SS Mactan (1898)
Aerial starboard side view of the American hospital ship, Sydney, NSW. 23 April 1942.
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| Operator: | Compañía Marítima, Fernandez Bros, Manila |
| Port of registry: | United States (Philippines) |
| Route: | Manila, Cebu, Dumaguete, Cagayan, Dipolog, Zamboanga, Jolo, Zamboanga, Cotabato |
| Builder: | Armstrong Whitworth & Co., Ltd., Newcastle |
| Yard number: | 688, Low Walker |
| Launched: | 28 December 1898 |
| Completed: | February 1899 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1956 in Hong Kong |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 2,067 GRT |
| Length: | 300 ft (91 m) |
| Beam: | 40.6 ft (12.4 m) |
| Draught: | 20.1 ft (6.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | two sets, 4 crank, triple expansion engines, twin screw |
| Speed: | 10-12 knots |
SS Mactan was launched 28 December 1898 as the passenger/cargo ship North Lyell for North Mount Lyell Copper Co.Ltd. intended for service between the west coast of Tasmania and Melbourne. The company no longer needed the ship on delivery in 1899 with resulting sale to Union Steamship Company of New Zealand Ltd. and renaming as Moura. In 1915 upon sale to the Douglas Steamship Company, Ltd. of Hong Kong she was renamed Hai Hong. Upon sale to Philippine operators in 1928 the ship gained the final name Mactan.
As Mactan the ship made news and history during the first months of war in the Pacific 1941-1942 as the first hospital ship, under charter to the American Red Cross through its Philippine Red Cross representative, in the Southwest Pacific Area. On a single voyage as the improvised hospital ship Mactan she evacuated 224 critically wounded patients, "the worst cases," along with a number of Filipino doctors and nurses serving with the Army, a U.S. Army doctor and two Army nurses from the burning city of Manila just prior to its occupation by Japanese troops.
Union Steam Ship Company at the turn of the century operated a coastal New Zealand service with its main service in the Tasman Sea and Bass Straits. At the time it was venturing into extended service into the Pacific islands and even a San Francisco/Vancouver Royal Mail service. A 1907 newspaper timetable shows the ship on a Fiji route. Service in the Philippines was as an inter-island vessel with later references associated with the acquisition by the Red Cross as a hospital ship mentioning the copra trade.
On 23 December General MacArthur decided to evacuate Manila, which he had declared an open city on 18 December, and on Christmas Eve he and his headquarters evacuated the city. Patients and medical personnel had begun moving to Bataan. On 25 December most of the medical personnel remaining had evacuated and by the 28th the facilities on Corregidor had become overcrowded with the last patients and personnel evacuated from Manila on New Year's Eve. MacArthur directed that the worst cases be selected for an attempt to evacuate them to Australia. Douglas Steamship Company operated a coastal China trade.
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