French armed trawlers based in Port Said.

[Ian Burns]

Does anyone have details and/or photographs of the following French Navy armed trawlers, etc, based at Port Said. They were widely used for escort duties often accompanying the slower seaplane carriers (ie; HMS Anne (Aenne Rickmers) and HMS Raven II (Rabenfels)) of the RN East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron.

Ariane II (armed yacht) 
Canada (armed trawler) 
Laborieux (armed tug) 
Maroc (armed trawler) 
Nord Caper (armed trawler)
Paris II (armed trawler)

[KizmeRD]

Take a look at this website…
https://www.postenavalemilitaire.com/f17p50-patrouilleurs

MB

 

[Keith_history_buff]

There's a thread about the Laborieux here

https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=44614&start=0

If you are accessing via Google Chrome, right click the page and select "translate to English. It looks like they made use of the island named ROUAD
https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=47159&p=363922&hilit=Laborieux#p363922

Nord Caper
https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=43802&p=538493&hilit=Caper#p538493

[Keith_history_buff]

Ariane
https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=44987&p=506536&hilit=ariane#p506536

[Michael Lowrey]

Rouad is off the coast of Syria. It's better known as Arwad.

[Ian Burns]

Thank you ALL!

A truly wonderful response.  KizmeRD turned up trumps, but all the others added to my enjoyment.

Thank you all for your most helpful replies.

 

Follows is my translation on Ruad/Rouad/Arwad from - Capitaine de frégate A Trabaud, Un marin gouverneur de l’ile Rouad, from En patrouille a la mer (Payot, 1929).

Trabaud on Ruad, pp.110/112:

IN ROUAD. – INSTALLATION

My last night on board was occupied by my removal: I am appointed governor of the Rouad island, and my nomination is approved by the 'minister. The Syrian is my assistant. When Admiral de Lapeyrere, commander-in-chief of the naval army, learned of it, he said to the aide-camp who brought him the translation of the telegram: " Its good ! you will not speak to me of Trabaud until the Turks have removed him ".... He no longer heard of me!

My move was laborious: I had on board all my "barda" of a distant cruising year and my drawers were full of papers, paintings, books, etc ... Having left Port-Said without knowing my fate, I do not had been able to make no provision, and it was in a large "kilim" with a black background that I was able to store my linen, my clothes and my documents.

My brave order, the helmsman Sauve, accompanied me; and I owe him a lot of gratitude for his common sense and his clarity of judgment which very often fortified me during bad hours on my rock! ...

On August 31st arrived on the harbor the Jaureguiberry and the D'Estrees: it is a real division which comes to assist in taking possession of the island and to enhance the ceremony of their presence. Orders are written. On September 1, at 9 a.m., I will receive the admirals and the commanders at the Governor's quay; I will have landed at 7 a.m. 30 ; my detachment is made up of 3 signs, 1 doctor, 1 interpreter and 80 men. In addition to the rifles and cartridges, my armcmcnt includes two guns of rapid fire of 65 m / m, to be put in place later with the help of masons from PortSaid, and two machine guns. We will each take away a cold meal, and the admiral's music will play on the square in the afternoon.

At 9 am therefore, the ceremony takes place in the order provided: previous, saber in the light, Admiral Dartige du Fournet, commander of the third wing, and Rear Admiral Darrieus, commander in sub-order, I surrender on the Place du Petit Chateau where the landing companies of the squadron form a square. . In the center, music. After the ringing in the fields, at the first agreement of the Marseillaise, the French flag is deployed and dominates the island; ships on the harbor salute the new French land with 21 cannon blasts. Address by the admiral and prayers from the Roudian ulemas to attract the blessings of Allah to the island and its inhabitants.

The troops return aboard: I still have the contingents of Jeanne d’Arc and Jaureguiberry, who now have to be accomodated! A small islet linked to the island by a bridge, has two houses, one of which is large enough for the detachment, and the other for the officers. As for me, I consider it opportune to stay in the middle of the village: a brave Rouadais, Ahmed le Soldat, is willing to give me his new house, with windows without glass, with unfinished floors, which overlooks the sea in the middle of the small port. Soon the French pavilion adorns the facade; I leave it to my orderly to unpack my carpet and my equipment, and to set up a bed made of a door and two trestles ordered on board. In the afternoon, I go around the island with the admiral. It is a rock which overlooks the sea only slightly: its highest point, marked by the lighthouse, dominates the surface of the water by some twenty meters. This lighthouse is built on a tower of the central Grand Chateau which replaces, as we have seen later, the ancient Acropolis. The island has around 2,000 meters around; it is part of a bank of reefs which runs along the coast from Tripoli to Tartous, and includes from South to North, Ramkin, Abou Ali, El Abbas, islets which once served as burials. Rouad is oriented from N-E to S-W. and lies about 2,000 meters from the coast. It is not a great distance for modern guns, and if the enemy wants it, he can make our position difficult there ....

