HMAT A11 Ascanius

History
Name	HMAT A11 Ascanius
Builder/Built	1910 Workman Clark & Co Ltd, Belfast
Type	Passenger/cargo (refrigerated)
Displacement	10,048 tons
Speed	13 knots

Remarks

Owned by Alfred Holt & Co, Liverpool.

Leased in 1914 by the Commonwealth until 30 Jul 1917, after which time she was under the control of the British Admiralty. Was part of the 1st Convoy, carrying the South Australian 10th Battalion, and the 11th Battalion from Fremantle. Between 19 Apr and 12 May 1915 she was converted at Cockatoo Island Dockyard to transport 1,820 troops and 12 horses. Completed nine transport voyages from Australia.

After the war she serviced the refrigerated meat trade between Australia and Liverpool, before being used again as a troopship during WW2. She was torpedoed on 30 Jul 1944 by U-621 while a member of Convoy EBC-54, in the English Channel south of Portsmouth while on its way to the Normandy beaches where it was to act as a depot ship. Despite being damaged, she was able to make it to port for repairs.

After WW2, the Ascanius carried Jewish emigrants from Marseilles to Haifa and was sold in 1949 to Italy and renamed San Giovannino. The plan had been to carry emigrants from Italy to Australia, but she had to be laid up due to her age and was broken up at La Spezia in July 1952.

Soldiers carried

Fremantle to Alexandria 2 November - 5 December 1914

• John Harold Coffen
• Alfred Cecil Clarence Curtis
• John Charles Hutchinson
• Herbert Frank O'Neill
• John Alexander Spilsbury

Fremantle to Port Suez 8 June - 2 July 1915

Sharing this voyage with our boys was the 7th Australian Field Ambulance, with many of them fated to get to know them better in Gallipoli and France.

• William Barge
• Joseph George Benton Snr
• Arthur Percy Thomas Boyle
  
• Edward Briggs
• John McLeod Brown
• Oswald Chorlton
• William Edward Clarence Green
• Walter Hayward
• Frederick Hobbs
• John Hobbs
• Stephen Henry Horrocks
• Henry Richard Keefe
• Basil Kelley
• Reuben Douglas Naughton
• Henry George Price
• Reginald Grove Sexty MID Post WW1 men
• Roland Parker Shelley
• Samuel Simpson Thompson
• Arnold Thorp
• Sidney Tugby

Fremantle to Port Suez 29 July 1915 - ?

• Henry Richard Keefe

Hospital ship Mudros to Malta 25-27 August 1915

• George Sidney Cook

Mudros to Alexandria 27 - 30 December 1915

• Victor Thomas Emanuel Compassi
• Angus Lindt
• Ernest Edward Lockhart
• Harold V Marshall
• Victor Henry Marshall
• Robert Melville Salter

England to Fremantle 17 March - 30 April 1916

• James Francis Ottaway served as a member of the Nursing Staff

Melbourne to Devonport 27 May - 18 July 1916

• George Alfred Hill
• Eric Oswald Strang
• Hugh Gibson Winning

Melbourne to Devonport 11 May - 20 July 1917

• George Alfred Hill
• Francis Joseph (Frank) Steffan

England to Fremantle 9 February - 17 March 1919

• Frederick George Gibbs
• Eugene Anthony Gillespie picked up at Gibraltar on 14 Feb
• John Macarthur Livingston
• Melbourne Hubert Randolph Matthews
• Mount (Mont) Alexander Taylor
• Sidney Tugby

Other Voyages

• Melbourne to ? 10 Nov 1916
• Sydney to England 25 Oct 1916