The transport ship Shropshire carrying troops to England [1] | |
History | |
---|---|
New Zealand | |
Name | Shropshire |
Operator | Federal Steam Navigation Company |
Builder | John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland |
Yard number | 400 |
Launched | 27 April 1911 |
Completed | 19 September 1911 |
Maiden voyage | 1912 |
In service | 28 October 1911 |
Out of service | 1923 |
Fate | Transferred to the New Zealand Shipping Company [2] |
New Zealand | |
Name | Rotorua |
Operator | New Zealand Shipping Company |
Acquired | 1923 |
Out of service | 11 December 1940 |
Fate | Torpedoed and sunk by the German U-Boat U-96 on 11 December 1940 [2] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Passenger/cargo steamship |
Tonnage | 11,911 tons |
Length | 526 ft 5 in (160.45 m) |
Beam | 61 ft 5 in (18.72 m) |
Depth of hold | 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) |
Propulsion | Twin screw |
Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
HMAT Shropshire (His Majesty's Australian Transport), originally SS Shropshire, was a 11,911-ton vessel, built by John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Glasgow, for the Federal Steam Navigation Company. [2] She was employed on passenger and meat trade between New Zealand and Great Britain, but due to the First World War, she was converted into a troopship. [3] [4] She was leased by the Australian Commonwealth Government until 5 August 1917, when the British Admiralty took over control of the ship.
HMAT Shropshire undertook the following journeys as a troopship in World War I: [2] [5] [1]
In 1923, the ship was renamed Rotorua for the New Zealand Shipping Company. [2] On 11 December 1940, it became a casualty of World War Two, when it was torpedoed by the German U-boat submarine U-49 off St Kilda, with 104 rescued and 21 lives lost.
HMAS Encounter was a second-class protected cruiser of the Challenger class operated by the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built by HM Dockyard Devonport and completed at the end of 1905.
Maurice Vincent Buckley, was an Australian soldier serving under the pseudonym Gerald Sexton who was awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War. This is the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
HMAT Warilda was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the First World War, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.
HMAS Berrima was a passenger liner which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War I as an armed merchantman and troop transport. Launched in 1913 as the P&O liner SS Berrima, the ship initially carried immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia via Cape Town. In August 1914, Berrima was requisitioned for military use, refitted and armed, and commissioned into the RAN as an auxiliary cruiser. The ship transported two battalions of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to the German New Guinea colonies in September.
Harvey Stanley Hyde Blackburn(30 November 1876 – October 1967) was a member of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), who during World War I managed to fool medical staff at the time of his voluntary enlistment so that they did not observe his artificial left foot, which he had lost only a short time earlier.
Pfalz was a 6,557-ton cargo steamer operated by German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd. The ship became the target of the first shot fired by Australian forces in World War I, soon after departing the Port of Melbourne in Australia.
SS Vaderland was an ocean liner launched in July 1900 for the Red Star Line service between Antwerp and New York. During her passenger career, the ship initially sailed under British registry, but was re-registered in Antwerp in 1903. Vaderland was a sister ship to Zeeland and a near sister ship to Kroonland and Finland.
The Wallach brothers were a family of eight boys born to Henry and Mary Wallach of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia toward the end of the 19th century. Six of the brothers all saw active service in World War I. The fourth and eighth brothers, Clarrie and Neville were both top-grade rugby union players before the War. They both saw action at Gallipoli, were promoted on the Western Front as Captains, were both recipients of the Military Cross and each fell within a week of each other in France in fighting at the time of the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
SS Wandilla was a steamship built in 1912 for the Adelaide Steamship Company. The ship operated on the Fremantle to Sydney run until 1915, when she was acquired for military service and redesignated HMAT Wandilla. Initially used as a troop transport, the vessel was converted to a hospital ship in 1916. Wandilla was returned to her owners at the end of the war, then was sold to the Bermuda & West Indies SS Company and renamed Fort St. George in 1921. She was sold in 1935 to Lloyd Triestino and renamed Cesarea before being renamed Arno in 1938. At the start of World War II, the ship was acquired by the Regia Marina for use as a hospital ship. She was sunk by British aircraft on 10 September 1942.
Australian official war artists are those who have been expressly employed by either the Australian War Memorial (AWM) or the Army Military History Section. These artist soldiers depicted some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how war shapes lives.
Samuel Cleland Campbell was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Geelong was a ship which owned by the Blue Anchor Line, and, after 1910, by P&O. She was constructed in 1904 by Barclay, Curle and Co. Ltd., at Glasgow, Scotland. When originally constructed, she had accommodation for 120 saloon and 200 third-class passengers, and also carried cargo. Her gross register tonnage was 7700 tons, and she was 450 feet long, powered by triple-expansion steam engines, and capable of 14 knots, with an average cruise speed of 12 knots.
RMS Orontes was a steam ocean liner of the Orient Steam Navigation Company that was launched in 1902 and scrapped in 1925.
Lieutenant Colonel John Charles Robertson was a senior officer in the Australian Army who served in both the First and Second World Wars.
SS Afric was a steamship built for White Star Line by Harland and Wolff shipyards. She was of the Jubilee class, had a reported gross register tonnage of 11,948, and had a port of registry of Liverpool, England. Afric was launched on November 16, 1898, and was involved in shipping between Liverpool and Australia.
Claude Witherington Stump FRSE was an Australian embryologist who served in two wars.
SS Rotorua was a New Zealand Shipping Company steam ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship that was built in Scotland in 1910 and sunk by a U-boat in 1917.
The Edith Cavell Memorial is an outdoor memorial to Edith Cavell located in Kings Domain, Melbourne, Australia. It consists of a marble bust on a granite pedestal; the bust was sculpted by Margaret Baskerville. The memorial was unveiled in November 1926.