Last night the Minister
for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Hon Christopher Finlayson, launched Gavin
McLean’s book The White Ships: New Zealand’s First World War Hospital
Ships, in the historic boardroom of the Museum of Wellington, City and Sea.
The White Ships is the
first book in a Ministry-led multi-agency publishing programme of histories of
New Zealand’s First World War experience. The series, which will also
include contributions by Massey University and the New Zealand Defence Force,
will total at least 13 books. The second Ministry title, New Zealand and the
First World War (Penguin), goes on sale on 25 October.
The hospital ships were the ‘poster
ships’ of the war. Fitted out with the help of public donations, refitted at
Port Chalmers in an amazing 4-5 weeks, and always well-reported back home, they
eventually carried 47,000 patients.
It wasn’t all smooth. There
were tensions between the governor and his minister over their control, the
senior army doctor thought he should boss around the Maheno’s
captain, the same doctor tried to deny army nurses officer status and there was
a mutiny off Malta. But the ships worked well and the Maheno’s merchant
seamen made a little-known civilian contribution to Gallipoli.
The 208-page hardback is
published by the New Zealand Ship & Marine Society. Copies may be obtained
from selected booksellers or from the Society http://www.nzshipmarine.com/node/1558
ISSBN: 978-0-473-24977-9
$60 RRP
Photo caption:
Emcee Neill Atkinson prepares to introduce the speakers (seated, from right to
left, Captain Mike Pryce, author Gavin McLean and Minister Christopher
Finlayson). – Fran McGowan
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