The White Ships - New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships

NZ Ship and Marine Society, 2013, as new condition

The White Ships is the first book in a Ministry-led multi-agency publishing programme of histories of New Zealands First World War experience. The hospital ships were the poster ships of the war. Fitted out with the help of public donations, refitted at Port Chalmers in an amazing 4-5 weeks, and always well-reported back home, they eventually carried 47,000 patients. It wasn't all smooth. There were tensions between the governor and his minister over their control, the senior army doctor thought he should boss around the Mahenos captain, the same doctor tried to deny army nurses officer status and there was a mutiny off Malta. But the ships worked well and the Mahenos merchant seamen made a little-known civilian contribution to Gallipoli...