The White Ships

The army doctor who cabled to ask whether he or the ship's captain run the MAHENO and who also denied army nurses their legitimte officer status; the interfering governor    

whom critics accused of making the ships 'His Exc's pet patriotic hobby'; the ship's officer sickened at attaching weights to sea burials that failed to sink. These are just some of characters you will meet in The White Ships.

The hospital ships MAHENO and MARAMA were the war's poster ships. In 1915, as casualties mounted at Gallipoli, the government took them over. Encouraged by Governor Liverpool, New Zealanders dug deep to fit them out and provide comforts for their patients. The MAHENO's seafarers were are only significant batch of civilians at Gallipoli. By war's end the ships had carried 47,000 people.

This first book in the Centenial History of New Zealand and the First World War tells the story of the hospital ships. Based on extensive research, it brings to life a mixed crew of ship owners, politicians, mariners, doctors, nurses and patients as they battle sea-sickness, explore foreign lands, pull rank, mutiny, squabble over privilages and bitch about foodwhile still managing to care for patients under difficult and often dangerous circumstances. Life on a hospital ship was no pleasure cruise.

Much more than a book directed at maritime or medical history buffs, The White Ships illustrates many of the war's big issues. It explores the role of government, from the relationship between the governor and his ministers to New Zealand's relationship with British officials, especially over transport allocation. On the home front, it examines community fundraising and soldier support, attitudes to alcohol, labour relations and -using private business records - the vexed question of war profits and profiteering.