Ships used to transport troops to Gallipoli

[Old Harry]

On 27/01/2015 at 14:25, QGE said:

OK...If you think the word definitely starts with T I can list all the ships beginning with T.... or if yo PM me you email I will drop-box the whole document.

TEESTA

THEMISTOCOLES

TINTORETTO

TRANSYLVANIA

TREVETHOE

TREWILLARD

 

I think you will find it is TREVETHOE. I was perusing A.M. Beatson's The Motor-Bus in War in the Bodleian yesterday, and he mentions that he sailed to France on a ship if that name on 21st November 1914.

Roy.

[PHalsall]

I'm  a bit late to this one, but I would be very interested if anyone could tell me which ship or ships was used to carry the 4th Battalion Cheshire Regiment from Devonport (in July 1915) to Alexandria and then on to Port Said then Mudros and eventually Sulva Bay on August 8/9th.

 

Pete

[horatio2]

SS EURIPIDES

[PHalsall]

Gsoh that was quick. Much appreciated, thanks horatio2.

 

Pete

[MKC]

Pete

 

HMAT A14 Euripedes was listed as being on Imperial Service (ie not transporting AIF under Aust Govt charter) from 14 July 1915 to 25 August 1915, so fits your timing. 

 

The first post in this thread lists a ship by the name of Serangbee. I think this is HMAT A48 Seang Bee, which was on Imperial Service from 24 March 1915 to 12 August 1915.

 

Mike

[Peter Le Duc]

Hi,

not sure if this is relevant to this thread, but this is and extract from the war history of my Grandfather which I gleaned from the war diary of 59Brigade RFA

 

 

B Battery 59th Brigade RFA - Timeline

 

30th June - Milford Camp Godalming

 

2nd July -Sailed from Devonport about the Haverfordwest (Troopship)

 

13th July - Arrived Alexandria (Egypt)

 

2nd August - Sailed for Lemnos

Brigade Strength

    479 Personnel

    22 Officers

    250 Horses

    16 Guns

    40 Ammunition Wagons

 

4th August - Arrived Munros Harbour

 

5th August - Arrived Imbros

 

7th August - On board SS Minneapolis (see picture)

 

 (Later torpedoed and sunk by Germans in 1916

 

 

Arrived Suvla Bay at 04:45 

 

8th August - B Battery landed and relieved A Battery at Layla Baba.

 

[MKC]

Thanks, Peter, that's interesting.

 

I think Haverfordwest is actually the troopship Haverford, which commenced trooping in March 1915, and the port of 'Munros' is the port of Mudros, on the Island of Lemnos.

 

Regards

 

Mike

[PHalsall]

I really appreciated those contributions vis the SS Euripides, makes my GD's experiences 100 years ago come to life all the more vividly. Since last on this thread I have traced his wartime experiences on from Suvla bay to Egypt, the Palestine campaign , and POW in Gelebek, Turkey. It seems he left his POW camp near the end of the war and made his own way to Constantinople, he feared the Turks would keep them after the war was over. Anyway, from Constantinople it seems he left on the SS Katoomba as far as I can judge and came back along the 'Mediterranean Line of Communication' - the rail system from Taranto - Calais then home. It would be great if any of the transport experts here could give me the date that the Katoomba departed from Constantinople, I can't see that anywhere on the Internet.It will just help me determine with greater certainty that I have all my dates and locations right.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[MKC]

Pete,

 

I cannot tell you where HMT D610 Katoomba was, other than that it was engaged in Mediterranean area work from Sept 18 to March 1920, except when it was on a trooping voyage to Australia from the UK, departing Liverpool in early August and arriving in Australia in late September 1919.

 

Mike

[PHalsall]

Hi Mike

 

thanks for the quick response.

 

I'm working from a line in a thesis by kate arrioti which goes like this, its describing pows being repatriated from Constantinople.

 

 The Katoomba transported the men to Salonica, then Taranto in southern Italy, where they entrained for Calais. From Calais they sailed to Dover, and reached London on 8 December. 

