...Wandilla sailed for England with a cargo of W.R.N.S. V.A.D. W.A.C.S. and other miscellaneous ranks and ratings...

...WANDILLA / FORT ST. GEORGE / CESAREA / ARNO 1912
7,785 gross tons, length 411.3ft x beam 34.1ft, one funnel, two masts, tein screw, speed 16 knots, accommodation for 231-1st, 120-2nd and 72-3rd class passengers. Built 1912 by Beardmore & Co, Glasgow as the WANDILLA for the Adelaide SS Co., Australia, she was converted to a hospital ship in 1914. Returned to her owners in 1918, the extension of Australian railways had made her surplus to requirements and in 1921 she was purchased by Bermuda & West Indies SS Co. and renamed FORT ST. GEORGE. Her cargo holds were replaced by water tanks to supply fresh water to hotels in Bermuda, as there was no natural water supply on the island. Fitted with accommodation for 380-1st and 50-2nd class passengers. In 1924 she collided with White Star Line's OLYMPIC and was out of service for repairs. 1935 sold to Lloyd Triestino, Trieste renamed CESAREA. 1938 renamed ARNO for same owners. In 1940 she was converted to a military hospital ship and on 10th Sep.1942 was sunk by British air attack off Tobruk. [Merchant Fleets, vol.37 by Duncan Haws]...

...Leveson Gower in the Stuart and 10 of the new "S" class destroyers arrived from England...

Naval_Gazer & List,

Thanks for that informed reply once again - it never occurred to me that sweeping might be carried out at night. Talk about tempting fate!

Before I move into March, I spotted this in the entry for Thursday, 30th January 1919:


I tracked down the first two abbreviations - W.R.N.S. is the Women's Royal Naval Service and V.A.D. is Voluntary Aid Detachment - but what does the abbreviation W.A.C.S. represent?

Found this on the Wandilla on the shipslist site:

In May of 1919, I note the Australian newspaper 'The Argus' had this article referencing her.

Can anyone confirm this is the same ship? - I assume by her (new) owners name in 1935, she was flying the Italian flag when sunk in 1942?

Thanks,

Pat

...The Marlborough arrived from Constantinople with Russian refugees on board, including the ex Dowager Empress of Russia.

Women's (later Queen Mary's) Army Auxiliary Corps (1917-1920)

Women entered the workplace in greater numbers with the outbreak of the First World War. Some were acting out of patriotism, while others seized the opportunity to do work previously denied to them. The newly-formed Ministry of Munitions was one of the main employers to take advantage of women's willingness to work. At the same time, there was great concern that men who could be fighting on the Front were being used for administrative tasks instead.

This became more worrying in 1916 following the heavy losses on the Western Front and new voluntary services were founded as a response to this. One of these was the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps or WAAC... It was renamed the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) in April 1918. And when the Royal Air Force (RAF) was created in 1918 a number of WAAC volunteers entered the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF). The Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps disbanded in September 1921...

Mephisto

The model of this tank is not quite finished but it represents a tank of this class called Mephisto (Number 506) which was captured by Australian troops of the 26th Battalion AIF (composed mainly of Queenslanders) in 1918 near Villers-Bretonneux. It had been involved in the assault on Villers-Bretonneux and had in fact been lying stranded in a deep crater near Monument Wood but it was only in July 1918 that the front line pushed up enough for its position to fall into Allied hands.

After a period in Britain it was decided to send the tank, as a trophy, to Brisbane in June 1919 (aboard the S S Armagh). It took two of the City Council's steamrollers to tow the tank to the Queensland Museum original site. Mephisto is the only version of the tank still in existence (The one in the German Panzer Museum is in fact a modern replica).

Vera KRASNOV, aged 24 years, married 28th May 1921 at St.Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Valletta, Malta, to Leading Telegraphist William Aaron ALBISTON, Royal Navy. Her father was Professor Nicholas Krasnov...

Marie LIKATCHEFF, aged 18 years, the daughter of Leon Likatcheff, married 13th April 1920 at St.Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Valletta, Malta, to Sub-Lieutenant Frederick Henry GREEN, Royal Navy...

