PORT KEMBLA

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

PORT KEMBLA

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:39 pm

As the war continued its persistent trudge into 1917, New Zealanders began to grow weary of this Great War that seemed to have no end in sight. Those on the Western Front were living in cold, wet trenches, and would experience the deadliest day in New Zealand’s military history when 845 lives were lost at the Belgian town of Passchendaele.
Alongside the horrors of the Western Front, we tell the story of mother of ten Ellen Knight. Like many mothers, wives, sisters and daughters she experienced the war from New Zealand shores, relying on letters from loved ones and news reports to stay informed. However, Ellen’s story was grimmer than most – she had lost three sons by the war’s end.
$1.00 A mother mourns – Ellen Knight
Ellen Knight of Dannevirke, mother of ten, saw three of her boys killed during the First World War: Herbert, shot dead by a sniper at Gallipoli in 1915; George, killed at Passchendaele in 1917; and William Douglas, her eldest, felled by a shell in France in 1918.
$1.00 From Egypt to Jerusalem
Beginning with the Battle of Rafah in January and ending at the Battle of Jerusalem in December, 1917 saw New Zealand mounted soldiers help capture the Sinai Peninsula from Ottoman forces before pushing into Ottoman Syria.
$1.00 Sling Camp
George Knight would arrive at Sling Camp, Salisbury Plain, England in January 1917, one of around 4,000 troops at the camp at any given time. While training new recruits was its primary purpose, Sling also served as a recovery and reconditioning stop for soldiers returning to the front.
$2.20 The Battle of Messines
Tasked with removing the Germans from Messines Ridge in Belgium to clear the way for the later assault on Passchendaele, New Zealand soldiers would initially achieve most objectives with minimal losses. German guns would recover, however, and as the New Zealanders were relieved on 9 June many would be killed on their way back from the front.
$2.70 SS Port Kembla
A merchant ship carrying war supplies, the SS Port Kembla, was sunk by a German mine just 17 kilometres off Farewell Spit in September 1917. Reports suggested an engine room explosion was responsible, ensuring that New Zealanders were unaware of how close the war had come to their shores.
$1.00 Technology of war
Tanks made their first failed appearance on the battlefield in September 1916, but by the time this tank was photographed during the Battle of Messines in 1917, refinements in design were beginning to have some impact. By the end of 1917 tanks were being deployed in great numbers.
$1.00 Plastic surgery
During the war New Zealander Harold Gillies, pictured far right, would become a pioneer in facial reconstruction, successfully lobbying for the creation of a specialist facial plastic surgery hospital, The Queen’s Hospital, which opened in Kent in 1917.
$1.00 Passchendaele
The deadliest day in New Zealand’s military history, 12 October 1917 saw 845 lives lost at the Belgian village of Passchendaele. Post-war the Tyne Cot Cemetery would memorialise these fallen troops close to where they perished, alongside other sites at Buttes, Polygon Wood and Messines.
$2.20 Social change at home
The temperance movement, conscientious objection, mining unrest and shipping strikes all had their day during the First World War. Arguably none had a greater impact on the population at home than six o’clock closing, introduced by temperance supporters as a wartime measure to “retain productivity”.
$2.70 A changing workforce
This photo shows the changing nature of New Zealand’s clerical workforce during the late war years. Nearly 60,000 men had left for overseas by 1917, and the country looked to women to fill varied commercial and professional roles left empty, or to ‘keep them warm’ until the men returned.
https://stamps.nzpost.co.nz/new-zealand ... rkest-hour

Built as a cargo- reefer vessel under yard no 439 by R &W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. Ltd., Hebburn (on Tyne River) for the Anglo-Australasian SN Co. Ltd, London.
22 July 1910 launched as the PORT KEMBLA, named after the Australian port with the same name.
Tonnage 4,700 grt, 2,990 nrt, dim. 122.1 (bpp.) x 16.1 x 7.98m.
Powered by one quadruple-expansion 4-cyl. steam engine, manufactured by North-Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd, Wallsend, 590 nhp, one shaft, speed 12 knots.
September 1910 completed.

Used in the cargo service between the U.K and Australia and New Zealand.
1914 transferred to the Commonwealth & Dominion Line Ltd., London.
Her last voyage was when she on 29 April 1917 left London under command of Captain John Jack via New York and Panama Canal to Auckland and Wellington before sailing on 16 July to Sydney, at that voyage she missed the mines laid by the German raider WOLF in the night of 27 and 28 June across the entrance of the Cook Strait, 35 mines were laid 4 metre below the surface.
She reached Sydney 22 July, she spent a day in Brisbane from where she sailed on 10 August, arriving in Williamstown, Melbourne on 22 August, where she loaded all her cargo except the lead. During loading the vessel was guarded by thirty-eight soldiers.
After leaving Australia she headed again for Wellington for coaling and to land the Australian mail for New Zealand. On board was a cargo of jam, Red Cross parcels, wool and 22,000 cartons of frozen rabbits and 1200 ton of lead for the UK Department of Munitions, and over 400 tons of bullion, possible either silver concentrate or argentiferous lead, also she carried munition which was stored in the aft hold.
Around 01.00 pm on 18 September in a position about 11 miles of Cape Farewell, the most northerly point of the South Island of New Zeeland she hit a mine and a terrific explosion took place in hold no 1 which opened up her starboard side in that hold. Water was flooding in and the PORT KEMBLA sank in a half hour. The crew was saved and later picked up by the coastal steamer REGULUS and landed in Nelson.
See for the explosion: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newsp ... 001.2.13.4
Risdon Beazley a salvage company got an agreement with the UK Treasure to salvage the lead. But the exposed position and depth of the wreck, also the price of lead was low at that time made salvage uneconomical. Later a vessel was built named LITTLE MERMAID by Nautilus Marine in Nelson who got the salvage rights, but she got bankrupt before any salvage took place. At the moment Smit Tak in the Netherlands has the salvage rights, after they absorbed Risdon Beazley. Have not heard of any plan for salvage of the lead.

New Zealand 2017 $2.70 sg?, scott? and miniature sheet
Source: http://www.miramarshipindex.nz/ship/show/19381 http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/P-Ships ... a1910.html New Zealand Shipwrecks updated by Lynton and Edith Diggle & Keith Gordon.
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