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Description: | Photographs relating to the voyages made by the troopship EURIPIDES (A14) carrying units of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and reinforcements to battalions serving in Gallipoli, Egypt and on the Western Front. The voyages covered are as follows:
8 May 1915: Departing for Melbourne carrying the 23rd and 24th Battalions, AIF. With the former also travelled the 1st Reinforcement.
2 November 1915: Departing from Sydney carrying the 11th Reinforcement to the 2nd Battalion, AIF, and 6th Reinforcement to the 18th Battalion, AIF.
9 September 1916: Departing from Sydney carrying the 20th Reinforcement to the 3rd Battalion, AIF, the 20th Reinforcement to the 4th Battalion, AIF, and the 15th Reinforcement to the 18th Battalion, AIF.
There are also photographs relating to the 11th Reinforcements to both the 6th and 7th Australian Light Horse.
Photographs relating to the 23rd and 24th Battalions include troops embarking at Town Pier, Melbourne; Lieutenant Colonel Morton and Lieutenants Main and Hain; pay day for the 24th Battalion; bayonet fighting practice; signals lecture; tug-o-war bout; band of the 24th Battalion; pipes and drums of the 23rd Battalion; group photographs include officers of both battalions; sergeants, buglers and a machine gun team of the 23rd Battalion. The troops are also shown disembarking at Alexandria and entraining.
Images covering the reinforcements to the 2nd and 18th Battalion Reinforcements include troops engaged in lifebelt drill; a cookhouse on deck; soldiers on fatigues peeling potatoes 'spud bashing'; dentist; barber, pay day; soldiers cleaning personal equipment; medical inspection (11th Reinforcement, 7th Light Horse); church parade; sports and recreation including boxing, deck quoits, draughts and the 'Keystone' Band of the AIF. There are also photographs of unit mascots: 'Bully' the Bulldog (11th Reinforcement, 2nd Battalion), 'Dick' the kangaroo (6th Reinforcement, 18th Battalion) and 'Rip' the Jack Russell (11th Reinforcement, 6th Light Horse). Troops are also shown disembarking at Alexandria for a route march and then leaving the ship at Lemnos. Nursing sisters, wounded Sikh soldiers and Turkish prisoners are depicted at Imbros as is the landing of wounded at Alexandria.
Coverage of the 20th Reinforcements to the 3rd and 4th Battalions and the 15th Reinforcement to the 18th Battalion includes the EURIPIDES leaving Millers Point, Sydney; images of musketry practice and physical training on board ship. Also, the commanding officer's morning inspection; kit inspections; submarine drill; recreation such as the on deck 'open air' library, deck billiards, pillow fighting and card games including Nap and a soldier basket weaving. Troops of both batches of 20th Reinforcements are shown disembarked at Durban in South Africa for a route march. There is also a photograph of sea sick soldiers sleeping on deck during the voyage.
Other photographs taken on board EURIPIDES include personnel of No.4 Sea Transport Section, Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC); naval signallers and Morse code practice; the dog mascot of HMAS MELBOURNE; gunnery practice; coaling ship at Port Said; interior of the Marconi wireless room; view of No.1 Hospital Deck; part of No.3 Troop Deck laid out for messing; the ship's orderly room; issue of lime juice; storemen with mutton carcasses; AIF officers censoring mail; fatigue party cleaning ship; AIF soldiers receiving inoculations and a Roman Catholic church service on deck. There are also a number of photographs showing British troops on board in the eastern Mediterranean.
There are also portrait photographs of Commander A Douglas RNR (captain of the EURIPIDES); Captain Macrae Stewart (chaplain); Brother Scanlon wearing a lifebelt; engineers and other groups of the crew of the EURIPIDES.
Amongst the places depicted in the photographs are: Fremantle (the wharf); Melbourne (includes the SS MOLDAVIA embarking troops of the AIF and cars and motor ambulances on the quayside waiting to convey wounded to hospital); Sydney (Farm Cove, Gordon Island, wounded disembarking from the EURIPIDES and the ship in Woolwich Dry Dock); Wooloomooloo (troops embarking on the EURPIIDES); Alexandria (street scenes and buildings); Port Said; Port Twefik; Suez Canal (including British camps along banks); Aden; Karachi (docks), Bombay (street scenes); Colombo (harbour); Malta (Fort Angelo, Naval Hospital, Grand Harbour, Sliema Bay and Valletta); Gravesend; Plymouth Hoe; Devonport; Gibraltar; Liverpool, Cape Town, Durban (local scenes and 'The Bluff') and Townsville.
Finally, a number of Allied warships and merchant vessels are covered by the collection: HMS ALBION; HMS BEN-MY-CHREE; HMS EMPRESS; HMS EURYALUS; HMS FOX; HMS GLORY; HMS KING ALFRED; HMS MALLOW; HMS PROSERPINE; HMS PRINCE GEORGE; HMS SIR THOMAS PICTON; HMAS PARRAMATTA; HMAS YARRA; French warships: JEANNE D'ARC; KERSAINT; PARIS and REQUIN; the Russian cruiser ASKOLD; Hospital ships CARISBROOKE CASTLE; D'ITALIA, KAWOWNA; LETITIA; MADRAS; NEURALIA; SYRIA; VARELA; Troopships EURIPIDES; MARQUET; THEMI; Merchantmen BALMORAL CASTLE; CONDELINI; GALETA; HIGHLAND MONARCH; INDARRA; MEDINA; MOLDAVIA; NIAGARA; NIKKO MARU (aground off Townsville); PALERMO; PORTHOS and ULYSSES; Liners AQUITANIA; MIGANTIC; SAVOIA and the paddle tug SIR HUGH BELL. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Australian Imperial Force | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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