Xenia LOMAKINA, aged 27 years, widow, married 6th June 1920 at St.Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Valletta, Malta, to Paymaster Lieut-Commander Arthur William Edward BADDELEY, Royal Navy. Her father was Alexander Ivanov, Artist of the Imperial Theatre Petrograd (St. Petersburg)...

The paravane was the invention of Lieutenant, now Lieutenant-Commander, Sir C. D. Burney, R.N. In a previous chapter the 'Harvey' torpedo has been described, and it will be remembered that this device was so arranged by means of an 'otter' to stream out at an angle from a fast-moving vessel when towed on a long wire cable. The paravane functioned in very much the same way. It consists of a torpedo-shaped, buoyant body made of welded steel. When towed it stands out from the ship's side as the result of the thrust caused by the motion of the ship through the water. Horizontal rudders keep it at a prearranged depth, which is governed by a hydrostatic valve and a mercury oscillator. The latter prevents it varying in depth more than 4 feet.


A ship protected by paravanes carries on in the normal way, a paravane streaming out from the bows on each side. A mine seldom, if ever, strikes the stem of a ship because the stem is always pushing forward a certain body of water, which acts as a cushion, fending off the mine. A mine drops back after this cushion of water has passed and strikes the vessel's side.

But when paravanes are in use the mine rebounds from the cushion and comes into contact with the tow-line of one or other of the paravanes. The mooring cable is carried outwards by this wire towards the paravane itself, where cutting jaws in the head sever the cable. The mine then rises to the surface exactly as when caught and cut by the serrated wire of a normal mine-sweeper.

The interior of the paravane is a little more complicated than the above description suggests, for mechanism is necessary to keep the device at a constant depth. It has two rudders in its tail governed by the hydrostatic valve. The latter depends for its action on a change of pressure above or below the normal, The paravane being required to run at a predetermined depth, a compression corresponding to this depth of water is put on the hydrostatic valve spring. The load due to the compression forces the rudders 'down,' and water pressure on the valve tends to force the rudders up. When the two balance the rudders return to the amidships position.

Even then the paravane would follow a sinusoidal path at excessive speed but for a corrective, and this takes the form of a mercury oscillator which gives it the essential steadiness. The tow-wire of a paravane is attached to the ship at the point of intersection of the stem and heel. This low-down position ensures the mines will not pass under the tow-wire, and the paravane is usually set to run at a depth of 5 feet in excess of the deepest draught of the vessel.

All naval vessels and mine-sweepers are fitted with paravanes as a matter of course; all British merchantmen traversing waters where mines are likely to be encountered now use these protective devices. The merchantmen of most neutrals also use them and it has been asserted that during the Great War no Dutch ship was sunk by mine after the paravane had been adopted. In the present war, Dutch tugs towing paravanes have led ships through mine-fields. Great secrecy was maintained about the device at the time of its invention, and no word of it came to the ears of the German Admiralty until after the war. They suspected that some ingenious device was being employed, being aware of the increasing immunity of ships in areas where their mines had been put down. At the end of the Great War 2,470 ships carried paravanes.

There is another form of paravane which carries an explosive charge in its head. This is intended to be used against submarines, after the style of the 'Harvey' torpedo.

Apart from the observation mine, there are two types with which the paravane cannot deal. They are the floating contact mine and the magnetic mine. The paravane depends entirely for its usefulness on the existence of a mooring cable, and mines which have broken away or any type of floating mine has nothing which the tow-wire can engage. During the 1914 war little use was made of the latter type, for being at the mercy of wind and wave, the floating mine is as great an enemy of the sower as any other. Between 1914 and 1918 Germany possessed a High Seas Fleet and squadrons occasionally sallied out for one purpose or another. Floating mines would have been as dangerous to them as to our ships, and having to the last some hope that the British Grand Fleet might be destroyed, they refrained from adding to their own risks. Today, the possibility of an amount of sea room being needed for a great naval engagement in the North Sea is less likely; Germany has therefore sown a number of floating mines in an attempt to sink any ships that sail the sea and has shown by this action her intention not to come to grips with the British Navy.

