# SS Makambo

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{{Short description|Steamship}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox ship
|section1={{Infobox ship/image
 |image= MAKAMBO of Burns Philp & Co at anchor.jpg
 |image_caption= ''Makambo'' at anchor
 }}

|section2={{Infobox ship/career
 |hide_header=
 |name=SS ''Makambo''
 |owner=[Burns Philp & Co. Ltd](/source/Burns_Philp)
 |operator=
 |registry=
 |route=
 |ordered=
 |builder=Clyde Shipbuilding Company, [Port Glasgow](/source/Port_Glasgow)
 |original_cost=
 |yard_number= 273
 |way_number=
 |laid_down=
 |launched= 16 March 1907
 |completed=
 |christened=
 |acquired=
 |maiden_voyage=
 |in_service=1907
 |out_of_service= 12 June 1944
 |identification=
 |fate= Sunk off [Phuket](/source/Phuket_Province) 12 June 1944
 |notes=
 }}

|section3={{Infobox ship/characteristics
 |hide_header=
 |header_caption=
 |class=
 |tonnage= {{GRT|1159}}
 |displacement=
 |length= {{cvt|210.3|ft}}
 |beam= {{cvt|31.4|ft}}
 |height=
 |draught=
 |draft=
 |depth=
 |decks=
 |deck_clearance=
 |ramps=
 |ice_class=
 |sail_plan=
 |power=[Triple expansion engine](/source/Triple_expansion_engine)
 |propulsion=
 |speed=
 |capacity=
 |crew=
 |notes=
 }}
}}

'''SS ''Makambo''''' was a [steamship](/source/steamship) first owned by [Burns Philp & Co. Ltd](/source/Burns_Philp).  She was built in [Port Glasgow](/source/Port_Glasgow) in Scotland and named after an island in the [Solomon Islands](/source/Solomon_Islands).  She carried both passengers and cargo and was principally used on routes between eastern Australia and islands in [Melanesia](/source/Melanesia) and the [Tasman Sea](/source/Tasman_Sea). In November 1908 [Jack and Charmian London](/source/Jack_London) travelled from Guadalcanal to Sydney on the ''Makambo'' after abandoning their ill-fated circumnavigation of the world on the ''Snark'', a {{convert|45|ft|adj=on}} sailing [yawl](/source/yawl).

Between 1910 and 1931, she travelled a regular route between [Sydney](/source/Sydney) and [Port Vila](/source/Port_Vila) in the [New Hebrides](/source/New_Hebrides), with stops at [Lord Howe Island](/source/Lord_Howe_Island) and [Norfolk Island](/source/Norfolk_Island).<ref>Breckon, Richard. (June 2006). Mail links to the "last paradise" – a postal history of Lord Howe Island. Gibbons Stamp Monthly.[http://www.gibbonsstampmonthly.com/Journals/GSM/Gibbons_Stamp_Monthly/June_2006/attachments/lastparadise.pdf]{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> On 1 August 1921, ''Makambo''{{'}}s captain sent, by radio, the first report that [flotsam](/source/Flotsam%2C_jetsam%2C_lagan_and_derelict) from the missing cargo steamer [SS ''Canastota''](/source/SS_Canastota) had washed ashore at Lord Howe Island.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159603208|title=THE MISSING CANASTOTA.|date=1921-08-02|work=Daily Commercial News and Shipping List|access-date=2018-02-13|location=Sydney|pages=4}}</ref>

She was acquired in 1939 by Okada Gumi KK of [Osaka](/source/Osaka), Japan, and renamed '''''Kainan Maru'''''.  She was torpedoed and sunk on 12 June 1944 by the British [submarine](/source/submarine) {{HMS|Stoic|P231|6}} off [Phuket](/source/Phuket_Province), [Thailand](/source/Thailand).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110526064401/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=15427 Shipping Times: SS Makambo]</ref>

