Signal log of HMT CANBERRA - 18 June 1918 to 16 December 1918
Date1918
Object number00044336
NameSignal log
MediumPaper, board, cloth
DimensionsOverall: 318 x 222 x 37 mm, 1500 g
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Leila Dilley
DescriptionThis is a log of the WWI transport ship CANBERRA's communications while moving troops and stores around the eastern Mediterranean from June to December 1918 as part of the Allied war effort. The communications are between it and its convoy escort warships, mineseepers, other transport ships and port authoriities and includes instructions on when to zig zag to avoid German submarine attack. From June to July it operated between Taranto (Italy) and Alexandria (Egypt), then Port Said (Egypt), Aden (Yemen) and to Salonica (Thessaloniki, Greece). The Armistice of Mudros on 30 October brought an end to hosilities between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire and led to the military occupation of parts of Lebanon, Syria and southern Turkey (Cilicia) by France as part of the Sykes-Picot agreement. In early December 1918 HMT CANBERRA was in Beirut embarking French nationals (Beirut had been occupied by the French on 8 October). It was then in Mersin in southern Turkey in mid December (The French had landed troops there on 17 November 1918) where it embarked released British prisoners of war taken by the Turks at the seige of Kut-al Amara in Iraq in 1916.HistoryThe "responsibility for the choice, equipment and movement of transports, taking troops overseas and returning them to Australia,rested with the Australian Naval Board. The Board's Transport Branch, established in London in 1915, worked closely with the British Admiralty and the Ministry of Shipping, in matters relating to the transports in the United Kingdom. To maintain the vessels almost continually at sea, an immense amount of dockyard labour was required. In Australia, this was undertaken mainly in Sydney (Cockatoo Island, Garden Island) and Melbourne (Williamstown)". (National Archives of Australia, Series AWM 244).
The Howard Smith Limited passenger liner TSS CANBERRA was requisitioned for the Allied war effort on 18 of October 1917 in Sydney, leaving with troops for Egypt in November 1917 as HMT CANBERRA. Thereafter it was used to transport troops and stores between Mediterranean ports and the Persian Gulf, and to transport troops from Egypt to France to fight on the Western Front during the major German Spring offensive that started in March 1918 and ended in July. The log indicates that between June and November 1918 HMT CANBERRA was part of convoys between Alexandria, Taranto, Port Said, Aden and Salonika (Thessaloniki, Greece). The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October bringing an end to hosilities between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire. In December of 1918 the log shows that HMT CANBERRA was involved in Allied post war operations at Beirut, Lebanon and at Mersin, Turkey both recently occupied by French forces. At Mersin HMT CANBERRA embarked released British prisoners of war taken by the Turks at the seige of Kut al-Amara in April 1916. Thereafter it was involved in returning British troops from India and Australian troops from Europe until 27 April 1920 when the CANBERRA was returned to Howard Smith Line.
SignificanceThe Signal Log provides an account of the day to day operations of an Australian merchant liner used during wartime.The associated papers provide an insight in to the movements of the'flying convoy',used to move troops and release allied prisoners at Mersina, including 'zigzag' formations and coastal mapping.
