The Maheno leaves Wellington for the Dardanelles where it was used as the hospital ship for wounded Anzacs.
The Maheno leaves Wellington for the Dardanelles where it was used as the hospital ship for wounded Anzacs.
The Gallipoli campaign was a battle for both land and sea, write David Hastings and Kurt Bayer.
The Anzacs fought for seven months on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli's Sari Bair range.
But what tends to be forgotten is that the World War I campaign began as a naval battle which continued in the surrounding seas from April to December, 1915.
The original strategy was for the British and French navies to blast their way through the Dardanelles.
Their expected victory would then be consolidated by landing a 70,000-strong army - made up of British, French, Indian and Gurkha troops, as well as the Anzacs.
On March 18, 1915 - a month before the landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles - the plan went into action when a fleet of 12 British and French battleships sailed into the narrows with all guns blazing. The attack ended in disaster when four of the ships were knocked out by mines and Turkish shore artillery.
After this failure, General Sir Ian Hamilton - who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the army only the week before - recommended a shift in emphasis, with the army in the leading role. What he had in mind was nothing less than a full-scale landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to open the way for the navy.
It was just over five weeks between Hamilton's decision and the first Anzacs setting foot on the peninsula as part of what was, at the time, the biggest opposed landing in history.
All of the troops were landed ashore by the Royal Navy, which was littered with New Zealand seamen.
Michael Wynd, researcher at the National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy, says young midshipmen - many aged 15, 16, and 17 - manned small steam boats that towed rowboats on to the beaches.
Ammunition and supplies followed, says naval historian Gerry Wright, while casualties were uplifted by the navy and evacuated, initially to the Greek island of Lemnos, 80km away, where the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps were also based.
The troops took great comfort from knowing battleships and cruisers were giving them artillery support, especially HMS Queen Elizabeth, a state of the art super dreadnought known as "Lizzie".
"You should hear Old Lizzie speaking with her 15-inch guns," wrote Private William Rhodes of the Auckland Infantry Battalion. "You can hear shots flying along the valleys long after the gun is fired, and then a terrific smash."
The guns of the battleships kept the Turks honest in their trenches, pounding the enemy lines. However, they were also blamed for killing some of their own men in friendly fire tragedies. The most high profile case was the death of the legendary New Zealand leader Lieutenant Colonel William George Malone.
After the initial bungled assault on Chunuk Bair on August 7 resulted in horrific casualties for the Auckland Infantry Battalion, Malone refused orders from above to continue the attack in daylight.
Instead, he waited until nightfall to press on, and in the early hours of August 8, supported by the 7th Battalion of the Gloucesters and by extensive artillery and naval fire, succeeded in capturing Chunuk Bair with relatively little resistance.
That night, while fighting off ferocious Turkish counterattacks, Malone was killed in his headquarters trench by friendly fire, either from supporting artillery or naval gunfire.
Image 1 of 8: Huanui College student Louis Paul (centre) during the wero (challenge).
The navy's contribution to the Anzac story has been greatly underplayed over the years, Mr Wynd believes.
"While we focus on this tiny, little Anzac Cove, we forget the French are fighting in their own area, and the British are at Cape Helles, and you've got this huge logistical train supporting them that is run by the Royal Navy," he said.
"The fact that the Royal Navy had control of the sea enabled the campaign to continue as it did. Unfortunately, they could only do so much in influencing the campaign on land, but at least they provided some much-needed protection at sea."
But the British Navy did not rule the waves unchallenged. German U-boats exacted a heavy toll, sinking three battleships including the Triumph off Gaba Tepe, which was witnessed by the troops looking down from the heights.
Even greater shocks were in store when another submarine torpedoed the supply ship Marquette, which was transporting ammunition and the No1 New Zealand stationary hospital from Alexandria to Salonika in Greece. Ten of the 36 New Zealand nurses on board died when the ship went down.
Letters published in the Herald captured the drama and shock of both sinkings. Chaplain Major William Grant witnessed the death throes of the Triumph.
