People came from as far away as Leigh Creek, the desert town 567 kilometres north of Adelaide, to see the first ever Anzac Eve tribute to the merchant navy.Many of those who were there launched paper lifeboats with the name of their great grandfather or grandfather who served in World War One or World War Two.
A fleet of about 500 paper lifeboats made by schoolchildren were launched on the Port River.
Anzac Eve photos by Sama Reid, Publications Officer Port Adelaide Enfield.
Port
Tribute of candles in the wind
Miniature Navy: North Haven Schools students Meghan and, clockwise from front, David, Thomas, Cheyanne and Chloe with their boats.
Picture: Sarah Reed The Advertiser
By Callie Watson The Advertiser
His great-grandfather fought in World War I and
The 12-year-old is one of hundreds of students in the Port Adelaide area constructing paper boats to commemorate the merchant navy's role at Gallipoli.
A fleet of 1000 paper boats holding candles to represent Australians involved in the famous battle will be launched into the
Chris will write his great-grandfather's name on the side of his boat. "I think it's a good way to remember him and what he did," he said.
Merchant Navy Association of SA vice-president John Williams helped more than 300 students at North Haven Schools to make the boats yesterday.
"The students are very excited and interested in the history behind the paper boats and what they represent," he said.
Year 1 student Meghan, 6, is looking forward to seeing her boat sail as part of the stunning display. "I think it will be fun," she said.
Port Festival 2007
Merchant Navy Events
Seafarers Continental breakfast
Seafarers Centre at
Merchant Navy Association Meeting
Seafarers Centre at 11.30 am
TALES OF THE SEA
BETWEEN
SUPPORTED BY MACGOWAN’S CAFÉ SEMAPHORE
A PRESENTATION OF SEA STORIES, POETRY, SONGS
AND
Seafarers from the Vindicatrix Association SA, Merchant Navy Association SA and Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL join with performers including Katie Jo from the regular Tuesday night Macgowan’s Café shows to bring you some of the drama and humour from their time at sea and in port.
Light on the Water-Gallipoli Lifeboats
A special Tribute to the Merchant Navy at
Launching on
Blessing and Prayers by the Rev David Ingleton of the Uniting Church.
Final Lament by lone Piper Don MacAuley from the Caledonian Society Semaphore
UNIQUE EVENT ON ANZAC EVE
Vindicatrix Association SA is involved in organising and staging a unique event marking a major chapter in the history of Port Adelaide will be staged on Anzac Eve April 24 on the
Gallipoli Lifeboats involves the making by school students of individual paper boats which when launched on the Port River near Lighthouse Square will each contain a lighted candle symbolising the Gallipoli landing.
Lighthouse Square at
We in
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
TROOPS LEAVE FROM
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 but in addition to carrying troops, horses and military stores they also carried wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for
MERCHANT NAVY LOSSES
It is not widely known that about 6.5 per cent of all Merchant Navy personnel died on Second World War service, a higher percentage than any other Service, and that during the Allied recapture of the Philippine Islands there were more Merchant Navy casualties than those of all other Services combined.
Of the seventy six merchant ships lost in Australian waters to mines, torpedoes, shelling and bombing, twenty-nine were Australian. The number of Australian merchant seamen lost on all the oceans will probably never be known. There are no war cemeteries to mark the passing of many of them.
http://www.merchant-navy-ships.com/
Norm Anderson, President of the Merchant Navy Association of South Australia and his partner Maggie Adair were guests at the September 24 Vindicatrix Associaton meeting at the Seafarers Centre. The two organisations will be working together on the maritime history theme for Port Adelaide Festival 2007.
Two of the SA Vindi Boys share a few memories at the September 24 meeting
Merchant Navy Veteran badge now available to those who served at sea
You can listen in on Secret Womens Business; I'm keeping my distance!
Members of the South Australian Branch at the 2005 Reunion in the Barossa Valley. The event was voted a huge success by Vindiboys from around the world.
Five South Australian Vindi Boys Jack Nicholls Ralph Cook, Martyn Grimsell, Les Cooke and Graeme Tetlow first met at the Somerset Hotel Bridge Road Para Hills in mid year 1996. “We then met once or twice in my house in Elizabeth after which meetings where held in the Port Dock Hotel Port Adelaide, Jack said. “Our first A.G.M. was held in 1997, “Graeme is missing from the photo.
“I think he must have been behind the camera.”
