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ViewsRMS MoreaFrom SN Guides
[edit] IntroductionRMS Morea was the 6th of the P&O M Class Passenger Liners. The earlier vessels were Moldavia (I) launched 1903; Mongolia(II) launched 1903; Marmora launched 1903; Macedonia launched 1904; and Mooltan (II) launched 1905. Most of the earlier and later M Class ships were built either by Caird or by Harland & Wolf. Ultimately RMS Morea turned out to be the only one of its class built by Barclay Curle & Co. at their yard at Whiteinch on the Clyde.UK RMS Morea was generally considered to be the best-looking of her class and, like her sisters, was built for long distance mail services to India and Australia. Many of the images available are from postcards and the ship is sometimes referred to as RMS (Royal Mail Ship) and sometimes SS (Steam Ship). [edit] Basic Data
[edit] Career HighlightsThe data below is from a photocopy of an unknown source held in the Caird Libray at the NMM Greenwich
Supplementary information from P&O held in Caird Library at NMM:
[edit] Build and LaunchCutting from Shipping World 19/08/1908 (held at the Caird Library NMM Greenwich) Barclay Curle and Co Ltd., Clydebank launched on Saturday the large twin-screw mail and passenger steamer Morea which they are building to the order of the Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company. This vessel is one of the three new steamers which are to form a new type of the M Class. The keel of the Morea was laid on Nov 6 of last year, so that the construction of the vessel up to the launching stage has occupied only a little over nine months. It is intended that she will be handed over to her owners before the end of October and will be ready for service within one year of the laying of the keel.
Heading: Thirty Years Ago - from The Shipping List 04/11/1908 Messrs. Barclay Curle and Co Whiteinch have done a very creditable piece of work in having completed a vessel of the size and with the elaborate fitting of the new P&O liner Morea within a year. The keel of Morea was laid on No 5 1907 and the official trials of the vessel will take place this week Weds and Thurs Nov 5. The vessel was launched as recently as August 15 and when it is said that she is the largest and most sumptuously fitted-up ship of the entire P&O fleet, it will be understood that the builders have lost no time in the fitting out of the Morea.
[edit] Morea before WW11909: RMS Morea, Barrel Mail and the Cocos Islands
1910: Wreck of lighter Jules Marie [edit] Morea during WW1[edit] On the outbreak of warThe note in the highlights section dated 7 September 1914 deserves a full explanation: The story of the Emden is a true naval epic with a finale as twisted as the tale of Captain Bligh after the Mutiny on the Bounty in its own way. The full story is told online in the Military History magazine - URL http://europeanhistory.about.com/lib...lswaneast1.htm and also in the excellent book The Last Cruise of the Emden by Edwin P Hoyt Pub: Macmillan 1966. The light cruiser Emden was built in Danzig (now Gdansk) and launched on 26 May 1908 - 3 months before Morea. She was funded by public subscription and built over a two year period - as a result her design was a bit behind the times. The last piston-engined cruiser to be built in Germany she had a fastest speed of 24 knots and 4.1 inch guns. By contrast Britain's light cruisers had 6inch guns which could overwhelm Emden's armour. She also had two transverse torpedo tubes capable of launching 17.1 inch torpedos. Emden was commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Karl Friedrich Max von Müller. At the end of July 1914 the number of countries involved in what became "The Great War" was increasing and Müller left China so he could prepare for whatever was coming his way. On Aug 2nd he discovered that Germany had declared war on Russia, and the next day France had declared war on Germany. On Aug 4th Emden came across the Russian mail steamer Ryaezan en route to Nagasaki and captured her after firing shots across her bow - the vessel was kept for future German use. Emden then ran across a group of 5 French cruisers who mistakenly thought she was part of Vice Admiral von Spee's fleet and backed off. Next Britain declared war on Germany and Japan was brought into the war by an alliance with the British. This left Emden in a very difficult situation basically surrounded by enemies, so after recoaling and resupplying she rendezvoused with Spee's fleet north of Guam in the middle of the Pacific. Spee confered with his captains about what to do next and Müller proposed that Emden should operate in the Indian Ocean causing as much disruption as possible to the enemy (i.e Britain). This proposal was accepted and Emden proceeded taking one collier Markommannia - and would also make use of any vessels captured to get coals and supplies in a very hostile area. Using intelligence and guile, Emden succeeded in making a nuisance of herself by first taking over the Indus, which was found to have a cargo of soap - which was taken aboard as were running out of soap! After playing cat and mouse with the British, Emden next captured and blew up the steamer Trabboch - the crew were taken off and later deposited on the Kabinga after promising to take no further part in the war against Germany. Next on the list was the Clan Matheson, whose crew were later transferred to the (neutral) Norwegian cruiser Dovre followed by an artillery raid on Madras where 130 shells were fired at the oil storage tanks. This caused a degree of panic for a while with people fleeing before the "mystery ship" returned. Between Sep 25th and Oct 19th Emden captured 13 ships. A false funnel was fitted to make Emden look like HMS Yarmouth and she steamed into Penang early in the morning flying British colours, only raising the German flag at the last minute and demolishing the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug with two torpedos, Zhemchug's captain had gone ashore to visit a ladyfriend the night before leaving the ship's torpedos disarmed, minimal ammunition to hand and no extra watch. He was later sentenced to 3 1/2 years and stripped of his rank and status. Taking flight from Penang involved further engagements and Emden escaped to the open sea