Souvenir bookmark : Troop Steamship Katoomba

Pale pink printed silk souvenir bookmark. The upper edge is cut straight and the lower edge in a swallow tail. The bookmark carries a printed image of the Troop Steamship Katoomba within a ship's life belt bearing the words 'T.S.S. KATOOMBA. MELBOURNE.' Above this is 'T.S.S. KATOOMBA BOOKMARK SOUVENIR'. Beneath is a poem: 'Only a wish on a piece of silk,/ But if wishes all come true,/ There's Health and Wealth,/ And a Host of Friends,/ and the best of Luck for you.' Underneath this is 'In the Great Australian Bight March,1918'.

SS Katoomba was a 9424 ton merchant ship built in 1913 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the Melbourne firm McIlwraith, McEacharn Ltd. The ship was used to transport goods and passengers in the Australian coastal trade. In March 1918 Katoomba was requisitioned as a troop transport for the AIF. She made her first voyage in this capacity as part of Troop Convoy 40 which left Melbourne on 25 May 1918. Until March 1920, when she was returned to her owners, Katoomba carried Australian, British, Indian, United States and Turkish troops in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and in the Mediterranean. She was the first Allied merchant vessel to pass through the Dardanelles after the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918. Katoomba was again requisitioned as a troopship in the Second World War, from February 1942 until 1946.