GSS Hinemoa was a 542 ton New Zealand Government Service Steamer designed specifically for lighthouse support and servicing, and also for patrolling New Zealand's coastline and carrying out castaway checks and searching for missing ships. It operated in New Zealand's territorial waters from 1876 to 1944. It had a sister ship, the GSS Stella, which carried out similar duties over the same time period. It was instrumental in supplying many of the government castaway depots on the remote sub antarctic islands, and rescuing a number of shipwreck victims, including those from the wreck of the Dundonald and the Anjou.
Captain John Fairchild used the steamer to survey the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Islands in 1886,[3] and theHerekino Harbour and the Whangape Harbour entrance in 1889. In 1891, while under the command of Captain Fairchild, the Hinemoa searched New Zealand's subantarctic and outlying islands for traces of the missing shipsKakanui and Assaye. While no trace was found of the former, the Assaye was suspected foundered off The Snares.
The Hinemoa provided assistance to the 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition, a substantial scientific expedition sponsored by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, where important observations on the natural history of the islands were made. They were published in a two-volume work in 1909, edited by professor Charles Chilton.
Captain John Bollons was a notable master of the steamer from 1898; Bollons Island in the Antipodes Islands is named after him. Another to serve aboard the Hinemoa was William Edward Sanders, who won a Victoria Crossduring World War I.
After its decommissioning in 1944, it was rejected for scrapping due to an oversupply at the time.