RMS Niagara was a transpacific steam ocean liner, Royal Mail Ship and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1912 in Scotland and sunk in 1940 by a mine off the coast of New Zealand.
Her regular route was between Sydney and Vancouver via Auckland, Suva and Honolulu. In her 27-year career she made 162 round trips between Australia, New Zealand and Canada and sailed nearly .
Niagara was owned firstly by the Union Company, and later by the Canadian-Australasian Line, which was jointly owned by the Union Company and Canadian Pacific. Like many Union Company ships, she was registered in London in the United Kingdom.
Niagara was built to burn either coal or oil. She was the first oil-burning steamship to be certified by the Board of Trade to carry passengers. When new, Niagara was the largest merchant ship yet owned by a New Zealand company. In 1914 and 1915 she set a number of speed records for crossing the Tasman Sea.
In 1918 Niagara was instrumental in the spread of Spanish flu to New Zealand. When she was sunk in 1940, Niagara was carrying about 8 tons of gold bars. Divers recovered 555 bars in 1941, and another 30 in 1953, but five gold bars remain unaccounted for.
Niagara was bunkered with oil when she sank. Heavy fuel oil has leaked from her bunker tanks ever since, and has caused some environmental damage in and around Hauraki Gulf. Some oil remains in her wreck, and the scale of environmental threat it may pose continues to be debated.
Building John Brown & Company built Niagara in Clydebank, Glasgow. Laura Borden, wife of Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden, launched her on 17 August 1912. Niagara was completed in March 1913. She was long, her beam was and her tonnages were and .
Some of Niagaras holds were refrigerated for perishable cargo. When she was new, her number one (forward) hold was not refrigerated.
When new, Niagara was the largest ship in the Union Company's fleet and the largest ship owned by a New Zealand company.
Before she was launched, Niagara was nicknamed "The Titanic of the Pacific". After the Titanic sank in April 1912 this was changed to "The Queen of the Pacific".
Propulsion Niagara had three screws. Her port and starboard screws were each driven by a four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. Exhaust steam from the low-pressure cylinder of each of these engines powered a Parsons low-pressure steam turbine that drove her middle screw.
The combination of three screws, two piston engines and one low-pressure turbine had been pioneered in the New Zealand Shipping Company's refrigerated cargo liner , launched in 1908. The same company then ordered a passenger liner with a similar combination, , which was launched in 1910. The giant s and several other passenger liners had also been built with similar "combination machinery". It offered better fuel economy and speed than propulsion purely by piston engines, and more flexibility than pure turbine propulsion.
Niagara had two double-ended and six single-ended boilers, heated by a total of 40 corrugated furnaces. The boilers supplied steam at 220 lbf/in2 to the high-pressure cylinders of her triple-expansion engines. She was equipped to burn either coal or oil. On her maiden voyage she burnt coal.
Niagara was the first oil-burning steamship to be certificated by the Board of Trade to carry passengers. Oil was both a more efficient fuel and could be bunkered more quickly. In 1913 it could take a week to bunker a large liner with enough coal to get from Sydney to Vancouver, and she would need to be bunkered again in Vancouver to make the return voyage. Niagaras fuel tanks had capacity for 5,000 tons of oil, and she could bunker enough oil in 30 hours to make a round trip from Sydney to Vancouver and back. This was a valuable saving in both time and harbour dues.
Accommodation
Niagara was built with berths for 281 first class, 210 second class and 176 third class passengers. Her first class accommodation was amidships, spread over her main, upper, shelter and promenade decks and included two cabins de luxe, each with its own bathroom. Her second class accommodation was aft, and third class accommodation was in the forward part of the ship.
Much of Niagaras interior décor was in historicist styles. One of her first class cabins de luxe was in Louis XIV style. Her other cabin de luxe and her first class music room were in Adam style. Her first class dining saloon, lounge and library, and second-class music and smoking rooms were all in Louis XVI style. Her second class dining saloon was in Georgian style. The ceilings of the first class dining saloon and smoking room each had a domed skylight. The Daily Telegraph in Sydney called Niagara "a magnificent liner".
Niagara had her own hospital. Mindful of the great loss of life on the Titanic in April 1912, the Union Company stressed that Niagara had enough lifeboats for all her passengers and crew. She also carried a steam launch.
Sister ship
At the end of 1913 the Union Company ordered a running mate for Niagara from the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Govan, Glasgow. She was to be a sister ship, but longer and a greater tonnage (15300 grt). Unlike Niagara, the new ship was propelled entirely by turbines, and had only two screws. She was launched on 30 June 1915 as Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand.
The Admiralty requisitioned Aotearoa and renamed her . She was completed on 14 December 1915 as an armed merchant cruiser. U-boat U-69 sank her with a torpedo on 14 June 1917 at 61°01'48"N 3°34'12"W, between the Faeroes and Shetlands.
Entry into service
The Union Company was based in New Zealand but it registered its ships in London. Many members of her crew were Australian, and they were employed under Australian articles.
Niagara was built for the Union Company's transpacific service between Australia and Vancouver via New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii. It was informally called the All-Red Line, like the telegraph cable network of the same name.