Facing this coast, the eastern part of the island has two well sheltered harbors that are deep enough for feluccas and schooners. The two coves are separated by a jetty made of large blocks which takes root on the ground at the foot of the Petit Chateau, also Saracen. The coast, to the north-west and to the south, is bordered by a powerful wall in the form of large superimposed blocks of which characteristic sections remain. One of them, a complete piece of the old wall, rises 8 meters above the sea which eats away at its foundations. Another is tumbling towards the interior of the island, and the cascade of its blocks bears witness to an earthquake which knocked down the walls. On the south coast, between the ruins of the enclosure and the houses, the ground brought up forms like an esplanade and serves as a cemetery. There are arranged without order, but generally oriented from east to west, the low Muslim tombs dominated by a stone fez or an oval stele, indicating the sex of the deceased. It is the only unbuilt land, and, can we say, the only place on the island where it is possible to take a prisoner's march! After three years, I knew the smallest stones …

 The admiral, moreover, assigned to Rouad the Laborieux, a tug of elegant silhouette commanded by a 50-year-old enseigne! He also added the Cydnus, a small steamboat that Jeanne d’Arc had captured in the spring in the Gulf of Alexandretta. Thus equipped, we feel less isolated and better united with the allied lands

 

[KizmeRD]

Interestingly enough, one of the vessels listed in the OP, the steam yacht ‘Ariane II’, had been transferred to the French from the Royal Navy on 25th February 1916 (and returned June 1919). This yacht is perhaps better known under its previous name ‘Sheelah’ - the private yacht of the heiress Ethel Field-Tree (Admiral Beatty’s wife). In 1914 it was converted at Ethel’s expense into a hospital ship and loaned to the Admiralty for the duration of the war.

MB

 

[charlie962]

Here are a couple of clippings on the Nord Caper in 1915, courtesy FindmyPast:

pages14-18 thread here

 

That excellent website linked by KizmeRD might like your findings ?

charlie

Edited 12 October , 2021 by charlie962

[Ian Burns]

Thanks Charlie,

Can you confirm the name of the magazine and date?

I have looked at Illustrated War News for 8 Dec 1915 - not there.

 

But a great contribution - thanks.

Ian

[charlie962]

2 minutes ago, Ian Burns said:

I have looked at Illustrated War News for 8 Dec 1915 - not there.

[Ian Burns]

Ah! Got it!

[charlie962]

Re Nord Caper

Important to get the right Ahmed Pacha !

This from pages14-18:

Extrait de l' "Histoire de la Marine Française" - Librairie Larousse.

Dans tout le secteur français, la patrouille fut menée par nos croiseurs, torpilleurs et, surtout, chalutiers. Ceux-ci y écrivirent les plus belles pages de leur histoire et accomplirent maintes actions d'éclat, parfois à la manière des corsaires du grand siècle. Tel fut le cas du du petit chalutier Nord-Caper, monté par 10 hommes sous les ordres du lieutenant de vaisseau Lacombe, qui s'empara à l'abordage d'une goélette turque transportant 11 officiers et 50 hommes de troupes régulières en Tripolitaine. La lutte fut épique entre nos matelots bondissant pieds nus, sans autres armes que quelques revolvers, leurs couteaux, des barres de bois, des massues improvisées, et l'équipage de la goélette renforcé par ses passagers.
. Surpris par l"attaque, épouvantés par l'audace de ces démons, par l'accostage brutal du Nord-Caper dont le commandant fit tirer à bout portant la pièce de 47 millimètres, en mugissant dans son porte-voix l'ordre de se rendre, les ennemis mirent bas les armes après une courte résistance.
. C'est ainsi qu'Ahmed-pacha, colonel professeur à l'école militaire de Constantinople; Loufty-bey, capitaine d'infanterie, 8 lieutenants ou sous-lieutenants et une demi-compagnie de réguliers turcs se rendirent à deux officiers et 10 matelots français. Surcouf lui-même n'aurait pas désavoué un pareil exploit.

 

Bernard Frank- second clipping- seems to be a pseudonym?

M. Poulallier a publié, sous le pseudonyme Bernard-Frank, le "Carnet d’un enseigne de vaisseau", dans lequel est contée l’odyssée du Nord-Caper,

Edited 12 October , 2021 by charlie962

[Ian Burns]

Very interesting...

Most French accounts give the numbers captured as 11 officers and 32 men - 43 in total.

All imply that Nord Caper's crew was just 10 men and two officers. In fact it appears that there were only ten men available for the boarding party, led by enseign de vaisseau B J Poulallier second officer of the Nord Caper. Paul Chack (who else) has a very colourful account of the boarding in On Se Bat Sur Mer, pp.38-46 in my copy. I have a copy of Bernard-Frank's (aka Poulallier) book on order. I was not aware of the use of a pseudonym. Nord Caper appears to have been crewed by two officers and between 25-30 men.

Chack also has an Ahmed-Fehmi waiting for the schooner on the coast near Ben Ghazi. Presumably part of the Senussi campaign? Certainly he does not appear to have been captured during the boarding.

Whatever the real facts it was a wonderful throw back to the days of sail - a tale worthy of a French Hornblower.

Fortunately, my interest in Nord Caper is after these events when she was used as an escort ship.