K’gari’s most famous shipwreck is that of the TSS Maheno on the island’s eastern shore. The TSS Maheno was owned by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand and more significantly, it was designated as the NZ Hospital Ship TSS Maheno (HMNZHS No 1) in WW1.
Launched in 1905, the TSS Maheno was used as a passenger ship primarily on the trans-Tasman run between Australia and New Zealand. The TSS Maheno held the speed records for the crossing for almost two decades.
The Twin Screw Steamship (TSS) Maheno was launched in 1905 (Photo: NZ Maritime Museum) 
Transferring Gallipoli wounded to the Maheno in 1915 (National Army Museum Te Mata Toa) 
The Maheno runs aground during a storm off K’gari in 1935 
The Maheno lives on in our memories and through our photos (Photo: Sue Sargent)
At the start of WW1, the Maheno was chartered by the New Zealand Government, converted, and named HMNZ Hospital Ship No. 1. Much of the TSS Maheno’s medical equipment was funded by successful public appeals to the New Zealand people.
The first voyage of the Maheno as a hospital ship was from 7 July 1915 to 1 January 1916, arriving at Anzac (Cove) on Gallipoli for the first time on 26 August 1915.
The military records show that the TSS Maheno retrieved the injured of all nationalities, with most soldiers being Australians.
From Gallipoli, the ship carried these soldiers to hospitals at Lemnos, Malta, Alexandria, and Southampton before eventually returning to New Zealand with the most severely wounded from that country.
From her arrival at Anzac on 26 August until 8 October 2015, the Maheno embarked 2,350 cases of which 331 were New Zealanders. After Gallipoli, the ship served between ports in France and Belgium carrying the wounded and dying from the major battles on the Somme and around Ypres. By the end of the war, the TSS Maheno had transported 14,361 sick and wounded soldiers.
After WW1, the TSS Maheno was refitted as a passenger liner returning to the trans-Tasman run. Sadly, because of the Great Depression and increased efficiency by the newer ships, she was laid up from 1931 to 1934 before being retired in 1935.
The ship was sold soon after to a Japanese company for scrap metal. In July 1935, while being towed to Japan, a winter cyclone caused the tow line to break and the TSS Maheno was pushed onto the eastern beach of K’gari where, after several unsuccessful attempts to refloat the valuable hulk, it remains today.
The TSS Maheno had one further use in a time of conflict – in WWII, the wreck was used for commando training by the Z-Force Commando (a precursor to the SAS) and for bombing practice by the RAAF.
The wreck of the TSS Maheno serves as a fitting focal point for one of K’gari’s Anzac Remembrance Services (hosted by the Rotary Club of Brisbane Highrise) held on 25 April every year.
Each year we lose more of the Maheno to the sea that holds her. But she will continue to live on in the memories and millions of photos taken by her visitors. #LestWeForget
Article compiled by Sue Sargent, FINIA
FINIA 