OFF TO THE FRONT

Rights Information
Year
1914
Reference
F38442
Media type
Moving image
Ask about this item

Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item

Rights Information
Year
1914
Reference
F38442
Media type
Moving image
Place of production
New Zealand/Aotearoa
Categories
Actuality
Duration
0:01:24
Production company
Hayward’s Pictures

This is a very rare film because it is only the second known surviving film showing the departure of New Zealand soldiers overseas during the First World War. The fact that the transport ships are still in civilian colours (although a “2” is evident on the side of one of them and may relate to the Troopship number) and the dress of the sentry suggests that this preparation is for the departure of either the Samoan Expeditionary Force that sailed in August 1914, or for the Main Body of the NZEF that sailed in October 1914.

Shots are as follows:

A large transport ship berthed at Kings Wharf on the Wellington waterfront; steam wafts over the workers on deck and in the background [Shed 5] is visible. Two more ships come into view as does Mount Victoria and [Shed 4]. Dockers coaling the ship use large buckets to pour coal into the hold of a ship whilst a sentry stands guard with bayonet fixed over an 18-pounder artillery field gun and limber, which is ready to be stored in the hold once coaling is completed. A military officer watches the process. Soldiers in shirtsleeves and braces throw straw-filled canvas mattresses from the wharf up into the arms of men standing on a lower deck of a ship as they prepare it to become a troop transport.

Notes by New Zealand historian Chris Pugsley.