However, her maiden voyage was to deliver her from Scotland to Australia. She sailed from Glasgow via Plymouth, Durban and Melbourne to Sydney. She reached Melbourne on 22 April 1913 and Sydney on 24 April.
When Niagara reached Melbourne the Auckland Star called her "an unsinkable ship" and praised her as "one of the most palatial and up-to-date steamers seen in Australia". When she reached Auckland a fortnight later, the Auckland Star said her arrival marked "a new epoch in the growth of New Zealand's trans-oceanic trade". Stressing her large cargo capacity, the newspaper said "She cannot fail to encourage trade between New Zealand and Canada", and that she would "inevitably aid the great work of consolidating the Empire".
Niagara was scheduled to leave Sydney on 5 May on her first voyage to Vancouver. She returned from Vancouver and reached Auckland on 1 July 1913, having covered the at an average of .
Setting records
In January 1914 Niagara set a record for crossing the Tasman Sea. Despite a strong northeast wind on the first day she steamed from Sydney to Auckland in three days and two and a half hours, which broke the previous record by four hours. Her Master, Captain Morrisby, stated that she had maintained a speed of about and must at times have reached . In July 1914 Niagara broke her own record with a crossing from Sydney to Auckland of three days and half an hour.
In May 1915 Niagara set a new westbound record across the Tasman Sea by steaming from Auckland to Sydney in three days and 23 minutes. This record stood until 1931.
As well as breaking Australasian speed records, Niagara gained a reputation for reliability, and for stability in all weathers.
World War I On 28 July 1914 World War I began. On 15 August Niagara and another Union Company liner, , were held for some days at Honolulu because the German cruiser was reported to be near the coast of British Columbia. During the war Niagara sailed blacked out, and she varied her course and speed in response to reported sightings of German warships.
In March 1915, en route from Sydney to Auckland, Niagara lost one blade from her middle screw. This unbalanced the screw, which damaged both her middle propeller shaft and its bearing. Her engineers shut down her turbine and she reached Auckland on 22 March at using only her port and starboard screws driven by her triple-expansion engines.
Niagara carried a spare propeller shaft and screw. She was dry docked in Calliope Dock, where her damaged propeller shaft and screw were removed and replacements installed. Engineers worked around the clock and completed the repair in 40 hours, enabling Niagara to leave the dock on 26 March and return to service. At the time Niagara was the largest ship to have been dry docked in New Zealand. She fitted into Calliope Dock with just clearance fore and aft and on either side. – includes 1915 photograph of Niagara in Calliope Dock
In May 1915 wartime security aboard Niagara was tightened. Police, customs and military authorities in Sydney thoroughly searched the ship, and searched all baggage and questioning all crew and passengers before allowing them aboard. Security in Auckland was also tightened.
By December 1915 there was a shortage of merchant seafarers in Sydney, and ships including Niagara had difficulty finding enough to make a full complement. But there was a particular shortage of stokers and trimmers, which affected Niagara less because she normally burned oil instead of coal.
In March 1918 it was reported that at some time in the war the German auxiliary cruiser twice came close to intercepting Niagara. The report did not say when either incident took place. Later it was claimed that Wolfs seaplane once sighted Niagara, but the liner outran Wolf. Wolf also evaded capture, and returned to Germany in February 1918.
Spanish flu
In October 1918, Spanish flu broke out aboard Niagara on a voyage from Vancouver to Auckland. She had left Vancouver on 21 September, and reached Honolulu ten days later. The next day she left Honolulu, and thereafter her stewards began to fall ill. She reached Suva four days after leaving Honolulu, on about 5 October. By then there were about 50 or 60 cases. Her ship's doctor, Dr Latchmore, fell ill, and two passengers, Drs Mackenzie and Barnett, took over.
After Niagara left Suva, passengers and members of the crew also began to fall ill. So many people were infected that women passengers were recruited as volunteer stewards. Niagaras hospital had only about 10 beds. Dr Mackenzie later testified that the outbreak was "in practically every portion of the ship" and little was done to isolate the sick. He also stated that her crew's quarters were "very crowded" and "Their condition was very miserable when we had so many sick men in the tropical heat".
On 11 October one patient aboard Niagara died of bronchial pneumonia. By then more than 100 of her crew were infected, and 25 cases were described as needing transfer to hospital. But Dr Mackenzie considered that the outbreak was "ordinary influenza". One case was complicated by pneumonia, but Mackenzie attributed it to the fact that that patient had suffered a poison gas attack in the war.
On 12 October the Minister of Health, George Russell, told the Governor-General of New Zealand, the Earl of Liverpool, that Spanish flu was not a notifiable disease, and therefore he could not quarantine Niagara unless the Governor-General were to issue a proclamation to that effect. Later that day Niagara docked in Auckland. The Port Health Officer, Dr CC Russell, went aboard and examined the patients. Dr Russell agreed with Mackenzie that all the influenza cases were "simple influenza". Dr Russell examined the pneumonia patient and concluded that the complication was not caused by Spanish flu.