Talesofaseadog Posted Wednesday at 17:01 Share Posted Wednesday at 17:01 I visited the above Museum in March 2023 and I thought members might be interested in the pictures that I took of this model. It is only a small museum, but has some WW1 information about the USN destroyers that were based there in 1917 as well. Regards Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted Wednesday at 20:46 Share Posted Wednesday at 20:46 The ship carried the prefix ‘HMHS’ when used as a hospital ship during the Great War - but St. Andrew was built as a triple steam turbine steamship, not a motor vessel, so the ‘MV’ designation appended by the museum is in fact incorrect. Built by John Brown’s Shipyard, Glasgow in 1908. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyC Posted Wednesday at 21:25 Share Posted Wednesday at 21:25 (edited) Here is the "holy quartet" St Andrews, St David, St Denis, St Georg from my collection. Unfortunately I don´t have a photo of St. Patrick yet.- Only St. Georg is mentioned in the description above. Obviously they are not all looking the same, especially the St Denis looks different, but I included it anyhow. I noted that on three photos there were numbers legible: 0821 St. Andrews, 0861 St David, 0862 St Georg. What did these numbers stand for, please? And why does only St. David have an additional number on its side? Thank you! GreyC Edited Wednesday at 21:32 by GreyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerchantOldSalt Posted Wednesday at 22:30 Share Posted Wednesday at 22:30 (edited) Grey C The "Holy Quartet" that you describe did not really include the ST DENIS. The St.Patrick, St.George, St..Andrew and St.David were all built for the Great Western Railway Co. for their service from Fishguard to Ireland. The St.Denis was built for a different railway company, this time the Great Eastern Railway operating from Harwich to the Continent. Originally called Munich, her name was changed in 1916. The fact that they all became HS(M) Hospital Ships Military is coincidental. Ships taken up by the military or navy were issued with pennant numbers which were generally displayed on the bridge front for identification purposes. These can be found in the Merchant Ship Service List 14-18. The pennant numbers were not maintained throughout the war, numbers changing as the ships did different jobs and were taken up at different times, some numbers being used by two or three ships at different times. St Denis was E 8160 St George E 0682 which she continued to use when she became an expeditionary force transport after 15 Dec 1917 St Andrew C 0821 St David C 0861 St Patrick C 0826 The pennant numbers only used the letters A to G and the numbers 0,1,2,6 & 8 to prevent confusion at distance with similar looking numbers. I cannot explain the other numbers on the shell plating. Picture of St Patrick attached from a postcard, not great definition I'm afraid Tony Edited Wednesday at 22:31 by MerchantOldSalt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted Wednesday at 22:47 Share Posted Wednesday at 22:47 6 minutes ago, MerchantOldSalt said: Grey C The "Holy Quartet" that you describe did not really include the ST DENIS. The St.Patrick, St.George, St..Andrew and St.David were all built for the Great Western Railway Co. for their service from Fishguard to Ireland. The official registered owner of the four Irish Sea ferry ships was actually ‘Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours Co. Ltd.’ This was a joint venture company formed in 1906, co-owned by Great Western in England and the Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyC Posted Thursday at 00:06 Share Posted Thursday at 00:06 (edited) Hi Tony and Michael, thanks a lot for all the information. I actually have a photo of the St Denis still in her ferry paint coat with the caption St Denis, ex-Munich. I wonder why her name was changed. Is the Merchant Ship Service List 14-18 available online or in print somewhere? Love the St. Patrick photo! GreyC Edited Thursday at 00:08 by GreyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaureenE Posted Thursday at 03:24 Share Posted Thursday at 03:24 I don't know whether the Merchant Ship Service List 14-18, referred to above, is the same as the The Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory, but online editions of the latter title are linked from the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Royal Navy https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Royal_Navy#Mercantile_(Merchant)_Navy_List Maureen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyC Posted Thursday at 07:08 Share Posted Thursday at 07:08 Thank you, Maureen! Will have a look. GreyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted Friday at 00:42 Share Posted Friday at 00:42 On 30/10/2024 at 20:46, KizmeRD said: The ship carried the prefix ‘HMHS’ HMHS was sometimes used, even at the time, but strictly speaking no hospital ships (not even the Naval ones as opposed to the Army ones) were commissioned, so that the correct prefix was Hospital Ship (H.S.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted Friday at 07:10 Share Posted Friday at 07:10 (edited) Nevertheless HMHS was a prefix that was in common use at the time, in fact St Andrew only stopped doing so in June 1917 (after which it adopted the descriptor HMAT = (His Majesty’s) Ambulance Transport. See WO-95-4149-1 (War Diary), extract below… M. Edited Friday at 10:28 by KizmeRD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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