Troopship and cargo carrier movement cards, 1914-18 War

Accession Number AWM244
Collection type Official Record
Object type Official Record
Maker Department of Defence
Date made 19 Oct 1914 - 19 Sep 1919
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

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Description

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). There were three classes of vessels:
1) transports
2) cargo carriers
3) ex-enemy ships (6 of these served as transports, 12 as cargo carriers)

This series records the movement of the transports (troopships) and cargo carriers within and outside Australia in the period 1914-1919. The cards are columnated with headings recording date, trip number, convoy number and remarks. The latter cover arrivals at and departures from particular ports, cargo loadings, troop embarkations,
transport valuations, date of transfer to the UK (Imperial) Government control, Commonwealth Government Line, etc. The series is incomplete. It was transferred to the Australian War Memorial in December 1992 by the Navy Historical Section, initially being controlled as Accession OW92/17.

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