 

The Katoomba was also the first troop ship to pass through the Dardanelles since hostilities began, an historic event, so I am surprised that its movements at this time are not better documented. I am interested in the departure date as i want to be as certain as possible that this is the ship my GD left turkey on, i do know that he was back in england on Dec 8th so it looks a good match.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

[PHalsall]

Just found it!

 

repatriation statement of frederick ashton

 

On the 16^th November, 1918 we left Constantinople by the SS Katoomba and arrived at Taranto [Italy] on the 25^th …’

[jbenjami]

Hi all, 

 

I am tracking RC Chaplain Wilfred Pickering from Durham who reported to Bridge of Allen on 17th May 1915 and was attached to the 155th brigade, 52nd Lowland Division. His service papers say he then  'embarked on troopship' on May 19th for Gallipoli but I wanted to double check the ship and the timings of his journey with you all please.  I'm not sure how long the journey might have taken but I understand the brigade didn't land at Helles until June 28th and their first attack was towards Krithia, along Achi Baba Nullah on 12th July.  So did the sailing take that long or did it spend time somewhere else before landing for the attack?

 

Hopefully his embarkation date of May 19th accords with whatever ship the 155th brigade sailed on and I'd be grateful to know what that was and anything else about it, plus the route and stops taken if possible please.

 

But if the 155th brigade  sailed later than the 19th, can anyone suggest whom he might have sailed with on that date and what ship?

I had wondered whether the he sailed earlier with Divisional or Brigade HQ perhaps, but Egerton appears to have gone on the Empress of Britain on the 23rd with those of the 156th brigade who were left (and fit enough) after the awful Quintinshill crash. 

 

I think the May 19th date the Chaplain gave must be accurate. There is some discussion about pay in his file and therefore the actual start date of his service.  He was not gazetted until June 9th and it did not appear in the supplement until August but the War Office eventually agreed to amend the records so his service start date is confirmed as May 17th as he claimed. 

I think the discussion about dates and his statement about embarking on a troopship two days after reporting to the Division must therefore have been at the forefront of his mind rather than a slip of the pen.

 

Btw, he has no medal card and is not on the medal roll as far as I (and David Blake at the Chaplains' museum) can discover. Just to fill in the picture - he was sent back at the end of August with enteric fever and was nursed in York before leaving for the Western Front in January 1916. He spent the rest of the war as a Chaplain at Abbeville base depot which I have yet to research.

 

Any pointers gratefully received, especially the NA references for brigade diaries or battalion diaries for the 1/4 and 1/5th Royal Scots Fusiliers and the 1/4 and 1/5 Kings Own Scottish Borderers, if anyone has them to hand please.  

 

Many thanks as always, 

Jane

 

[MaxD]

 From 53 Div HQ diary - 16 July 1915 on Euripides 29 Officers 969 Men 

 

Max

[horatio2]

1/4 and 1/5 RSF AND 1/5 KOSB all entrained on 19 May 1915 and sailed from Liverpool in MAURETANIA on 21 May. 1/4 KOSB sailed from Liverpool in EMPRESS OF BRITAIN two days later.

MAURETANIA arrived Mudros (Lemnos) on 29 May.

1/4 KOSB arrived Mudros (via Egypt) in EMPRESS OF BRITAIN 11 June.

[Ray Westlake - "British Regiments at Gallipoli".]

Edited 31 December , 2018 by horatio2

[MaxD]

What happened to the query that I answered at post 61 about 1/4 Cheshires travel?  Lost in a new year time warp?

 

Max

[jbenjami]

Sincere thanks one and all for your replies. The pardre's sailing date is correct for the 19th then which makes perfect sense, with the 1/4 KOSB arriving separately. Thanks ever so much for your help as always. I was interested in the 53rd Div. ship too. My grandfather Private Peter Benjamin was presumably on this, with the 1/5th Welsh. I have yet to look at his service fully but that is helpful to know.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Kind regards

Jane

[Keith_history_buff]

On 27/01/2015 at 11:39, Guest said:

Can you post a pic of the original....

