitiki sailed with thirty seven ships as part of Convoy HX84 from the USA to the UK, the ship's large profile with its two funnels would make it a prime target should the convoy be attacked. The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer located and attacked the convoy, which was ordered to scatter. The only Allied escort, the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay drew fire from the Admiral Scheer allowing the prime target of the Rangitiki to escape along with thirty one other members of the convoy.

Another German capital ship to set its sights on a convoy that included the Rangitiki was the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. Whilst sailing as part of Convoy WS5 late in December 1940 the Admiral Hipper commenced shadowing the convoy southwards some seven hundred miles west of Cape Finnesterre. The Admiral Hipper chose to wait for the daylight of Christmas Day 1940 prior to attacking what it thought was a normal trade convoy. This assumption was quickly proved wrong to the Admiral Hipper when the first ship it attacked was the heavy cruiser Berwick. The Hipper diverted its fire to the scattering convoy and was able to seriously damage the Empire Trooper. The threat of a torpedo attack from the Allied destroyers led to the Hipper breaking off the action. The convoy reconstituted and reached Freetown on January 6th 1941, spending two days here prior to sailing for Cape Town, reaching here on January 21st 1941. After passage through the Red Sea the convoy reached Suez on February 16th 1941.

On August 3rd 1941 the Rangitiki sailed with convoy WS 10 from the United Kingdom bound for Suez. Freetown was reached on August 17th 1941, leaving on August 21st 1941, Rangitiki was in the section of ships bound for Durban for refuelling. Suez was reached late in September 1941. Also sailing as part of this convoy was the Sulzer powered Indrapoera. By late October Rangitiki was noted at Columbo, sailing from here on October 31st 1941 as part of convoy WS 11X for Singapore, arriving here on November 6th 1941.

The Rangitiki sailed from the Clyde on June 29th 1942 as part of convoy WS 21. Also in the convoy was the Sulzer powered Aorangi. Freetown was reached on August 10th 1942, departing August 15th 1942. Cape Town was passed on August 27th 1942, the Rangitiki being in the group of ships set to refuel at Durban, though the ultimate destination for the Rangitiki is not recorded.

On December 12th 1942 the Rangitiki sailed from the United Kindom as part of convoy WS 25. The convoy arrived at Freetown on New Year's Eve 1942 and departed on January 3rd 1943. Durban was reached on January 18th 1943 where the ships dispersed to various destinations.

The Rangitiki sailed from the United Kingdom on June 21st 1943 as part of the joint convoys WS 31 & KMF 17. The latter convoy was bound for the Mediterranean, the split occurring on June 26th 1943, the Rangitiki going east with convoy KMF 17.

The Rangitiki was equipped with a stern mounted gun and possibly anti-aircraft guns.

Troop movements included visits to ports on the North African coast, the ship was present at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria having brought in troops from the United Kingdom for the invasion of North Africa.

The end of the war saw no rest for the ship, ferrying immigrants from Europe to Australia, war brides to the United States and returning soon to be demobbed servicemen back to civvy street.

After a decade and a half of long distance service, including the challenges of five years of wartime operations the time had arrived for refurbishment of the two remaining ships prior to their long term return to their bread & butter workings. Thus for ten months during 1947/48 each ship was refurbished at a cost of £1,500.000. This included the removal of the Sulzer engines with replacement Doxford vertically opposed two-stroke diesels, providing an increased output of 12,920bhp.

The first voyage of the refurbished Rangitiki commenced on September 26th 1948. The trip from Southampton to Wellington took five weeks, arriving on October 27th 1948. Passengers and crew on this trip encountered very mixed weather conditions - a week of hurricane force conditions was followed by a heatwave towards the end of the voyage.

During 1961 on the fourth to last voyage whilst crossing the Pacific heading towards Panama the bottom skirt of a piston became disconnected and dropped out of the piston liner. The engine stopped quickly but caused serious damage. The one good engine took the ship to Callao, Peru where engineers dismantled the unit and sealed off the scavenges with welded steel plates, allowing the ship to make it home to London with the damaged engine operating with five pistons.

As with many other ocean passenger services, times had changed for Rangitiki with air travel and newer ships creating declining passenger loadings for this veteran. A replacement vessel was obtained, being the retired Cunard passenger-cargo liner Parthia, which was renamed Remuera. On the last voyage out to New Zealand the Rangitiki passed the Rangitata on her final voyage to the UK. The ships passed close enough for passengers and crew to raise a cheer and recognise that this event would not happen again for these two ships. The final voyage (number 87) from Wellington occured in May 1962 arriving at London on July 13th 1962.

The ship was sold for scrap, with a skeleton crew it made the brief voyage to Santander, Spain arriving on July 26th 1962. She was later broken up for scrap in Valencia.

Rangitata

From a postcard of the Rangitata.

