tsonzo (RNVR) ?

[wulsten]

Have been researching a rnvr sailor from the first war christopher todd lamb and have found references to Digby and Tsonzo, does anyone hane any ideas what these names relate to.

[Chris_Baker]

Isonzo... river...where Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies fought endlessly during the war?

[Gilgamesh of Uruk]

River Isonzo makes sense to me, too. Digby was a satellite station to RNAS Cranwell, so maybe that's the source of the other one.

[RNCVR]

Was Digby not raided at the same time of the raid on Hartlepool in '14 or early '15 by units of the High Seas Fleet? - the "day the East coast bled" ??

Bry

[kin47]

Hello

I have used many original WW I records and found the handwritting frequently difficult to decypher. Could you mean the hired fleet auxiliary ISONZO?? She was 1898 steamer ISIS and was hired from June 1915 to 10 March 1920.

[joseph]

Hi,

Could it be this Digby,

Ionia was built in 1913 in Hartlepool as the Digby for Furness Lines UK-canada service. During WW1 she served with the Royal Navy as HMS Digby, and later with the French Navy as Artois. After the war she returned to her old route, again as Digby, and from 1925 operated on the New York-West Indies service as the Dominica. She was then sold in 1934 to become the flagship of the United Baltic Corporation as the Baltrover. Route was London-Gdynia. During WW2 she reverted to her original transatlantic route. In 1946 she was sold to Hellenic Mediterranean Lines for £950,000, appearing in service in 1948 as the Ionia. Her route was Marseilee-Genoa-Naples-Piraeus-Alexandria-Limassol-Port Said. Sold in 1964, she was lost as Ionian the following year.

Regards Charles