==Grounding at Lord Howe Island==
On 15 June 1918 ''Makambo'' ran aground near Neds Beach, at the northern end of [Lord Howe Island](/source/Lord_Howe_Island).  There was only one immediate casualty; a passenger, Miss Readon, was drowned when a boat capsized during the evacuation of passengers and crew from the vessel.<ref name=mho/> The ship was only temporarily out of service until repairs could be made; however, ''Makambo'' was aground for nine days before she was refloated. The incident had allowed [black rat](/source/black_rat)s to leave the ship and go ashore on the island, where they thrived.  This introduction gave rise to an [environmental disaster](/source/environmental_disaster), with the rats causing the extinction of several of the island's endemic birds and other fauna in the next few years through predation, as well as causing hardship to the islanders by raiding their crops and only export commodity, the seeds of the [kentia palm](/source/Howea_forsteriana).<ref name=Hindwood>Hindwood, K.A. (1940). The Birds of Lord Howe Island. ''Emu'' '''40''': 1-86.</ref>

thumb|left|Black rat
Problems with the rats led to an attempted ecological solution through the deliberate introduction of [Tasmanian masked owl](/source/Tasmanian_masked_owl)s between 1922 and 1930 to the island, an action which compounded the disaster by adding another predator to the ecosystem.<ref name=Hindwood/><ref name=apab/> Birds which became extinct soon after the arrival of rats include the [Lord Howe Island thrush](/source/Lord_Howe_Island_thrush), [Lord Howe gerygone](/source/Lord_Howe_gerygone), [Lord Howe starling](/source/Lord_Howe_starling), [Lord Howe fantail](/source/Lord_Howe_fantail) and [robust white-eye](/source/robust_white-eye).  The [Lord Howe boobook](/source/Lord_Howe_boobook) may have been eliminated by the introduced masked owls.  Various [seabird](/source/seabird)s were wiped out as breeding species on the main island, though they persist elsewhere.<ref name=apab>Garnett, Stephen T.; & Crowley, Gabriel M. (2000). ''The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000''. Environment Australia: Canberra. {{ISBN|0-642-54683-5}} {{cite web |url=http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/action/birds2000/pubs/regions/lord-howe-is.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2009-04-08 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108005950/http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/action/birds2000/pubs/regions/lord-howe-is.pdf |archivedate=8 January 2009}} p.633.</ref><ref>[http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/naturalis/detail.php?lang=uk&id=18 Naturalis: Turdidae (Thrushes) – Lord Howe Thrush] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717030615/http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/naturalis/detail.php?lang=uk&id=18 |date=17 July 2011 }}</ref> The giant [Lord Howe Island stick insect](/source/Dryococelus_australis) also became extinct on the main island in 1920, and was believed to be completely gone until a tiny population of survivors was discovered on [Ball's Pyramid](/source/Ball's_Pyramid) in 2001 (there are plans to reintroduce them).<ref>[https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years]</ref> Rats are also implicated in the population declines and extinctions of Lord Howe's endemic [lizard](/source/lizard)s, [land snail](/source/land_snail)s and [beetle](/source/beetle)s.<ref>[http://amonline.net.au/archive.cfm?id=2824 Australian Museum - Science Bytes (17 March 2008): Beetle extinctions on Lord Howe Island.]</ref>

Makambo Rock, north of Malabar Hill on Lord Howe Island, was named after the grounding of ''Makambo'' near there.<ref name=mho>{{Cite web |url=http://maritime.heritage.nsw.gov.au/public/display_ship_region.cfm?Region=9 |title=Maritime Heritage Online – New South Wales |access-date=8 April 2009 |archive-date=21 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621132241/http://maritime.heritage.nsw.gov.au/public/display_ship_region.cfm?Region=9 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{June 1918 shipwrecks}}
{{June 1944 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Indian Ocean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makambo}}
Category:Biological invasions
Category:Merchant ships of Australia
Category:Ships sunk by British submarines
Category:Lord Howe Island
Category:Ships built on the River Clyde
Category:1907 ships
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean
Category:1918 in the environment
Category:World War II merchant ships of Japan
Category:Maritime incidents in 1918
Category:Maritime incidents in June 1944
Category:Environmental disasters in Australia

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [SS Makambo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Makambo) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Makambo?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.