Another device which has been employed during the present hostilities to help in the work of sweeping up minefields is the Oropesa float. Many misconceptions have been prevalent about this useful but simple device. Acting in a manner akin to that of the paravane and being torpedo-shaped, it streams out at an angle from a ship towing it on a wire cable. But it remains at a fixed distance on the surface of the water, being used to support a kite-line and the further end of a ship's sweep. Its function is, therefore, that of a 'slip ship' in a pair of mine-sweepers. Having put out an Oropesa float with kite-line and sweep wire attached, a mine-sweeper can then approach the edge of a mine-field. Herself outside the field, she can send the float over the mined area and thus clean up 'swathes' single-handed. The use of the Oropesa float does not allow so wide a strip of mine-field to be dealt with at each journey as when sweepers are working in pairs, but the risk is greatly lessened, for no ship actually enters the field. That a ship can work single-handed adds greatly to the mobility and capacity for work of mine-sweeping flotillas....


...Other countries have had different methods of mine-sweeping from ours from time to time. At the beginning of the Great War France preferred single vessels towing two sweeps which were 'deployed' out from the port and starboard beams respectively by otters regulated for depth by attachment to a large torpedo float, of the Oropesa style. Along each sweep-wire were arranged a series of small mechanical and explosive mooring cutters. The whole arrangement was considerably more complicated than the British, and 'shooting' the sweep, that is, putting it over the vessel's side, was difficult. Moreover, the speed of the mine-sweepers was limited to about 6 or 7 knots, which was much less than the speed of our ships.

When the Americans came into the war, they adopted the French style; finding it cumbersome they adapted it to their own methods and, having simplified the layout of the sweeps, became as efficient at mine-sweeping as were our own flotillas.

The German methods were more akin to the British, but they used a light form of sweep which was towed at about 20 knots. The idea was that the fast mine-sweepers should slip the sweep when they encountered an obstruction, whereupon the slower vessels should come up and deal with the mines.

The Germans were, in fact, in a hurry and were contemptuous of the slower, plodding methods of the British, although copying our general ideas. Having built flotillas of fast sweepers, the authorities thought the problem satisfactorily settled. In actual practice conditions were far from satisfactory. The fast vessels were continually reporting mines and calling for their slower sisters when the obstructions encountered were only rocks, or wrecks. In the end little confidence came to be placed in their reports, the conduct of sweeping operations became lax, and at times almost farcical owing to the contempt felt by the flotilla personnel for the vessels or gear with which they were provided. It must not be imagined that the German mine-sweeping organization broke down. Save for this particular experiment the sweeping service was admirably organized and conducted. Lord Jellicoe spoke in his book, 'The Submarine Peril', of the existence in Germany of 'a well-developed mine-sweeping service ready and constantly practised' at the outbreak of war in 1914.

...The sweeping up of the mines in and about the entrance to the Dardanelles immediately after the Armistice with Turkey [signed 30 October 1918 at Mudros on the island of Lemnos, coincidentally where ERA McCorquodale of HMS Kinross was buried] was a matter of some difficulty. Mudros was used as the storing and fuelling base, and Kephalo [now known as Gökçeada, a Turkish island between Lemnos and the Gallipoli Peninsula], which was closer to the minefields, as the working base. The parent ship was supplied with several kite balloons, manned and handled by the Royal Air Force, to assist in locating mines.

A paddler, or a light-draught sweeper, went out on to the mined area towing a kite balloon at a height of about 350 feet. There were usually two observers in the car of the balloon, one to keep a look out for the small, dark blobs in the clear blue water which repre­sented mines, and the other to speak through the tele­phone directly into the headphones worn by the officer on the bridge of the sweeper below.

Marking the positions of the mines at the entrance to the Dardanelles was not altogether easy. No official chart of the German or Turkish minefields, which over­lapped a considerable portion of the British, was ever forthcoming. There was also a swift current of be­tween four and five knots, while some of the mines were in very shallow water. However, the ship de­tailed to mark the field approached it until the observer aloft in the balloon reported a mine. The vessel was then conned from the balloon until her bows were within five or six feet of the mine, when she would stop, and let go a small moored buoy known as a 'pellet', roughly the size of a football.

