Hospital ships identification - corroboration and/or suggestions please

[seaJane]

Evening all,

 

Going through an album in the archives at work, and I have these three:

 

1. An un-named hospital ship: possibly BRITANNIC if a later caption is right, probably at the Dardanelles, 1915-1916.

 

 

 

2. Captioned BRITANNIC and WARILDA, Mudros 1916.

 

 

 

3. Captioned St MARGARET of SCOTLAND.

 

 

If anyone can advise, I'll be most grateful.

 

sJ

 

 

 

[GreyC]

To my knowledge there were three four-funnel hospital ships n British service: The Aquitania with 4182 beds had the largest official capacity of all British hospital ships, in service from 4 September 1915 to 27 Dec. 1917. She was employed at the Dardanelles. The Britannic was the second largest ship with over 3300. She was in service from 13 Nov. 1915 until she struck a mine on 22 Nov. 1916. The Mauritania was only four month in service from 22 Nov. 1915 and carried 2200 patients.

 

[seaJane]

Thanks @GreyC. Oh well, there's a one in three chance of being right, then!

sJ

[GreyC]

Hi Jane,

it took a bit to digitize the photos from my collection for comparison. Here are the St. Margaret of Scotland and the Britannic as HS,

And here the Aquitania and Mauretania, however I don´t have photos of them as hospital ships, only in their normal colours. But I think it´s quite clear that it is the Britannic.

GreyC

 

 

 

[seaJane]

It does look as if BRITANNIC is the four-funnelled one - thank you very much for that.

[Simon Mills]

On 18/06/2021 at 21:49, seaJane said:

Evening all,

 

Going through an album in the archives at work, and I have these three:

 

1. An un-named hospital ship: possibly BRITANNIC if a later caption is right, probably at the Dardanelles, 1915-1916.

 

 

2. Captioned BRITANNIC and WARILDA, Mudros 1916.

 

 

3. Captioned St MARGARET of SCOTLAND.

 

If anyone can advise, I'll be most grateful.

 

sJ

 

 

 

The big four-funnelled hospitl ship is definitely the Britannic. (G618) Britannic's eastern Mediterranean terminal was Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos.

S.

[seaJane]

1 hour ago, Simon Mills said:

definitely the Britannic.

Many thanks Simon.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

I'm not an expert on boats, but I believe that Mauretania's pointy bit should face left?

[GreyC]

I mirrowed the image so that they all face in the same direction to achieve a better base for comparison between the three liners with four funnels.

GreyC

Edited 3 July , 2021 by GreyC

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

8 minutes ago, GreyC said:

I mirrowed the image so that they all face in the same direction to achieve a better base for comparison between the three liners with four funnels.

GreyC

I see.

You are forgiven.

[GreyC]

Phew!

GreyC

[KizmeRD]

I happened to be reading a copy of ‘Home from the sea’ this weekend (Captain Rostron’s autobiograhy) and he was obviously immensely pleased with the ‘Mauretania’ when it got converted into a ‘pukka’ hospital ship, at the time when he joined the ship in September 1915. Contrasting his previous experiences of being one of the captains of a so-called ‘black ship’ at Gallipoli (‘Alaunia’), he writes…

“We left Liverpool with a full medical staff and the ship transformed into as fine a hospital as you could find anywhere on shore. Very different from the days when we were Black Carriers. Now we had forty medical officers, seventy-two nursing sisters and a hundred and twenty orderlies (later about one hundred and fifty), all thoroughly trained. No improvised accommodation for suffering men and no scratch supplies for dealing with difficult operations. Here were beautifully-fitted operating theatres. X-ray rooms, real hospital wards and every single thing in the way of appliance that ingenuity could devise.”

‘Mauretania’ remained a hospital ship  (with Col. Frank Brown RAMC acting as the medical commanding officer) until March 1916, after which time she resumed her prior role as a troop transport.

MB

 

 

[seaJane]

Thank you MB! That's a really interesting quotation.

sJ

[Ivor Anderson]

WARILDA

[seaJane]

 

6 hours ago, Ivor Anderson said:

WARILDA

Thank you!

sJ

[Knotty]

And a small article here on her demise with the loss of a prominent Commandant of the QMAAC.

http://www.smaaawwi.org.uk/wwi/people/database-page/mrs-v-b-a-long-obe/the-sinking-of-hmat-warilda/

[seaJane]

8 hours ago, Knotty said:

small article here on her demise

Thank you!