New Zealand Line liner Rangitata used as troop carrier."sample doesn't appear on the picture."

Beautiful picture framed in a 25 x 20 cm, (10 x 8 inch) size clipframe.

Rangitata

by Arthur James Burgess

In this picture the Rangitata is seen in her grey war paint escorted by tugs while entering port. She was converted to a troop transport in 1940 with her sisters Rangitiki and Rangitane and they could carry 2,600 troops.

The Rangitiki had a lucky escape when the convoy she was part of was attacked in mid Atlantic by the German pocket battleship Admiral Sheer on November 5th 1940.

It was only through the extraordinary heroism of their escort, the armed merchantmen Jervis Bay, that the convoy was able to scatter and disperse, Rangitiki being one of the lucky ships to escape.

The third sister was not so lucky, she was intercepted off the New Zealand coast by the German auxiliary cruisers Orion and Komet on November 27th 1940. The Rangitane was shelled and badly damaged then sunk by torpedoes. 299 survivors were taken aboard the enemy ships, and 16 men were killed in the attack.

This picture, in its tones of greys and browns, expresses the lonely and unfussed comings and goings of great liners during the dangerous and sad days of war. They were the backbone of Britain's fight for survival, bringing in the food and supplies to keep the nation from dying, as well as carrying the thousands of troops to the theatres of war around the world.