Forum PAGES 14-18

Bonjour,
Le transport "Menominee" quittait le port de Devonport le 6 septembre 1916 avec à son bord l'Escadrille 47 du Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.) pour Salonique, il arriva alors normalement le 19 septembre 1916.

Je joindrai ici le texte qui parle de son voyage que je connais en anglais par le livre "Over the Balkans and South Russia, 1917-1919 - H.A. JONES" Edition de 1987.

Voici un lien de nos amis britanniques sur un autre forum : http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forum ... 34876&st=0

Je suis intéressé par toute information sur ce transport, merci si vous avez des informations.
Bien cordialement.

Built by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Glasgow, Scotland, 1898. 6919 gross tons; 475 (bp) feet long; 52 feet wide. Steam triple expansion engine, single screw. Service speed 14 1/2 knots. 120 passengers ( 120 first class, ).

Built for Wilson Furness Leyland Line, British flag, in 1898 and named Alexandria. London-New York service. Transferred to Atlantic Transport Line, British flag, in 1899 and renamed Menominee. Transferred to Red Star Line, British flag, in 1905. Antwerp-Philadelphia and Antwerp-New York service. Returned to Atlantic Transport Line, British flag, in 1914. Used as a British transport 1915-19. Reduced to a freighter in 1920. Scrapped in Italy in 1926.

Bonjour à tous,

Voici ce que j'ai pu trouver au sujet de ce navire.
Bien amicalement
Maurice

En voici une photo.

Voici encore une série de données provenant d'un forum anglais:



The transport Menominee had the no. X2.

Tonnage: 6,919, Length: 475', Beam: 52' 3", Builder: Alexander Stephen & Sons, Glasgow, Yard No 372, Launch Date: 1897, Maiden Voyage: 1898, Destruction: Sold for scrap 1927, AKA: Alexandria, Operated by A.T.L.: 1898 - 1905. Official number 108588. Single screw, 13 1/2 knots, triple expansion engine by builder with cylinders of 32", 54", and 90" and a stroke of 66". Two double-ended and 2 single-ended boilers, 770 n.h.p., steam pressure 190 lbs. Ten bulkheads, 7 holds, 1,100 tons of coal. 120 passengers

1897 the ship was built for the Wilson & Furness-Leyland Line as the Alexandria. She made six transatlantic voyages for the line before she became one of the five sister ships purchased by the Atlantic Transport Line to replace vessels requisitioned by the U. S. Government for use as transports in the Spanish American War. The Atlantic Transport Line paid an average of £140,000 for each of these ships.

Renamed Menominee, the ship was used on the London to New York service and is recorded making 57 voyages to New York for the A.T.L. passenger service between October 1898 and February 1905, with one additional voyage in September 1914. The Ships List website states that she made three voyages to New York for the A.T.L. between September 1914 and January 1915.

1899 Sailing under the command of Captain Bocquet, she rescued all 23 crew of the sinking tramp steamer Glendower in March 1899, and Lloyds awarded medals to 16 of her crew after the incident.

May 4, 1901 Archbishop Lewis of Ontario died on board Menominee. Although seriously ill with pneumonia he had embarked with his wife and a trained nurse for a short stay in London before proceeding on to Egypt.

July 1901 Menominee rammed and sank the Gloucester fishing schooner Lucille in thick fog about ten miles west of the Nantucket shoals. The schooner's 18-man crew was picked up and taken on to New York. Menominee was steaming at half speed, sounding her siren frequently when the accident occurred. Although the men on the schooner heard Menominee approaching she was within 100 feet of Lucille when she was first seen through the thick fog.

In the early 1900s she was transferred to the Red Star Line and served this company from 1905 to 1914 working the Antwerp to Philadelphia service and carrying second class passengers. Once fitted with wireless, Menominee's call letters were "MNE." Sailing for New York in December 1903 and 500 miles West of the Scilly Isles, Menominee encountered a severe gale. "Huge waves broke over the vessel, one wave smashing the rudder head and rendering the ship totally unmanageable." Repairs were attempted and the ship drifted helplessly for several days, but she did eventually make Falmouth.