A guess would be SS Themistocoles but a picture of the original handwriting would be of use. MG

Edit. The history states the 2nd Bn SWB embarked on the SS Canada on 17th March, disembarking in Alexandria on 26th March 1915. On April 8th the battalion left for Mudros on the SS Alaunia with the transport on the SS Manitou

Here's a useful potted history of HMT Canada, built at Harland & Wolff in 1896
https://www.birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/HMT_Canada

[SimonB]

Hi ... My Grandfather travelled out to Gallipoli (7th Gloucestershire Regiment) on the RMS Mauretania on the 28th August 2015 departing I think from Gravesend, as you can see from this treasured post card. Spirits were high. I am wondering if anyone has information about the journey he would have taken to get to Gallipoli ? 

[Lawryleslie]

My Granddad was with Collingwood Battalion that left Devonport on 12th May onboard SS Ivernia. The voyage went via Gibraltar where they only remained for a few hours on 16th due to U boat threat. Arriving at Malta on 19th and departing the following day before arriving at Mudros on 23rd May. They actually arrived late on 22nd but were too late to pass the anti submarine boom so had to wait precariously until the next day. Not saying Mauritania took same route as she was more than twice the tonnage of Ivernia and may not have needed refuelling stops.

[armypal]

Hello 

Just found this thread about the ships used to transport troops to Gallipoli.

Could anyone please help me to work out which troopship carried the men of the  29thArmy Division of British troops and more particularly those of the 88th Field Ambulance please? 

My man's Medal Roll and Medal Roll Index card have him in France and 4 days later in Alexandria so something is amiss here!

His Army paybook entries tie up completely with his being with 88th Field Ambulance

Many thanks 

Armypal

[Kath]

See sotonmate's post in

Posted 19 July , 2017

The relevant shipping ledger for March 1915:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4400397

ship files are in the sequence of date of sailing.

 

 

[sotonmate]

The problem is that the ledgers are not digital and a Kew visit is needed to unravel them.

Long Long Trail here helps a bit. 29 Division embarkations were from "Avonmouth between 16-22 March 1915,so more than one ship,via Malta to Alexandria. From 7 April the units began the move to Mudros on the island of Lemnos, prior to landing at Gallipoli on 25 April".

Irrespective of where the ships left the UK from they are filed in date of departure sequence and list units and officers specifically, but ORs etc by quantity/unit.

If 88 FA were in France 4 days before landing in Alex it may suggest a pick-up call into Marseille en route,or another ship movement from Abroad to Abroad,which is a different folder ! I will post when I find it.

Edit: WO25/3540 Jan to Mar 1915 and WO25/3541 Apr to Jun 1915

"Between Stations Abroad".

Edited 7 February , 2021 by sotonmate
file detail

[D Rider]

I'm researching a Pte William Nelson (2754) of 1/5th Royal scots rifles (C Coy, 1/5 R.Scots, 88th Bde, 29th Div) , and am wondering how long the trip from the UK to gallipoli took and how long he would have been in the front lines for before being KIA. He enlisted 30th Nov '14, was at Edinburgh till 24/5/15, then part of the MEF from the following day until KIA 28/6/15. 

t.i.a

m

   

[seaJane]

I don't know how she would compare for speed, but HS REWA cast off from Plymouth at 0730 on Wednesday June 16th 1915, coaled and watered in Malta Tuesday June 22nd, arrived Lemnos Friday June 25th and anchored in Mudros Bay. Saturday and Sunday she took on patients for surgery, walking wounded were ordered to clear ship by 1830 Sunday. On Monday June 28th REWA left Mudros Bay at 0600, and was expected to make Cape Helles at 1030, but had to slow to 11 knots to obey orders not to arrive before 1230.

 

sJ