Post by MNA WALES on Apr 17, 2007 3:42:50 GMT
Via Mercantile Marine Community
John Williams.
I'm still with the Vindicatrix Association running the website and other things. I'm also Vice President of the Merchant Navy Association South Australia and now with the RSL. The three organisations are organising and staging a unique tribute to merchant seamen as part of the inaugural Port Adelaide Festival 2007.
On Anzac Eve April 24 large groups of schoolchildren will launch paper replicas of Gallipoli Lifeboats which they have made on the Port River. Each boat will contain a symbolic lighted candle.
I thought your members particularly anyone who will be in Australia in April might be interested in the event. Maybe it can be covered online or in newsletters.
GALLIPOLI LIFEBOATS
We in Australia and New Zealand commemorate April 25 as ANZAC Day, setting aside the day to remember and to pay homage to our fallen comrades.
This day was born out of Gallipoli, but how many of us are aware of the involvement of the Merchant Navy in that campaign?
Australian merchant ships took all of our troops from Australian ports to Gallipoli, and in many cases landed our troops on the beach at ANZAC Cove in the ships’ lifeboats.
These were manned by merchant seamen, who also came under the deadly fire from the Turkish guns.
The great majority of wounded at Gallipoli were taken in the ships’ lifeboats with merchant seamen again manning the oars to hospital ships waiting offshore.
The same merchant ships evacuated most of our troops from Gallipoli to Alexandria, Lemnos and Cyprus and then transported the wounded home to Australia.
ANZAC DAY WEB SITE
A bullet-riddled Gallipoli lifeboat which transported Australians ashore on April 25 1915, was abandoned on the beach after being damaged during the eight-month-long campaign that followed the landing. It was recovered in 1919 by an expedition to Gallipoli, led by the Australian official historian, Charles Bean, who had earlier been present at the landing in his role as official war correspondent.
The full story and photo online at the Australian War Memorial website:
COMMEMORATING THE MERCHANT NAVY AND ALL WHO SERVED AT GALLIPOLI
This Anzac Eve Tuesday April 24 the role of the Merchant Navy at Gallipoli and in other Australian campaigns is being commemorated as part of Port Festival 2007.
7 pm: Commentary on the Paper Boats event and its significance. Introduction of Merchant Navy and RSL veterans and dignitaries.
7.30 pm: Local schoolchildren launch a fleet of paper boats bearing lighted candles on the Port River near Lighthouse Square. The candles represent all Australians involved in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Students from local High and Primary schools to walk down ramps to the pontoons where veterans and volunteers supervise the lighting of candles and launching of paper boats.
Boats to be held temporarily between the pontoons and then all to be released simultaneously as a fleet to drift across the river.
Later, all boats to be retrieved in a clean-up operation down the river in accordance with EPA regulations.
We have been assisted by Mandi Dimitriadis, Education Officer at the Maritime Museum of South Australia, in promoting this project among High and Primary School teachers.
IN THE DARK BEFORE DAWN
In the dark before dawn, battleships, destroyers and troopships approached the Turkish coast where the Australians and New Zealanders were to land. The 3rd Australian Brigade (4,000 men) was to be the covering force, with other brigades to come ashore throughout that day and the next.
Leaving the ships, the Australians were towed in boats, and then rowed the final distance to the beach. In the darkness the boats landed in the wrong positions.
Enemy fire began as soon as the first men came ashore. The merchant vessel Devanha lifeboat
At war’s end the Devanha returned to peacetime duties, carrying passengers and freight for the Pacific & Orient shipping line.
In 1919 it sailed to Australia ; during the trip one of the passengers learned that a lifeboat used at Gallipoli was still aboard.
The passenger, whose name has not been recorded, immediately made a written appeal that the lifeboat should be preserved “as a war relic of our brave ANZACs who gave their all”.
Information and photo at AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
Most men landed at ANZAC on ship’s lifeboats. One of them came from the troopship Devanha and was among six in a string towed by the British destroyer HMS Ribble.
