Interclub Volume 27 Issue 2 2021

16 INTERCLUB • VOLUME 27, ISSUE 2 - 2021 “The Death Ship: A Fateful Voyage” is an interactive exhibition which turns the clock back more than 100 years to the flu pandemic that hit New Zealand between October and December. A new exhibition at the National Army Museum in Waiouru has remarkable relevance to what Covid-19 could deliver to anyone, anywhere at any time. “The Death Ship: A Fateful Voyage” is an interactive exhibition which turns the clock back more than 100 years to the flu pandemic that hit New Zealand between October and December 1918, a devastating blow that came at the end of the Great War which had already killed over 18,000 New Zealanders and wounded thousands more. The Spanish flu swept New Zealand and caused 9000 deaths. Deaths came as the New Zealand troops returned home at the end of the war with disease spreading initially to military camps from late 1918, and then the wider civil population. Most people succumbing with severe influenza complicated by bronchitis and pneumonia. Given the limited treatment options a century ago it was often a most unpleasant death. The National Army Museum’s latest exhibition focuses on the fateful voyage of the TAHITI, the Kiwi troopship that became a death ship. The 1117 military personnel and 100 suppor t staff (almost twice the number the ship was designed to carry), set off from Wellington on July 10, 1918 travelling via Albany, Western Australia, Capetown, South Africa and then fatefully, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Just seven weeks after leaving New Zealand, as TAHITI ber thed at Plymouth, 90% of the passengers on board had been infected with the influenza virus and 78 had died and a fur ther 9, 'Death Ship' exhibition resonates with today sick upon arrival also succumbed to the disease. “The flu epidemic at the end of the Great War was a fur ther blow to New Zealand, which had a population of just 1.15 million at the time” says Windsor Jones, National Army Museum’s Collection and Exhibitions Manager. “Young New Zealand men and women had lost their lives in the often horrific conditions of World War One, then what became known as the Spanish flu, hit the country hard - the exhibition also sheds light on whether the flu did in fact originate in Spain.” “Our exhibition allows the visitor to ‘step aboard’ the TAHITI and experience how the conditions on that fateful journey gave rise to an outbreak of one of the largest pandemics in our history. “Rightly or wrongly TAHITI was dubbed ‘the Death Ship’. Ships played a key role in the global spread of the deadly virus that claimed more than 50 million people worldwide. "Our exhibition follows the journey of the TAHITI from cruise ship to troopship to death ship as it carried New Zealand’s 40th Reinforcements to war” Windsor Jones says. "Our exhibition allows the visitor to ‘step aboard’ the TAHITI and experience how the conditions on that fateful journey gave rise to an outbreak of one of the largest pandemics in our history." K I D S HQ | THE ME S S T ENT | GU I DED TOUR S | THE QUART E RMA S T E R S TOR E | R E S E ARCH C ENT R E OP E N 7 DAY S | S TAT E H I GHWAY ON E , WA I OU RU N A T I O N A L A R M Y M U S U E M - W a i o u r u