HMAT A16 Port Melbourne

HMAT A16 Port Melbourne

History
Name	HMAT A16 Port Melbourne
Builder/Built	1914 Workman Clark, Belfast
Type	SS Troopship (twin screw)
Displacement	9,136 tons
Speed	13 knots

Remarks

Also known for part of the war as Star of Victoria. Owned by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line. Requisitioned by the Commonwealth in 1914, she spent August / September being converted to carry 1,000 troops.

Under both names, she made eight transport voyages from Australia commencing with the first convoy when she carried the 1st Light Horse Brigade.

The renaming occured in 1916 when its ownership was taken back by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line Ltd of London. Vessel remained under lease with the Commonwealth until 2 Oct 1917 after which she came under the control of the British Admiralty.

In 1919 she was converted for normal commercial trade. Following lengthy periods laid up in the 1930s, during WW2 she was used as a carrier of chilled meat, and survived to eventually be broken up in 1948.

England to Sydney 19 January 29 February 1916

• Reginald Alfred Nicholas

Fremantle to Davenport 30 October - 28 December 1916

• Arthur James Allen
• William James Barnard
• George Rowland Benton
• Roslyn Christopher Coulston
• Ernest Rulle Dalziell
• Patrick Francis Fitzgerald
• Francis Henry Kingston
• Thomas Brown Mack
• William George Martin
• William Percy Matthews
• Charles Henry Murray
• James Francis Ottaway
• John Arthur Patterson
• Thomas Ramsell
• Wilfred Norman Robinson
• John Alexander Trotter
• Francis William Wakeham
• Frederick Owen Werndly
• John Henry Whitfield

Albany to Liverpool 23 July - 16 September 1917

• Henry Ivor Passmore DCM
• John (Junior) Shepherd

England to Albany 11 January - 26 February 1918

• Sylvanus Benjamin Buckland

Albany to Southampton via Port Suez, Alexandria, Faenza (Italy) 8 May - 20 August 1918

• Ernest Taylor
• George Charles Unwin