Closer to the shore, the men from the 12th Battalion or the 3rd Field Ambulance climbed from the Ribble into the lifeboats, 30 apiece. Among them was twenty-two-year-old, English-born John Simpson Kirkpatrick who was a most unlikely figure to become an Australian national hero. Having deserted from the merchant navy, he tramped around Australia before enlisting in the AIF as Private Simpson.
He expected this would give him a chance to get back to England. Instead he found himself at the landing at ANZAC on 25 April, coming ashore in one of the Devanha’s lifeboats towed by HMS Ribble. He was killed less than four weeks later. Simpson was recklessly independent. Given the job of recovering wounded, he did this using a small donkey. He was often under fire, and his bravery was widely spoken about on Gallipoli.
The boats cast off and were towed under fire by a launch; then the men rowed the final distance to the beach. They were close behind the first troops to land. The boats from the Devanha carried men to the extreme left of the covering force’s front; there were a few casualties on the way in. Once the troops had clambered from the boats, each one was rowed back to the destroyer to pick up more men.
After the landing, the Devanha was converted to a hospital ship, and in the following months her boats would make the journey between ship and shore many more times. Information online HERE
Getting into boats at 6 am to be taken ashore and boats landing at 9.45 am, north of Ari Burnu and the full Anzac story can be viewed HERE
TROOPS LEAVE FROM PORT ADELAIDE
Many of 134 troopships that transported Australians to the battlefields of World War One embarked from Port Adelaide.
Troop transports were requisitioned by the Australian Government for transporting the AIF overseas and for carrying horses and military stores and wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for Britain and France.
The fleet consisted mainly of British steamers and a few captured enemy ships.
Images on the State Library of South Australia South Australian Database website: HERE
Many thanks for your support in the past and we would really appreciate any coverage you can give to this event.
Best wishes
John.
John Williams
Via Mercantile Marine Community
QUICK LINKS
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield 'The Port Festival' Website
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield website
The Anzac Day website
The Australian War Memorial website
The Landing
The State Library of South Australia website
John Williams.
I'm still with the Vindicatrix Association running the website and other things. I'm also Vice President of the Merchant Navy Association South Australia and now with the RSL. The three organisations are organising and staging a unique tribute to merchant seamen as part of the inaugural Port Adelaide Festival 2007.
On Anzac Eve April 24 large groups of schoolchildren will launch paper replicas of Gallipoli Lifeboats which they have made on the Port River. Each boat will contain a symbolic lighted candle.
I thought your members particularly anyone who will be in Australia in April might be interested in the event. Maybe it can be covered online or in newsletters.
GALLIPOLI LIFEBOATS
We in Australia and New Zealand commemorate April 25 as ANZAC Day, setting aside the day to remember and to pay homage to our fallen comrades.
This day was born out of Gallipoli, but how many of us are aware of the involvement of the Merchant Navy in that campaign?
Australian merchant ships took all of our troops from Australian ports to Gallipoli, and in many cases landed our troops on the beach at ANZAC Cove in the ships’ lifeboats.
These were manned by merchant seamen, who also came under the deadly fire from the Turkish guns.
The great majority of wounded at Gallipoli were taken in the ships’ lifeboats with merchant seamen again manning the oars to hospital ships waiting offshore.
The same merchant ships evacuated most of our troops from Gallipoli to Alexandria, Lemnos and Cyprus and then transported the wounded home to Australia.
ANZAC DAY WEB SITE
A bullet-riddled Gallipoli lifeboat which transported Australians ashore on April 25 1915, was abandoned on the beach after being damaged during the eight-month-long campaign that followed the landing. It was recovered in 1919 by an expedition to Gallipoli, led by the Australian official historian, Charles Bean, who had earlier been present at the landing in his role as official war correspondent.
The full story and photo online at the Australian War Memorial website:
COMMEMORATING THE MERCHANT NAVY AND ALL WHO SERVED AT GALLIPOLI
This Anzac Eve Tuesday April 24 the role of the Merchant Navy at Gallipoli and in other Australian campaigns is being commemorated as part of Port Festival 2007.
