Monowai 1930-1960

Built as RAZMAK in 1925 by Harland & Wolff, Greenock for P & O. Length 152 metres. Twin screw steam. Speed 15 knots. Passengers 392. GRT 10852. Purchased by Union Company in 1930 for use on trans-Pacific service replacing TAHITIi after the latters sinking. Saw extensive war service first as an armed merchant cruiser and latter as a troop carrier. Resumed trans Tasman after and was the last passenger ship operated by Union Company on the trans-Tasman service and did annual cruises to Fiordland and Pacific islands. Sold to breakers at Hong Kong in July 1960. 

Evening Post 15 October 1945

One of the proudest stories in New Zealand's merchant shipping history may now be told. It is the story of the Union Steam Ship Company's MONOWAI, which, first as an armed merchantman, and then as an assault ship, has steamed the oceans during the war.

As a naval vessel in the Pacific, as a first-line assault ship in the Normandy landings, and as a troopship in the Far East, she has been in most places where history was being made, and has come through unscathed. Captain G. B. Morgan, D.5.0., D.S.C, the Union Company's best-known skipper, and formerly commander of the AWATEA, has been master since the beginning of last year. He brought her into Liverpool last week with prisoners of war from Singapore. Few British merchant ships can have had a more varied career. After being taken over by the naval authorities, the liner was converted early in the war into an armed merchant cruiser for escort duties, some of her tasks being in convoying drafts to Fiji and the Fanning Islands. It was off Suva in January, 1942, that the MONOWAI was first in action. She was attacked by a Japanese submarine which, after a brief exchange of fire, broke off the action and dived.

On the completion of long service in the Pacific, the MONOWAI arrived at Liverpool in June, 1943, and was handed over to the Ministry of War Transport for conversion into an assault ship, known in the service as landing ship, infantry. Her New Zealand naval crew, with one exception, were transferred during conversion, and when she was ready for sea in February, 1944, the MONOWAI had only four Dominion officers, Captain Morgan, Mr. J. Billingham, chief officer, of Auckland, Mr. H. Simmond, D.S.C, chief engineer, of Port Chalmers, and Mr. M. Hurley, purser. Mr. A. Packman, who remained with the liner, is the only person who has been with the vessel throughout the war. The Monowai since has been joined by several engineer officers from New Zealand

The conversion was a lengthy task, for accommodation had to be provided for troops and provision made to carry 20 assault landing craft, which enabled her to land between 800 and 900 fully equipped infantrymen. On April 12, 1944, the ship joined the invasion armies as a unit of J Force at Southampton, and began a period of training in preparation for the landings. When the Monowai put her Canadian troops ashore in Normandy on D Day it was the second time that a Now Zealand merchant ship had been in the first line of a major invasion during the war.

In 1942 the AWATEA made history off Algiers—"a merchant ship that fought like a battleship"-—and it was the same captain who took the Monowai to another historic beach-head. The MONOWAI put her men ashore and returned safely to England. "The Navy looked after us pretty well," commented the captain. Then began a shuttle service across the Channel, running the gauntlet of mines, submarines, and light coastal craft month after month. "We were dead lucky," said Captain Morgan. "It was a case of operating all the time in mined areas, plus everything else combined." Between November and April, 1945, the Monowai made 46 trips across the Channel from Southampton, flrst to the three main beach-heads, Utah, Omaha, and Juno, and then later to Le Havre. In this period she carried 74,163 troops to France and brought back 1307.

The approach of the end of the war in Europe brought new work to the liner. From April to June she ran between Marseilles and Odessa, taking Russian repatriates one way and returning with French, Belgian, and Dutch. In June she picked up a draft of Indian troops returning home from Italy. Captain Morgan spoke with affection of these men, for they were troops of the Ist Battalion of the 8th Gurkha Rifles, one of the crack British regiments, with four Victoria Crosses to its credit. Throughout the war it had been closely associated with the New Zealand Division, and the men were delighted to be repatriated on a New Zealand ship. At the end of the voyage, as a mark of gratitude for the kindness and attention they received on board, the troops presented Captain Morgan with a kukri, the Gurkha's traditional weapon. 

Returning to Suez for more Indian troops, the MONOWAI was nominated for the role of an assault ship in the next Far East invasion, but the Japanese surrender came before this was necessary, and the vessel sailed for Madras with an administrative staff and soldiers in the second merchant convoy to enter Singapore, arriving a few days after the surrender. She was the first ship to leave Singapore with British prisoners of war, and made a quick voyage to Liverpool, where she is now under refit before resuming war service.

There is no immediate prospect of the MONOWAI returning to New Zealand, as she is likely to be at least sx months running between Britain and the Far East. When her service is completed, Captain Morgan is going to present the Devonport Dockyard Chapel at Auckland with a model of the Tainui canoe and a chieftain's cloak, which were given by the Tainui Maoris when the ship was commissioned as an armed merchant cruiser. Following the example of the captain of H.M.S. New Zealand in the Great War, Captain Morgan wore the cloak whenever action seemed imminent.