In this way every third or fourth mine would be marked, until the whole line - possibly three miles in length - had been delineated. Returning along the line the sweeper then dropped larger dan buoys with flags at intervals of 150 or 200 yards.

While clearing up the mines with the ordinary 'A' sweep, one vessel kept just inside the line of dan buoys, and the other about 300 yards on her beam. The pellets were swept up with the mines, while two mark­boats followed close astern sinking the mines by rifle fire the moment their moorings were cut and they bobbed up to the surface.

The process was not so easy as it sounds. The strong current flowing across the line made steering an accurate course at slow speed very difficult. As many as thirty or forty mines might be on the surface at one time, which meant that the risk of sinking, and possibly exploding, them at short range had to be accepted. If they had once been lost sight of they might have drifted away on the tide and have become a menace to shipping.

The whole of the mines moored in deep water off and in the Dardanelles were cleared in this manner, says one account to which I have had access, though it will be remembered that in the Dardanelles opera­tions of 1915 aircraft had been comparatively useless for locating deep-laid mines inside the Straits where the water was more or less opaque compared with that outside.

Mines laid in shallow water near the shore were almost impossible to sweep in the ordinary way be­cause the sweep-wires continually fouled the bottom and carried away. However, some officers located them with the kite-balloon, and then lassoed each mine in turn, which proved quite safe and practicable.

"I put three of my best A.B.s right forward," writes Mr. A. Merton Brown, who was commanding a mine­sweeper in this area. "Each had hold of a large wire loop arranged as a bight or lasso. Directed by the balloon above, I approached within three or four feet of the mine, when the so-called 'cowboys ' did their job. Having caught the mine, I then went slowly astern and dragged it with its sinker into slightly shallower water. The towing wire was then loosened, the mine came to the surface, and we sank it by rifle fire." Although it was slow work at first, the men soon became very efficient.

The clearance work at the Dardanelles was com­pleted in July, 1919. Over 3,000 mines were removed with a loss of four out of the sixteen sweepers, and a casualty list not exceeding 50 lives. Though the loss of life was regrettable, the result was satisfactory, as many of the mines were laid very shallow and the work was more dangerous than usual because the rise and fall of the tide was no more than six inches. (In home waters, sweeping was carried out only for a certain period on either side of high water, when the rise of the tide gave a definite safety margin if the mines were not showing on the surface at low water.)

"When two or more mines got into our sweeps at the same time," Mr. Brown writes, "they would some­times foul each other and explode. This parted the sweep-wire. Before it could be hauled in, the sweepers often drifted on to the next line of mines, which of course was unmarked, with fatal results. In one case,when the wire was being hauled in, two mines came up foul of the kite, struck the stern of the ship, and ex­ploded with very sad results. On another occasion my marking boat was actually sinking a mine, when she drifted over it. She had disappeared completely before the smoke and spray of the explosion had drifted away, though many more of her men were saved than we might have expected. Rescue work was always risky as we had to dash in at full speed across the lines with the mines only three feet under the surface. We were lucky to have no casualties."

Just before the regular sweeping operations began, great loss of life was caused by steamers carrying refugees blundering across the minefields before they had been swept and marked. The sweepers had to steam in and warn these ships not to proceed except under escort, but in some cases they struck mines before warning could be given.

They were generally old, unseaworthy ships carrying as many as 1,000 people, mostly old men, women and children. They sank very fast, and rescue work was difficult again because of the number of people in the water, and the damage likely to be done by propellers while the rescuers manoeuvred among them. Though most of them wore lifebelts, numbers succumbed to shock and through becoming panic-stricken and drag­ging each other under.

By the end of August, 1919, practically all the kite balloons had been destroyed by lightning. They were always pulled down as low as possible at night; but a particularly close flash would strike them and they would drop in a mass of flames just astern of the vessel to which they were moored. Blind sweeping had to be resorted to, and the removal of a small Bulgarian mine­field off Dedeagach, north of the entrance to the Dar­danelles, was a work of particular danger. However, it was accomplished without loss.

