SSMakambo

Makamboat anchor
History
Name	SSMakambo
Owner	Burns Philp & Co. Ltd
Builder	Clyde Shipbuilding Company,Port Glasgow
Yard number	273
Launched	16 March 1907
In service	1907
Out of service	12 June 1944
Fate	Sunk byHMSStoicoffPhuket12 June 1944
General characteristics
Tonnage	1159grt
Length	210.3 feet
Beam	31.4 feet
Installed power	Triple expansion engine
Propulsion	Screw

SSMakambowas asteamshipfirst owned byBurns Philp & Co. Ltd.She was built inPort Glasgowin Scotland and named after an island in theSolomon Islands.She carried both passengers and cargo and was principally used on routes between easternAustraliaand islands inMelanesiaand theTasman Sea.In November 1908Jack and Charmian Londontravelled from Guadalcanal to Sydney on theMakamboafter abandoning their ill-fated circumnavigation of the world on theSnark,a 45' sailing yawl.

Between 1910 and 1931, she travelled a regular route betweenSydneyandPort Vilain theNew Hebrides,with stops atLord Howe IslandandNorfolk Island.On 1 August 1921, theMakambo's captain sent, by radio, the first report thatflotsamfrom the missing cargo steamerSSCanastotahad washed ashore at Lord Howe Island.

She was acquired in 1939 by Okada Gumi KK ofOsaka,Japan,and renamedKainan Maru.She was torpedoed and sunk on 12 June 1944 by theBritishsubmarineHMSStoicoffPhuket,Thailand.

Grounding at Lord Howe Island

On 15 June 1918Makamboran aground near Neds Beach, at the northern end ofLord 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.The ship was only temporarily out of service until repairs could be made; however,Makambowas aground for nine days before she was refloated. The incident had allowedblack ratsto leave the ship and go ashore on the island, where they thrived. This introduction gave rise to anenvironmental 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 thekentia palm.

Black rat

Problems with the rats led to an attempted ecological solution through the deliberate introduction ofTasmanian masked owlsbetween 1922 and 1930 to the island, an action which compounded the disaster by adding another predator to the ecosystem.Birds which became extinct soon after the arrival of rats include theLord Howe Island thrush,Lord Howe gerygone,Lord Howe starling,Lord Howe fantailandrobust white-eye.TheLord Howe boobookmay have been eliminated by the introduced masked owls. Variousseabirdswere wiped out as breeding species on the main island, though they persist elsewhere.The giantLord Howe Island stick insectalso became extinct on the main island in 1920, and was believed to be completely gone until a tiny population of survivors was discovered onBall's Pyramidin 2001 (there are plans to reintroduce them).Rats are also implicated in the population declines and extinctions of Lord Howe's endemiclizards,land snailsandbeetles.

Makambo Rock, north of Malabar Hill on Lord Howe Island, was named after the grounding of theMakambonear there.