The Shipping News

[Mike Cecil]

Tony,

Try finding a copy of 'The Winston Specials' about the WS class convoys. It has excellent shipping information, and provides reasons why certain ships were used, trooping levels, and so on. A most useful reference.

Also, if you are into wartime merchant shipping, Jordan's 'Merchant Fleets 1939' is a must, and for wartime shipping losses 'Lloyds War Losses' Volumes 1 & 2, though hard to find, are invaluable.

I think you'll find that the first convoy from Australia, coded US1 was actually 11 ships - it did not contain either Aquitania or Empress of Britain, both of which were first used for ANZAC trooping as part of convoy US3 in May. In January, both Empress of Britain and Aquitania were busy with convoying Canadian troops in convoy TC3 from Halifax, Canada, to the Clyde (they had also participated in TC1 in December).

The first ANZAC troops to leave for overseas were the Advance Party, which left in mid-December aboard Strathallan.

Jordan lists the following for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (owners), shipping managed by Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd out of their London, UK, office:

Passenger vessels North Atlantic:
various 'Duchess' and 'Mont' prefix names plus
Empresses of: Australia, Britain

Passenger vessels, North Pacific:
Empresses of Asia, Canada, Japan, Russia.

Empress of Japan was renamed Empress of Scotland in late 1942, for obvious reasons!
Empress of Ireland was sunk in May 1914
Empress of Australia was originally launched as the Admiral Von Tirpitz, later changed to Tirpitz, and then the Empress of China before becoming the Empress of Australia.

The company also operated cargo vessels, all with names beginning with 'Beaver', eg 'Beaverbrae', 'Beaverburn', etc

I cannot find any wartime reference to Empress of Bermuda at all: it is not listed under that name in Jordan, so maybe it was renamed in the same way that the Empress of Japan was? Do you know if it had a different name at time of launch?

Regards

Mike C

[Mike Cecil]

OK, a bit of hunting and I located that it is the 'Monarch of Bermuda' you are referring to, not the 'Empress of Bermuda'.

Monarch of Bermuda was indeed launched in 1931, became the New Australia in 1949, then the Arkadia in 1958, before being broken up in 1966.

Built by Vickers Armstrong. Originally owned by Furness Withy & Co., then to the British Govt (1949), as an immigrant ship and operated by Shaw Saville Line, then sold to Ormos Sg Co (1959).

Monarch of Bermuda was also one of the transports for TC1 and TC3 from Canada, as well as the Norway force convoy. It went on trooping in a number of WS convoys around the Cape, as well KMF22 from the UK to Gibralter and Algiers.

Prewar, it was one of the two 'Millionaires' ships operated by the company, the other being the Queen of Bermuda, on the run from New York to Hamilton, Bermuda.

Mike C

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

OK, a bit of hunting and I located that it is the 'Monarch of Bermuda' you are referring to, not the 'Empress of Bermuda'.

Monarch of Bermuda was indeed launched in 1931, became the New Australia in 1949, then the Arkadia in 1958, before being broken up in 1966.

Built by Vickers Armstrong. Originally owned by Furness Withy & Co., then to the British Govt (1949), as an immigrant ship and operated by Shaw Saville Line, then sold to Ormos Sg Co (1959).

Monarch of Bermuda was also one of the transports for TC1 and TC3 from Canada, as well as the Norway force convoy. It went on trooping in a number of WS convoys around the Cape, as well KMF22 from the UK to Gibralter and Algiers.

Prewar, it was one of the two 'Millionaires' ships operated by the company, the other being the Queen of Bermuda, on the run from New York to Hamilton, Bermuda.

Mike C

Mike
Empress of Bermuda took the first Canadian troops to Britain, to smite the Hun,in WW 2
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205125990

[Mike Cecil]

Thanks, but no, that was the Monarch of Bermuda, on convoy TC1.

Mike C

[Lang]

This is a coincidence. Two days ago I was going through my 93 year old Dad's stuff with him (he has decided to go into a retirement village instead of living on his own).

He wrote this in 1943 about his voyage in a troop ship in 1940. A bit hard to read as a scan but pretty interesting

[hrpearce]

Thanks for posting Lang, I right clicked on the scans and opened in another window at 150% and it was easy to read

[Mike Cecil]

Lang, very interesting reading.

Your father was on Convoy US5A (but see below) in October 1940, which comprised two troop transports: Nieuw Zeeland and Johan De Witt. Escort was HMAS Perth as far as the general area of the Cocos Islands and HMAS Canberra from there to Columbo. RN ships provided the escort from there to final ports in Egypt. Nieuw Zeeland had a total AIF roster of 58 officers and 876 ORs aboard, plus a number of vehicles and spares, among other stores. The 876 figure included 18 'stragglers' who had missed their ships from the previous convoy! OC Troops was Lt Col A H Hellstrom.

RE 'US5A': sometimes called US5B in the literature, with the preceeding convoy listed as US5A. However, the original archival documentation refers only to US5 and US5A, hence my calling it US5A above.

Mike C