"It was a pitiful sight. Many things happened all at once ... The battleship siren gave what to our excited imagination seemed to be a scream of mortal agony. She was like a helpless, wounded animal, hit in a vital part. Steam began to pour in a great volume from her funnel, and in a minute a list to starboard was distinctly visible," he wrote.
"Slowly, but surely, the great battleship was canting over on her beam. Happily, there was no explosion as she went over ...
"The ship made the final plunge quietly, going down by the head, 15 minutes after she had turned turtle.
"It seemed to some of us that a man went down with her, standing on the propeller-shaft, between the hull and the propeller. Now a few bubbles mark the spot where, less than half an hour ago, lay a battleship."
Nurse Jeanne Sinclair gave a first-person account of the moment the Marquette was torpedoed and how she survived in the water for seven hours before she was rescued.
"We got into our boat and it reached the sea, but was full of water. Then a much larger boat was lowered on top of and I think that [it] killed some of the others.
"We floated with boards, lifebuoys, and anything we could catch, for seven hours ...
"It was dreadful to see other men going whitey-yellow, and then blue around the nose, mouth and eyes, and a little later going off. We took turns at hanging on to them to try and keep them going."
Throughout the bloody Gallipoli campaign, the New Zealand hospital ship Maheno sat in the Aegean Sea. It carried hundreds of wounded Anzac soldiers back to hospitals in Egypt.
After the withdrawal from Gallipoli in late 1915, the 1905-built steamship collected the wounded of all nationalities from the major battlefields of France and transported them to Britain for treatment.
After the war, the Maheno commuted between Australia and New Zealand. It was sold to Japanese buyers in 1935 but ran aground off Fraser Island, off Queensland, where the rusted hulk remains.
A bell was saved from the wreck and donated to Maheno School in North Otago in 1967 by the ship's owners, the Union Steam Ship Company of Dunedin.
Next week, a group of year 7-8 students from the school will travel with the bell to Fraser Island for a special commemorative Anzac Day service.
Five NZ seamen were killed at Gallipoli, according to naval historian Gerry Wright, who researched 80 New Zealand naval World War I casualties for his book, For King and Country, which is being published this month.
Flight Sub Lieutenant Leslie Henry Brett
From Devonport, Auckland, he joined the army in 1909 and went to German Samoa in 1914. He trained in the UK as a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service.
Flight sub Lieutenant Leslie Henry Brett.
While flying over Mudros, Lemnos, on July 22, 1915, he spun out of control and crashed. He is buried in East Mudros Military Cemetery.
Lieutenant Commander Herbert Clyde Evans
Born in Oamaru. He joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in October 1914 and was posted to the Nelson Division of the Royal Naval Division (RND).
The division was sent to Gallipoli and on June 4 a midday attack over open land was launched by 70 officers and 1900 men of the RND. After 45 minutes only five officers and 900 men were left standing. Herbert is buried at Skew Bridge Cemetery, Cape Helles.
Temporary Sub Lieutenant Oscar Freyberg
Elder brother of Bernard Freyberg, Oscar joined the Royal Navy in December 1914. He was appointed to the Collingwood Division of the RND as Commanding Officer, B Company, 1st Platoon. Arriving off Gallipoli on May 31, the division landed at Cape Helles.
Temporary Sub Lieutenant Oscar Freyberg.
Four days later during the third battle of Krithia, the sailors were obstructed by bodies and stretcher bearers and there was heavy loss of life. Oscar was one of them. He was buried where he fell in an unmarked grave.
Lieutenant Commander Edward James McBarnet
Born in Wellington, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and served in the Boer War. Called up in October 1914, he was appointed to the battleship HMS Albion. Off Gallipoli on the night of July 6, he led a party ashore at Suvla Bay. Injured, he was evacuated to Mudros then Alexandria where he died on August 16, 1915. He is buried at the Alexandria Military and War Memorial Cemetery.
Born in Rangiora, he joined the Merchant Service in 1911. On the outbreak of hostilities he joined the RNR and was deployed to Gallipoli. He was aboard the minesweeper HMS Clacton when she was torpedoed. Newsham drove the engines full astern to beach the vessel but it sank and he drowned. An inquiry praised his efforts to save the vessel.
