TSS Tahiti 1911-1930

The TSS Tahiti was originally built in Scotland by Alexander Stephen and Sons in 1904. At the time it was named the Port Kingston and owned by the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service Co. It was anchoring at Kingston, Jamaica when the city was struck with a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1907. The ship was grounded twice, once when the water receded and again when it surged back to shore. It was refloated and served as a hospital ship to aid the local hospital in recovering from the disaster. In 1910 the Port Kingston ceased its usual route and was laid up in Avonmouth.

In 1911 the Union Steam Ship Company (USSCo) purchased the ship and renamed it TSS Tahiti, Tahiti being the location of one of the USSCo's offices. The ship ran on the Trans-Pacific line for the USSCo but during the First World War it served a stint as a troop ship, converted into HMNZ Transport No.4 (later known as HMNZ Transport No.5 and then HMNZ Transport No.25). During the war it sailed to Egypt, Gallipoli, Marseille and the UK. Notably, it was used to bring back to Wellington the first load of casualties from Gallipoli.

In 1918 the ship was transporting troops from New Zealand to England and stopped in Freetown, Sierra Leone to meet with a convoy. While there, despite quarantine measures being in place, the soldiers became infected with the Spanish flu. By the time it arrived in England 68 of the 1,117 passengers and 100 crew had died, with nine more dying from the sickness once ashore.

In 1919 the ship was returned to the USSCo, and the name Tahiti, it was converted for oil and in 1921 it returned to the San Francisco route. In 1927 the Tahiti collided with a ferry in Sydney Harbour. The ferry sank, killing 40 if its 120 passengers.

On 15 August 1930, while on voyage from Wellington to Vancouver, the ship suffered a fractured tail shaft that caused it to take on water. Nearby ships responded and when Tahiti began to sink they took onboard the evacuated passengers. Despite the best efforts of the crew over the next three days the ship wasn't able to be recovered. After recovering the mail cargo they abandoned ship. The TSS Tahiti sank 460 miles south of Rarotonga, all crew and passengers were rescued.