RMS Tahiti was a UK Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1904 in Scotland as RMS Port Kingston for a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Lines. In 1911 the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand bought her and renamed her Tahiti.
Port Kingston in 1905
Hull section of Greycliffe dragged to Whiting Beach, Sydney Harbour.
Lifeboats carry passengers from the sinking Tahiti, 17 August 1930
Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer. It was incorporated by James Mills in Dunedin in 1875 with the backing of a Scottish shipbuilder, Peter Denny. Bought by shipping giant P&O around the time of World War I it was sold in 1972 to an Australasian consortium and closed at the end of the twentieth century.
Head office, Water Street, Dunedin designed 1883
Five directors (back) of the Union Steam Ship Company in 1881, including John Richard Jones, John Cargill, and George McLean; David and James Mills in the foreground
Hawea run ashore at the entrance to the Grey River, 1908
Union Steam Ship Company's 3,721 ton MV Kaimiro loading cargo in Lyttelton, New Zealand, in 1968