There was more difficulty in September, 1919, when British sweepers were sent to the Bosphorus. Owing to the internal trouble in Russia, no plans were ob­tainable of the Russian minefields laid in the Black Sea off the Bosphorus, and off the Bulgarian ports of Burgas and Varna. Moreover, the Russian mines were reputed to be especially potent. They had no horns, whiskers or other protuberances - merely an interior device like a saucer containing a chemical liquid which upset and caused them to detonate at the least definite shock or concussion.

But like the mines in every other part of the world, they were swept up - somehow.

…Went on board Stuart at 1100 and called on L.G. Ship was alongside Blenheim. Saw L.G. in his cabin, but as he was engaged with Fleet Surgeon I did not stay long. He shook hands and was surprised to see me here. Am to call again on Monday A.M…

15 Jan 1894: Joined 6,201 ton screw First Rate battleship HMS Britannia (ex-HMS Prince of Wales) used as the training hulk for naval cadets at Dartmouth.


15 Jan 1896: Joined 5,600 ton armoured cruiser HMS Narcissus on China Station.
15 Oct 1896: Promoted Midshipman.
20 Jul 1899: Appointment to sail training ship HMS Dolphin cancelled.
29 Jul 1899: Joined 2,380 ton screw corvette HMS Cleopatra (Training Squadron).
31 Oct 1899: Joined 4,360 ton 2nd Class cruiser HMS Cambrian for sea service.
15 Apr 1900: Promoted Acting Sub Lt.
30 May 1901: Confirmed as Sub Lt.
1 Jun 1901: Joined Portsmouth depot ship HMS Victory for 350 ton destroyer HMS Sylvia.
27 Aug 1901: Joined Portsmouth depot ship HMS Victory for 360 ton destroyer HMS Star.
6 Oct 1901: Joined 1,580 ton torpedo cruiser HMS Scout in Mediterranean.
8 Oct 1901: Promoted Lt.
1 Aug 1902: Joined 14,150 ton battleship HMS Hood in Mediterranean (sunk on 4 Nov 1914 as a blockship in the south entrance of Portland breakwater. I've even dived on her).


1902: Lent to 1,070 ton torpedo gunboat HMS Harrier for special service in Red Sea.
2 Dec 1903: Joined 9,800 ton armoured cruiser HMS Monmouth.
25 Feb 1904: Joined 7,700 ton 1st Class cruiser HMS Crescent.
16 Jul 1907: Joined Chatham depot ship HMS Hecla for 355 ton destroyer HMS Coquette (mined and sunk off the East Coast on 7 Mar 1919.)
10 Jan 1910: Joined 3,000 ton 3rd Class cruiser HMS Topaze.
3 Jun 1910: Joined Home Fleet depot ship HMS Blake for 550 ton destroyer HMS Liffey in Command.
16 May 1911: Joined HMS Vivid, RN Barracks at Devonport, for 740 ton destroyer HMS Nymphe in Command.
May 1911: Joined HMS Blake, Home Fleet depot ship, for 740 ton destroyer HMS Nymphe in Command.
30 Jun 1913: Promoted Commander.
18 Aug 1913: Joined HMS Vivid, RN Barracks at Devonport, for 747 ton destroyer HMS Comet in Command (torpedoed, some say mined, and sunk in Mediterranean 6 Aug 1918).
Aug 1913: Joined HMS Blake, Home Fleet depot ship, for HMS Comet in Command.


1915: Joined HMS Dido, depot ship for 10th Destroyer Flotilla, for 1,025 ton destroyer HMS Marmion in Command (sunk 21 Oct 1917 after collision with destroyer HMS Tirade off Lerwick).
28 May 1917: Joined HMS Dido for 1,325 ton destroyer HMS Valkyrie (ex-HMS Malcolm) in Command on commissioning.
29 Jan 1918: Joined 1,800 ton destroyer leader HMS Scott in Command (sunk 15 Aug 1918 in North Sea, probably by UC-17).
30 Jun 1918: Promoted Captain.
12 Oct 1918: Joined 1,673 ton destroyer leader HMS Saumarez in Command.
1 Jan 1919. Joined 1,800 ton destroyer leader HMS Stuart in Command and as Capt 'D' 6th Destroyer Flotilla...