April 1915 Menominee carried part of 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade, 2nd Mounted Division from Avonmouth to Egypt in April 1915, arriving at Alexandria on the 19th. She took the Australian 8th Light Horse to Gallipoli in May of 1915, sailing on May 6. Off Anzac Cove they were then transferred to the Beagle class destroyer Foxhound to be landed.

17 June 1915 She escaped a U-boat attack off the fort of Hellas Burnu at the entrance to the Dardanelles. She was attacked by the German UB 7 with 2 torpedoes off Hellas Burnu. UB 7 fired two torpedoes at 10.12h and 10.25h, both of which missed.

13 Mar 1916 sailed from Alexandria with 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers for France.

23 January 1917 Menominee sailed from Marseilles to Salonika on with the 12th Battalion the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. She is also known to have sailed from Salonica on May 31, 1917 (for Marseilles?).

In 1919 Menominee brought troops home from Antwerp to Southampton (arriving March 23) before sailing for Murmansk. She was one of the vessels that evacuated the North Russian Expeditionary Force after a campaign known at the time variously as "Churchill's War," "The Great Russian Gamble," and "Whitehall’s Folly."

October 11, 1919, Menominee sailed from Murmansk on with troops of the Middlesex Regiment and to have brought them home to Tilbury on October 17, 1919. A soldier's diary from this campaign refers to her as "SS Hungry Guts" (the Great War Forum) and another soldier who sailed out to Russia on her "accompanied by a cargo of mules" described Menominee as "a dirty old creaking one stacker."

Menominee was reconditioned by Harland and Wolff after her war service and returned to the London to New York service as a freighter in 1920. Two years later she managed to break her rudder for a second time and the Montana stood by to tow her into Falmouth for repairs. In October 1922 she was narrowly avoided a collision with the Red Star Liner Gothland as the two drifted in heavy seas and hurricane force winds and passed within 200 feet of each other. The following year under Captain Edward Finch she sent a lifeboat out in a heavy sea and rescued the six man crew of the schooner Gordon Fudge of St John’s, Newfoundland, “with great difficulty.” It was only because Menominee had drifted 20 miles off course that she chanced upon the stricken schooner.

1926, Menominee was eventually sold for scrap and she was broken up in Italy.

Bonjour et merci Maurice pour toutes ces informations et la photograhie.

Voici le texte :

"CHAPTER I
OUTWARD BOUND
The transport Menominee slipped quietly out of Devonport Harbour in the late afternoon of the 6th of September, 1916. Yet quietly is something of a misnomer, for, in addition to sixty officers and 2,000 men, the ship carried, stowed away in the heat of the hold, over 600 horses and mules. As the ship started, the horses set up an insistent kicking. The mules began to bray.

Among those on board who watched the receding shores of England were the officers and men of No. 47 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. The squadron had been formed in May, 1916, at Beverley in Yorkshire, under Major F. G. Small ; later it had a "zepp-strafing"detachment, first at Doncaster, and afterwards at Coal Aston, Sheffield, under Major J. H. Herring. At this time the squadron was used for training purposes, but in August it was mobilized as a service squadron, and the personnel left Beverley for Devonport on September the 5th, embarking on the following morning. Major C. C. Wigram had command of the squadron, and with him as flight commanders were Major M. A. Black, "A" Flight, Captain J. W. Gordon, "B" Flight, and Captain A. Goodfellow, "C" Flight ; Lieutenant D. F. Woodford was adjutant.