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK
THE FORTUNATE LIFE OF A VINDICATRIX BOY
Twelve weeks training at the Vindicatrix Sea Training School enabled over 70,000 teenage boys to go to sea aboard British merchant vessels during war and peace from 1939 to 1966.
Boys who applied to train there had to pass a tough medical and for many the training course was their first time away from home. During wartime the boys were kitted out in navy jerseys and oilskins which were later replaced by two-piece navy serge suits. I joined the ranks of the ‘Vindi boys’ in 1951.
Vindicatrix Deck boys wore blue shirts and as Catering boys we wore white ones; and on their uniform shoulders Deck boys had a red flash with Merchant Navy while we had a blue one. Deck boys trained in boat handling, signalling, compass steering, knotting, splicing, cleaning brass and scrubbing decks. We learnt how to make bunks, clean cabins, prepare vegetables, set tables and serve food. In the shore camp there were wooden accommodation huts, stores, offices, sick bay, parade ground and vegetable garden. These were encircled by a wire fence with guard hut and reception manned 24 hours a day. A nearby Mission to Seamen provided recreation facilities where we could play snooker, darts and table tennis. There were boxing tournaments and monthly dances.
TO THE WRECKERS
The Vindicatrix finally went to the wreckers in January 1967 after proudly living up to her Latin name “She who vindicates herself”. The “ship with three names” has been bobbing up in my life again from the time I set sail on my first voyage on the Coulgarve. The Coulgarve was a tramp steamer of 2946 tons, built by Lithgow Ltd in Glasgow. I was not aware at that time that Lithgow Ltd was a firm founded in 1918 from Russell & Co – builders of the Arranmore in 1893. Russell & Co had a brilliant reputation, constructing no less than 500 square-rigged sailing vessels. W.I.Lithgow became sole partner in Russell & Co in 1912 and after the name changed Lithgow built up its own reputation.
The Arranmore sailed under the Red Ensign for 17 years and when sold and renamed Waltraute flew the German flag for 10 years. Arranmore had been sold to a German shipping line and as the Waltraute saw World War One service as a submarine training base and a POW prison before the British reclaimed her and she became the Vindicatrix.
Photo of the Arranmore courtesy of the State Library of South Australia.
HIT BY A GALE
Six years after Arranmore was launched the vessel was nearly lost in a strong gale in Algoa Bay off Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Algoa Bay records high winds often and today attracts windsurfers from around the globe. Arranmore was riding out the gale, but another Russell& Co vessel the steamer Mashona severed Arranmore’s both anchors and dragged her spare anchor overboard. The gale drove Arranmore onto the beach by midnight, but incredibly all of her crew managed to scramble to safety. At first Arranmore was considered a total loss, but fortunately her hull remained intact and she was eventually salvaged. However 12 years later Mashona was wrecked and the next vessel to carry that name, the Royal Navy Tribal class destroyer HMS Mashona, was sunk by German aircraft off the coast of Ireland in May 1941.
Having the same shipbuilder was not the only thing that Coulgarve and the ship with three names had in common. Arranmore’s maiden voyage in 1893 lasted 18 months and in that time she circumnavigated the globe. My first voyage aboard Coulgarve was meant to be three months, but lasted 14 months. We didn’t circumnavigate the world, but travelled around the same distance in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Caribbean and North Seas.
SAILS TO AUSTRALIA
Arranmore first sailed to Australia in 1904 and as I write this I am only a few yards from the signal station that greeted and farewelled her as she sailed into and out of Port Adelaide. All that remains of the signal station is the time ball tower by which Arranmore would have rated its chronometer. Erected in 1875, the tower was used to signal the time of 1pm each day, but with the advent of time wireless signals in 1932 the practice was discontinued. For nearly three years I had coffee every morning at the Cafe Saltwater in Semaphore next to the time ball tower, unaware of the local connection with the ship with three names.
VIEW FROM THE SALTWATER
It was on Anzac Day April 25, 2004 that I began to make new connections with my past after watching a small group of men parade in the annual Anzac Day march with a banner which read Vindicatrix Association. This prompted me to pop the name into an Internet search engine and discover the extent of the world-wide network of Vindi boys. On June 29, 2005 I finally joined that network when I attended my first meeting of the Vindicatrix Association South Australian branch at the Seafarers Centre in Port Adelaide.
Artwork and photos subject to copyright
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