Images(2)

HMAT CITY OF EXETER and TSS MADRAS

Artist Hallett Robertson Bartlett (Australian, 1906 - 1989)

Date1919 - 1922

Object number00027489

NamePainting

MediumWatercolour on paper

DimensionsOverall: 395 x 575 mm, 0.05 kg

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Geoffrey Martin

Terms

DescriptionThis is a water colour painting of the troopship CITY OF EXETER from the Ellerman and Bucknell Line. It was painted by Hallett Bartlett as a teenager and the ship proudly displays the flags of the Ellerman and Bucknell Line on the bow. The white and blue flag with the horizontal stripe on the stern is the flag used by Allied ships in WWI. Many ships of private companies were requisitioned by the British government to use as troop carriers and supply ships during the war. On the reverse side of the page is a watercolour depicting the steamship MADRAS in quarantine in Sydney Harbour in about 1919. The vessel flies the signal flag 'Q'. Handwritten text under the image reads 'TSS MADRAS in quarantine in Middle Head, Sydney Harbour'. These watercolours were painted by Hallett Bartlett when a teenager (thirteen years old to sixteen years old) and were originally part of a watercolour album. See 00027420 - 00027528.HistoryIn 1908 the company and ships of the Bucknall Steamship Lines was taken over by Sir John Ellerman and became known as Ellerman and Bucknall Steamship Company, Limited. By 1914 The Ellerman group of companies occupied a leading position in the Mediterranean and Near East routes. As such when war was declared, the British army requisitioned a large part of the Ellerman fleet for use as troop carriers, munitions carriers, or for conversion into armed merchantmen to subsidise the Royal Navy. The company suffered significant losses during the war as victims of the relentless German U-boat campaign against commercial and supply shipping. The TSS Madras was built in 1914 by Scottish builders Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd for the British India Steam Navigation Co. The vessel served as a hospital Ship and ambulance transport from 1914 to 1919 and was renamed SS Tanda in 1920. In 1924 it was purchased by the Eastern & Australian SS Co. On the 15th July 1944 was torpedoed by German submarine U-181 and sunk en route from Melbourne via Colombo for Bombay, 19 of 216 persons lost.. ref. used:ubootwaffe Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?144221 'The BISNCo was registered in 1856 as the Calcutta & Burmah Steam Navigation Co. and in 1862 became British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. In 1886 B.I. took control of the Australian S.N. Co. and their coastal services out of Brisbane. This became Australasian United S.N. Co. Apcar & Co., Calcutta with their fleet of five ships was taken over in 1912 and the five ships and the Australian company of Archibald Currie was absorbed in 1913. B.I. and P & O Steam Navigation Co. merged in 1914 but each kept their separate identities until 1971 when all ships came under the parent P&O company. ' Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/ownerBuilderView.aspx?3690SignificanceThis watercolour of CITY OF EXETER is not only an example of Hallett Bartletts early love of ships and planes of the era, it is also reprentative of the 103 ships Ellerman and Bucknell ocean vessels were destroyed in World War 1. The CITY OF EXETER herself was struck by a mine off Bombay and despite taking on water and initially being evacuated, the crew managed to sail her into port safely.