7 pm: Commentary on the Paper Boats event and its significance. Introduction of Merchant Navy and RSL veterans and dignitaries.
7.30 pm: Local schoolchildren launch a fleet of paper boats bearing lighted candles on the Port River near Lighthouse Square. The candles represent all Australians involved in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Students from local High and Primary schools to walk down ramps to the pontoons where veterans and volunteers supervise the lighting of candles and launching of paper boats.
Boats to be held temporarily between the pontoons and then all to be released simultaneously as a fleet to drift across the river.
Later, all boats to be retrieved in a clean-up operation down the river in accordance with EPA regulations.
We have been assisted by Mandi Dimitriadis, Education Officer at the Maritime Museum of South Australia, in promoting this project among High and Primary School teachers.
IN THE DARK BEFORE DAWN
In the dark before dawn, battleships, destroyers and troopships approached the Turkish coast where the Australians and New Zealanders were to land. The 3rd Australian Brigade (4,000 men) was to be the covering force, with other brigades to come ashore throughout that day and the next.
Leaving the ships, the Australians were towed in boats, and then rowed the final distance to the beach. In the darkness the boats landed in the wrong positions.
Enemy fire began as soon as the first men came ashore. The merchant vessel Devanha lifeboat
At war’s end the Devanha returned to peacetime duties, carrying passengers and freight for the Pacific & Orient shipping line.
In 1919 it sailed to Australia ; during the trip one of the passengers learned that a lifeboat used at Gallipoli was still aboard.
The passenger, whose name has not been recorded, immediately made a written appeal that the lifeboat should be preserved “as a war relic of our brave ANZACs who gave their all”.
Information and photo at AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
Most men landed at ANZAC on ship’s lifeboats. One of them came from the troopship Devanha and was among six in a string towed by the British destroyer HMS Ribble.
Closer to the shore, the men from the 12th Battalion or the 3rd Field Ambulance climbed from the Ribble into the lifeboats, 30 apiece. Among them was twenty-two-year-old, English-born John Simpson Kirkpatrick who was a most unlikely figure to become an Australian national hero. Having deserted from the merchant navy, he tramped around Australia before enlisting in the AIF as Private Simpson.
He expected this would give him a chance to get back to England. Instead he found himself at the landing at ANZAC on 25 April, coming ashore in one of the Devanha’s lifeboats towed by HMS Ribble. He was killed less than four weeks later. Simpson was recklessly independent. Given the job of recovering wounded, he did this using a small donkey. He was often under fire, and his bravery was widely spoken about on Gallipoli.
The boats cast off and were towed under fire by a launch; then the men rowed the final distance to the beach. They were close behind the first troops to land. The boats from the Devanha carried men to the extreme left of the covering force’s front; there were a few casualties on the way in. Once the troops had clambered from the boats, each one was rowed back to the destroyer to pick up more men.
After the landing, the Devanha was converted to a hospital ship, and in the following months her boats would make the journey between ship and shore many more times. Information online HERE
Getting into boats at 6 am to be taken ashore and boats landing at 9.45 am, north of Ari Burnu and the full Anzac story can be viewed HERE
TROOPS LEAVE FROM PORT ADELAIDE
Many of 134 troopships that transported Australians to the battlefields of World War One embarked from Port Adelaide.
Troop transports were requisitioned by the Australian Government for transporting the AIF overseas and for carrying horses and military stores and wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for Britain and France.
The fleet consisted mainly of British steamers and a few captured enemy ships.
Images on the State Library of South Australia South Australian Database website: HERE
Many thanks for your support in the past and we would really appreciate any coverage you can give to this event.
Best wishes
John.
John Williams
Via Mercantile Marine Community
QUICK LINKS
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield 'The Port Festival' Website
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield website
The Anzac Day website
The Australian War Memorial website
The Landing
The State Library of South Australia website