Rangitata was completed in October 1929 and commenced her maiden voyage to New Zealand on November 22, 1929.

In July, 1930 a little over one year into her long career, Rangitata was in the news having rescued the crew of the cargo ship Targis, which had caught fire in the South Atlantic.

As well as her passenger complement the Rangitata carried a wide variety of cargo. On a sailing from London to Wellington in March 1935 the ship carried four crated Vickers Vildebeest aircraft for the New Zealand Air Force. The planes arrived safely in Auckland on April 1935. Most of this shipment of aircraft had relatively short flying careers, most had been written off in accidents by 1940. However the second of the batch shipped, number NZ102 Mk III Type 277 survived at least until 1944 and eventually was put on display at RNZAF Museum, Wigram.

In 1937 the Rangitata carried Anzac troops to England in celebration of the coronation of King George VI.

During December 1939 the Rangitata was requisitioned as a personnel carrier and served as a passenger transport ship until 1941 when it was converted to a troopship with a capacity of 2,600 troops.

With the bombing of many cities in the United Kingdom a plan was set in motion to transport children to safer areas within the colonies. One such sailing took place from Liverpool during September 1940 to New Zealand arriving there during the first week of October 1940

On February 9th 1941 the Rangitata set sail from the United Kingdom as part of convoy WS6A bound for Suez. The convoy reached Freetown on March 1st 1941, it is not recorded as to whether the Rangitata then sailed for the next stop of Cape Town or Durban. The convoy reached Suez late in April 1941.

On June 30th 1941 the Rangitata formed part of convoy WS 9B bound for Suez. The convoy arrived at Freetown on July 13th 1941 and sailed out on July 16th 1941, with the Rangitata bound for Cape Town. The Rangitata detached from the convoy here, its destination is not known.

On April 15th 1942 the Rangitata sailed from the United Kingdom as part of convoy WS 18. Freetown was reached on April 29th 1942, departing here on May 3rd 1942. The convoy arrived off Capetown on May 15th 1942, the Rangitata was in that part of the convoy due to refuel at Durban. However a minefield had been laid recently by the raider Doggerbank, two ships fell victim to the mines. After unloading at Durban it appears the Rangitata returned to the United Kingdom.

The Rangitata sailed from the United Kingdom on August 29th 1942 as part of convoy WS 22, also sailing in the convoy was the Sulzer powered Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt. Freetown was reached on September 9th 1942, departure was on September 13th 1942, joining the convoy at Freetown was the Sibajak, another Sulzer engined ship. The convoy reached Cape Town on September 25th 1942, however for the Rangitata the refuelling would take place at Durban, arriving here on September 29th 1942. Here the convoy was joined by several other ships including the Sulzer engined Felix Roussel & Indrapoera! These five ships would not remain together long, the Rangitata arrived at Mombasa on October 12th 1942, the others split between Aden/Suez & Bombay.

Joint convoy WS 28 & KMF 11 sailed from the United Kingdom on March 16th 1943 including the Rangitata & the Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt. On March 21st 1943 the convoys split with KMF 11 heading into the Mediterranean which included the two Sulzer engined ships.

Convoys KMF 20 & WS 32 sailed from the United Kingdom on July 27th 1943, included in the WS 32 section was the Rangitata. On the evening of July 25th 1943 the KMF 20 section headed east, whilst WS 32 headed south, reaching Freetown on July 28th 1943. At Freetown the convoy increased by two ships and sailed on August 5th 1943, reaching Cape Town on August 18th 1943 and Durban on August 22nd 1943. Five ships sailed on from here to Aden/Suez & Bombay but the Rangitata was not one of them.

The Rangitata was returned to civilian control August 15th 1946. Like the Rangitiki it returned to its familiar London - Panama - Wellington route, including the transport of many people leaving the United Kingdom for a hoped for better life in New Zealand.

During 1957 Sir Anthony Eden, the former Conservative Prime Minister, took a cruise on the Rangitata.

On a northbound crossing December 1959/ January 1960 the Rangitata ran into a storm in the Atlantic some 1,600 miles out from England. During the storm the timing chain on the starboard engine broke, putting the engine out of action. It took quite a while to fix the timing chain, the remaining engine providing steerage to combat the stormy weather.

After her final voyage to the United Kingdom in May 1962 the Rangitiki was sold to Dutch breakers who renamed her Rang. However the reprieve was brief, she was duly sold to a Yugoslavian Company who had her broken up by a breaker in Split.

Rangitane

From a postcard of the Rangitane. Hull #522 from John Brown

Rangitane was the last of the trio to be built by John Brown of Clydebank. She was completed in November 1929, and departed Southampton on December 20, 1929 for her maiden voyage to New Zealand. And like her two sisters the Rangitane would spend the next ten years plying between the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

However the Rangitane would become a casualty of hostilities during World War II.