and lay low for a while. Emden's next target was a British communications centre on the Cocos Islands - at which several communications cables converged and there was a large wireless tower. The attack started on November 9th. Those on the Islands were initially fooled by the false funnel but realised they were under attack and managed to send a signal out "SOS - Emden here". Emden had been listening to the radio transmissions and believed the nearest ship to be at least 200 miles away but this time their luck had run out. The signal got to a convoy only 53 miles away and HMAS Sydney was dispatched to deal with Emden. Meanwhile the onshore raiding party led by Hellmuth von Mücke was doing as much damage as possible. Becoming aware of the threat, Emden's whistle was sounded but the time von Mücke's party got back Emden was steaming away. Müller saw no alternative but to make a fight of it and steamed full-tilt towards Sydney. Emden's accurate firing took out Sydney's fire controls, but her captain Glossop opened the distance between the vessels to take advantage of his superior firepower and the 6inch shells which then caused devastating damage. Müller ran his ship onto the reef at North Keeling Island. On Nov 10th Glossop went to pick up Mücke's demolition party but found that they had commandeered Ayesha a 97ton vessel and left. However the demolition work was not effective as the British also had something up their sleeve - a hidden cache of spares which was rapidly used to restore communications. Glossop then requested that Müller surrendered and, after an unsucessful attempt to blow up Emden, he did and the crew were taken on board. A picture of Emden after this can be found at http://www.gwpda.org/photos/bin07/imag0689.jpg. Although this was the end of Emden, a number of the key German players managed to get back to Germany by methods that would make a brilliant film - maybe there was one made that I have not heard of. It will take too long to recount this tale here but I recommend that readers follow the story up at the URL that I have already provided. So who would blame the Lascars for not wanting to crew Morea in its travels in the Indian Ocean in the middle of this lot going on? There is a separate account about what happened on board the ship provided by F.O. Bower, F.R.S., Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow, in a Royal Society paper. He had been on a trip to Australia and was on the return voyage when Morea got to Columbo and the Lascar crew refused to go any further. The URL for this document is http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/l...gk9dlup6xxwvj0 . Bower seems to have been a miserable S.O.B and describes Morea as a creaky and noisy ship—not so well planned for passengers. He disliked the Australians because of their democratic way of speaking (he manages to use the word democratic in a derogatory sense). His language has a strong cockney twang, and there is seldom any evidence of breeding about him. The town population (he is talking of Sydney) is clearly the product of plebeian stock, flourishing under very favourable surroundings. I don't think many of us would have got on with Bower, but he did leave an account of his experiences and a description of the passengers helping with keeping the decks clean etc. The exploits of Emden were commemorated on a series of stamps issued by the Cocos Islands as shown below:  [edit] War ServiceThe following list shows voyages of RMS Morea transporting troops from Australia according to the Digger History website http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-a-l-horse/08-alhr.htm: 26/08/1915 Adelaide Transported 9th Light Horse Regiment, 3rd Light Horse Brigade 8th reinforements The following image is the January 1919 Entry in the Navy List for HMS Morea:
15335 PATERSON JAMES TY/ENGINEER LCDR, RNR MOREA 09/07/17 UK [edit] A near miss from a torpedoThis story comes from : http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/cockney_fivetoone.htm Published in London in 1921, The Best 500 Cockney War Stories comprised, in the words of its newspaper publisher (The London Evening News) a remembering and retelling of those war days when laughter sometimes saved men's reason. More information to follow [edit] Postwar return to P&OPress Cutting: Journal of Commerce 17/10/1938 (held at the Caird Library NMM Greenwich) [edit] BreakingAfter an active life of 22 years, Morea was sold for scrap. A copy of the deed of sale to Summers & Co of Kobe Japan is held in the folder P&O/63/6-15 in the Caird Library at the NMM. The date of the deed of sale was 17 June 1930. (This folder also includes copies of the deeds of sale for disposal of Mantua built 1909 and sold to China Shipbreakers Ltd. of Shainghai.) The deed contained an interesting appendix as follows: The submarine signalling apparatus is also excluded from the sale, and will be taken out of the vessel before the transfer is effective. It would be interesting to know more about this submarine signalling apparatus - what was available in 1930, who made it, and to what purpose was it put if fitted to a passenger ship? [edit] Footnotes[edit] Cutting from The Daily Telegraph (UK) 17 February 2006 page 6.Heading: MPs want state funeral for last First World War veteran. The text describes a compaign supported by a cross-party group of MPs led by former Tory Leader Ian Duncan-Smith to provide the last surviving serviceman from WW1 with a state funeral. This idea seems to have been rejected. The point of noting this here is that the article includes a list of survivors as of the date of printing. Included among them is Kenneth Cummings, 105 who lived in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. He is described as Midshipman on cruiser HMS Morea escorting convoys in East Africa. It adds that he became a captain for P&O. If you check out the War Service section above, Mr Cummings appears in the Navy List entry for January 1919 as a Midshipman. [edit] PicturesNote: All images of postcards in this section are from scans from the collection of SN member Benjidog and date from approximately 1908-1929) The image below is from a postcard showing RMS Morea at the entry to the Suez Canal at Port Said.
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