No one who travelled to the side-shows of the East will forget the journey. Accommodation was sometimes very bad ; inconvenience, owing to the submarine menace, very great ; but there were compensations. On some transports-the Menominee was one-the comfort of those on board was a first consideration. Just before midnight on the Sunday, the transport steamed slowly into Gibraltar harbour. The gaunt rock towered into the sky and the lights far up its side showed like stars. Presently a searchlight picked out the Menominee and held her in its uncompromising glare. Bells tinkled, and messages were flashed out. As the ship slowed to a standstill, the moon was released from a cloudbank so that the myriad harbour lights that had stabbed the darkness suddenly ceased to glare and softened into the landscape.
Monday was a day of rest. The weather was fine and the sky and the sea were a deep blue. Some bathed from the boat's side ; others lazed on deck enjoying the scene. The passing to and fro of boats ; a gun high up on the side of the rock firing at targets made to resemble the conning-towers of submarines, which were being towed well out to sea ; the purple hills of Portugal and Spain ; Morocco looming far off with the snow-capped Atlas mountains grey against the horizon.
Before breakfast next crowds of hucksters in small boats laden with cigarettes and fruit were importuning the troops from the side of the ship. At 9.30 a.m. the Menominee left Gibraltar harbour with its escort, and by the afternoon was hugging the African coast. At 6 p.m. on the following day, Wednesday, the boat was off Algiers. Before Tunis was passed there were rumours of mines and submarines, but nothing untoward happened and Malta was reached at 9.30 on Saturday morning. This was September the 16th, and in the evening wireless news was received giving a brief summary of the previous day's advance on the Somme, and every one was immensely cheered.
Malta was left behind on the evening of Saturday, and land was not seen again until early on Sunday morning, when the island of Crete came into sight. In the afternoon, as the Greek mainland was approached numerous other small islands came into view. The Menominee had crossed the track attributed to the earliest of flying men. Maurice Baring has given us a fine translation of Phillipe Desportes' poem :-

Here fell the daring Icarus in his prime,
He who was bold enough to scale the skies ;
And here bereft of plumes his body lies,
Leaving the Valiant envious of that climb.
O rare performance of a soul sublime,
That with small loss such great advantage buys !
Happy mishap fraught with so rich a prize,
That bids the vanquished triumph over time !
So new a path his youth did not dismay,
His wings but not his noble heart said nay ;
He had the glorious sun for funeral fire ;
He died upon a high adventure bent ;
The sea his grave, his goal the firmament ;
Great is the tomb, but greater the desire.

Some of those on Menominee were, like Icarus, to dare too much.

CHAPTER II
EARLY ADVENTURES

Salonika approached from the sea is like some fairy city. The Menominee steamed along the narrowing Gulf of Salonika in the afternoon of Tuesday, September the 19th, and every one gazed with questioning eyes at this new country.(...)".
(Source : "Over the Balkans and South Russia, 1917-1919 - H.A. JONES" réédition de 1987).

Je suis désolé s'il existe des fautes de saisie par moi et pour Phillipe Desportes, c'était écrit comme ça dans le texte.
Cordialement.

Bonjour

My Grandfather, James Grant Ogilvie Hutchison was the Master of the Menominee during the Great War. In his photo albums are two photos of him on deck with French Officers, who are in several uniforms. Can anyone tell me how to put them on to this website please? I have only schoolboy French language.

Merci Beaucoup.

Bonjour

My Grandfather, James Grant Ogilvie Hutchison was the Master of the Menominee during the Great War. In his photo albums are two photos of him on deck with French Officers, who are in several uniforms. Can anyone tell me how to put them on to this website please? I have only schoolboy French language.

Merci Beaucoup.

Hello,
Thank you for your message. I regret that not a French member was to an answer for you, for photographs and an help for to put them here. (I have read your message only now ).
If you want I could tomorrow, the time to search good words in English for to help you.
If you want, I could to tell you my email adress by a private message, and after to put your photographs here?
Best regards.

Bonsoir à tous,

Le Menominee présenté par un site en tous points remarquable :

Bonjour Daniel,
Superbe site internet en effet, merci pour le lien.

For to put photographs, It is my technical at me but if it could help you, why not:

Edition : Texte d'explication pour comment joindre une photographie dans les messages supprimé par mes soins car non intéressant avec ce sujet et de plus Ian a réussi pour joindre les images.

Success!
Bobrah,
merci beaucoup pour votre assistance - you are most kind.
The photographs do not have any captions, but I presume they were taken en route from Marseilles to the War Zone.

Rutilius,

I have made some contribution to the Atlantic Transport Line website with many photos from my grandfather's photo albums.

Ian