This photograph shows the passenger steamer S.S. Morea at Queen Street Wharf in Auckland. The Morea was an 'M Class' passenger ship operated by P&O (The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) and built by Barclay Curle & Co at Whiteinch on the River Clyde. The ship made its maiden voyage in December 1908. During the First World War Morea was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915 to serve first as an ambulance transport and troopship and after conversion to an Armed Merchant Cruiser in 1917, served as HMS Morea. Following the war, Morea was returned to service with P&O until broken up in 1930.
This photograph was created by William James Young in the early 20th century. A large variety of subjects are depicted in the collection, but family, rural life and travel are the most prominent themes. The exact location of the photographs in the Young Collection is unknown, but W J Young lived on a farm in Mt Stewart, Rangitikei, and some of the photographs include his house. The Young family were apparently avid travellers and photographs later in the collection feature scenes from Rotorua, Auckland, Whanganui, as well as other unidentified locations. The portraits are all unidentified, but are presumably of members of the Young family. The photographers parents were George Henry (b 1833) and Jane McDowell (b 1842, d 1916). They came to New Zealand in 1877. The same year, they bought the home farm on Mt Stewart and called it Kilrudden after Kilrudden House, the home of the McDowell family in Ireland. The couple had four children: Ann (b 1873), Margaret (b 1876), John (b 1878) and William James (b 1880). William James married Mary Elizabeth Thompson and they had four children: Doris (b 1914, d 1989), George (b 1916, d 1991), Royden McDowell (b 1925, d 1992) and Noel William (b 1927, d 2013).
