identify a ship

[adam1981]

Hello

Could anyone identify the third ship down please?

i have no idea!

 

[horatio2]

I would go for HMS VENUS  -   Ships Log here   http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Venus.htm

[seaJane]

I was just coming to that same conclusion @horatio2 presumably not the one about which a certain Surgeon Commodore taught me the song.

[adam1981]

many thanks!

closest I had got was HMS Menu!

[horatio2]

presumably not the one about which a certain Surgeon Commodore taught me the song.

 

To what can the lady be referring   ???  I think HMS VENUS (1820) had a figurehead............

[Michael Lowrey]

My first thought was also HMS Venus.

[Lawryleslie]

12 hours ago, adam1981 said:

Hello

Could anyone identify the third ship down please?

i have no idea!

 

More intrigued with the last ship on the list???

[wightspirit]

Looks like Glory.

 

Dave W

[horatio2]

3 hours ago, Lawryleslie said:

More intrigued with the last ship on the list???

HMS MANTIS? VENUS and MANTIS were on station at the same time  in late 1918. The cropping of the record does not help.

[Gunner Hall]

Looks like "Mantis" to me too.  Insect Class River Gunboat. Great song,  that SJ. Humming it now,  quietly as not to outrage colleagues. 

[seaJane]

I think those saying MANTIS may be influenced by the long descender of the G above appearing to form the left-hand upright. Hold something over that and VENUS looks more likely

(is she Flytrap Class?).

1 hour ago, Gunner Hall said:

Great song,  that SJ

But do you know the ship's dog verse?

[Gunner Hall]

27 minutes ago, seaJane said:

But do you know the ship's dog verse?

 

Poor old Rover!  Shouldn't happen to a dog.  (Or engineers called McTavish) 

Edited 24 March , 2021 by Gunner Hall

[horatio2]

31 minutes ago, seaJane said:

I think those saying MANTIS may be influenced by the long descender of the G above appearing to form the left-hand upright. Hold something over that and VENUS looks more likely

I think we are getting confused. Most are agreed that VENUS is the "third ship down". We are (or I thought we were) now discussing the "last ship on the list" questioned by Lawryleslie. I still go for MANTIS for that ship.

[seaJane]

1 hour ago, horatio2 said:

I think we are getting confused. Most are agreed that VENUS is the "third ship down". We are (or I thought we were) now discussing the "last ship on the list" questioned by Lawryleslie. I still go for MANTIS for that ship.

I was confused, I do beg your pardon.

 

Looking at the last ship on the list I agree on MANTIS.

[Gunner Hall]

Naval.history .net has the logs for :

Mantis https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-11-HMS_Mantis.htm

Venus  https://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ADM 53-67153/ADM 53-67153-029_1.jpg   2nd August 1914, PM.   "One rating joined ship"

 

[adam1981]

Thanks everyone for the excellent assistance, much appreciated.

For further information, please see below there is also Glowworm (x2) and Ladybird which should confirm Mantis and serving on insect class gunboats. You will also see there is the 'commended for prompt action....' at the bottom of the remarks column, is there a way i can tell which ship and when this is for? there is a date above but it follows '3 yrs' and also the code NL6102/22?

 

[horatio2]

My reading of that entry:- the Admiralty Naval Law (NL) Division memo with the commendation is dated [19]22 so would have been for his second period of service in Miotor Launch (ML) 196), while borne on the books of HMS GLOWWORM

[adam1981]

1 hour ago, horatio2 said:

My reading of that entry:- the Admiralty Naval Law (NL) Division memo with the commendation is dated [19]22 so would have been for his second period of service in Miotor Launch (ML) 196), while borne on the books of HMS GLOWWORM

thank you very much, i'm still a relative novice with the Royal Navy service records (and a total know-nothing with the RNR and RNVR ones!)

So this action for the commendation would have been while serving on the Danube Flotilla from my Googling?

[horatio2]

27 minutes ago, adam1981 said:

So this action for the commendation would have been while serving on the Danube Flotilla from my Googling?

Good question! My researches give conflicting information about where LADYBIRD, GLOWWORM and her MLs were operating in 1920 - 1922. The INSECT boats were nominally constructed for the Danube but I am not sure they ever served there. GLOWWORM went to North Russia 1918-1919. MANTIS went to China.

I await the definitive answer from those with more knowledge than I.. 

KizmeRD - I am looking at you!

 

The log of HMS APHIS has several entries for LADYBIRD. GLOWWORM and ML 196 on the Danube -  http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-11-HMS_Aphis.htm

[KizmeRD]

After narrowly avoiding being blown up in Northern Russia, HMS Glowworm was dispatched along with a few other small ships to join the Danube flotilla (acting as flagship). Several motor launches also formed part of the Danube flotilla, and based on the information on the man’s service sheet (and HMS Aphis’s log book), it would appear that ML 196 was one of these. 
 

During the tail-end of the war ML 196 was operating in the Mediterranean and had been engaged in some sneaky-beaky activities against the Ottomans (narrowly avoiding being sunk during an operation to land covert operatives in Sivriji).

 

The Danube Flotilla was sent out after the war to police the waterway between Belgrade and Vienna. Notably in November 1921 HMS Glowworm transported the former Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl out of Hungary (and into exile)  after his ill-conceived attempt to re-establish himself on the throne.

 

Sorry I’m not able to go into much more detail than what I’ve stated above (what happened during the post-war period is a little outside of my own particular area of interest).

 

- If only I had half as much knowledge as @horatio2 does concerning the Royal  Navy during the Great War, I’d be a very happy man indeed!

 

MB

Edited 27 March , 2021 by KizmeRD

[horatio2]

Many thanks for the extra detail, KizmeRD.

[Lawryleslie]

23 hours ago, horatio2 said:

My reading of that entry:- the Admiralty Naval Law (NL) Division memo with the commendation is dated [19]22 so would have been for his second period of service in Miotor Launch (ML) 196), while borne on the books of HMS GLOWWORM

Read the commendation with great respect and admiration. Commended for "prompt action in drawing the port propeller shaft back into position", although off topic, is deserving of further research. Don’t think the Glowworm was that big a ship but certainly wasn’t small at 645 tons. I’ve looked on Naval History website but daily accounts of the ship end in Jan 1919. He wasn’t borne on her books for the ammunition barge explosion  in Aug 1919, that killed 20 of her crew and a Russian interpreter, so it could not be linked to that incident. 
post script......the commendation description is no doubt referring to ML 196 which of course was much smaller. So the job of repositioning the shaft would be considerably easier than on the larger Glowworm. That’s how I read it anyhow.

Edited 28 March , 2021 by Lawryleslie

[KizmeRD]

The motor launches had a draft of about four feet, and the props would have been first thing to snag in shallow water, and they would also have been vulnerable to damage caused from contact with partly submerged objects in the river.

MB

[adam1981]

many thanks for the help, much appreciated

Adam

[KizmeRD]

I’m surprised that more people aren’t a little curious about why a Royal Navy flotilla was operating on the Danube during the post war period in the first place. The answer lies in the creation of the Danube Commission (headed by Admiral Ernest Troubridge). The role of the commission was to oversee the navigable part of that river system above Braila so that the international character of the Danube river trade was not prejudiced. The RN flotilla helped ensure that there was freedom of navigation and equality of treatment for vessels of all flags. This was highly important due to the significant volume of trans-national food and supplies being shipped up and down the Danube. The RN’s presence on the river also help bolster newly independent countries such as Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats & Slovenes (states created following the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian empire), whose interests would have been harmed by any interference to river trade.

MB