The Rangitane's last southbound sailing started on September 25th 1940 from Liverpool bound for Wellington. Included in the passenger list were 113 children en-route to a safer life in New Zealand. Unfortunately a week before the City of Benares had been torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 77 children being evacuated from the UK. In the week following further children continued to sail out of the UK, but the Rangitane would reverse course and her young passengers disembarked back at Liverpool, a quick turn round and her speed were used to catch up with the convoy.

It would be late November before the Rangitane was ready to sail northwards, loading 14,000 tons of cargo was a time consuming task. And whilst making this voyage the Rangitane crossed paths with two German merchant raiders, the Komet and the Orion, some 320 miles north of East Cape, New Zealand. The story starts however with another vessel, the SS Holmwood, a 546 ton steamer which was travelling from the Chatham Islands bound for Lyttleton with several passengers and a cargo of sheep. Its journey would put it in close proximity to the Rangitane.

The two German raiders had been on patrol for eighteen days without achieving any successes when they came upon the SS Holmwood. The lack of their success in finding Allied shipping also meant that their location and movements remained unknown to the Allied authorities. The SS Holmwood was an easy victim for the heavily armed raiders, providing them with useful supplies including fresh sheep! The significant non-event of major import to the Rangitane was that the SS Holmwood did not transmit any radio messages during this confrontation. Any attempts to send messages or attempts by the Germans to jam them would have been picked up by authorities in New Zealand and subsequently relayed to ships such as the Rangitane.

The Rangitane had cleared Auckland harbor and overnighted clear of the channel prior to setting out on her trans-Pacific voyage on Monday November 25th. She was fully laden with dairy produce, frozen meat, and wool for the United Kingdom. Her crew numbered about 200, considerably in excess of the 111 passengers. Early in the morning of November 27th and about 300 miles north east of East Cape the two German raiders and their supply ship Kulmerland made contact with the Rangitane. The German reports of the action indicate that on first contact the raiders believed they had come across a large Allied warship, possibly a cruiser and opted for a skirmishing action in the hope that at least some of the German vessels might escape. It was not until the German raiders turned on their searchlights that the true identity of the Rangitane was established.

The Rangitane had received some armaments, a five inch gun and some light anti-aircraft guns, which the Captain was loath to use because of the passengers carried on the ship.

Captain L Upton of the Rangitane instructed the wireless office to transmit the ‘suspicious ship message’ and when the enemy opened fire, to broadcast the ‘raider message’. Considerable manouevring and continued gunfire took place, the latter stopped when Captain advised the raiders of women and children being on board. Damage to Rangitane's steering gear made further manouevring impossible so the ship came to a stop. About twenty minutes had transpired since the start of the action. There were eleven fatalities on the ship, five passengers and five crew, either from the shelling or drowning. Six others would die later from injuries sustained. The shelling had caused considerable damage starting fires on the ship. The engineroom staff caused damage to the engines to ensure the German's could not take the vessel as a prize. The arrival of a German boarding party led to the orderly evacuation of the ship. Once the ship was evacuated the Rangitane was sunk by torpedoes and gunfire, disappearing under the waves at 6.30am in some thirteen thousand feet of water.

The three German ships sailed rapidly in a north-easterly direction. The Rangitane's radio messages had reached authorities, the HMNZS Achilles was dispatched from Lyttelton at her maximuum speed of 25 knots. HMNZS Puriri at Auckland and under repair sailed twelve hours later. Two flying-boats, the Aotearoa from Auckland and the Awarua from Sydney also joined the search. The rescuers found little, just an oil slick and debris floating on the surface. By the time the Achilles reached the site of the sinking at noon on November 28th the oil slick now stretched across nine miles of ocean. No trace could be found of the three German ships.

One passenger and two crew would recieve the British Empire Medal for the assistance in rescuing survivors.

For the Rangitane the story ends here, but for the survivors the adventure would continue - the link at the bottom of this page makes for an interesting read.

General Details

Built: John Brown company, Glasgow 1928/29
Launched: 1929
Displacement: 16,975 tons
Length: 552 feet
Breadth: 70 feet
Draught: 34.1 feet
Propulsion (original): Two two-stroke single acting 5cyl Brown Sulzer 5S90 diesels (900mm bore) - Rangitiki and Rangitata were re-engined with Doxford O/P engines c1949.
Propulsion (after 1947/48 refit): Two Doxford vertically opposed two stroke diesels of 12,920bhp combined
Auxiliary engines: Two x 6SS38, two Weir-Sulzer (225hp each) and one Weir-Sulzer (60hp) totalling 2,070hp
Screws: Two
Speed: 15 knots (16 knots after re-engining)
Passengers: 100 first class, 86 second class, 410 third class when built - all three
Passengers: 122 first class, 284 tourist class - postwar - Rangitiki and Rangitata only

The Rangitane : an indepth look at the history surrounding its loss.

Page added July 14th 2007

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