Served in the Red Sea

“THE D P &L’s ‘Perth’, the fifth of the name, was built in 1915 at the Caledon Shipyard in Dundee, for service between Dundee and London,” writes Donald Abbott of Invergowrie.

“During the First World War, she was a Commissioned Armed Boarding Steamer serving mostly in the Red Sea. When acting as the sole armed escort for a convoy heading from Gibralter to England, she saw off a German submarine whose captain had decided to merely use his deck gun against this former merchant ship.

“The doughtiness of the seamen serving on ‘Perth’ was misjudged by the skipper of the submarine and after a protracted fight, the submarine withdrew. Meanwhile, the convoy had escaped.

“Her greatest fame came in the Second World War when she was serving as a rescue ship, sailing on 30 round voyages across the North Atlantic; she had a low freeboard with accommodation and provision of hospital services for the rescued and had been requisitioned by the Admiralty at Rosyth.

“She had RN medical and gunnery staff on board, but otherwise was crewed by Merchant Navy Officers and seamen, flying the Blue Ensign of a fleet auxiliary.

“She saved 455 stricken sailors whose vessels had been torpedoed and airmen who had ditched in the ocean and was commended by the Fleet Commodore for her excellent work in the use of her high frequency direction finding equipment.

“A few awards arose from their exploits – two Masters of the ‘Perth’, Captains A. Williamson and C.K. Williamson were each appointed Officers of the British Empire; Martin Cully, donkeyman and David Low, ship’s carpenter, both of Dundee, were each awarded the British Empire Medal and Surgeon Lieutenant Kelly and Radio Officer T Macdonald, were Mentioned in Despatches.

“This D.P. & L. coaster, in civilian life, made significant and magnificent contributions to British efforts in both world wars.”

The photograph above, taken from Walter Burt’s Dundee’s Trams and Buses, published by Amberley, shows crews beside single deck trams. As the tram in the background appears to be one of the Constitution Road cars, Walter surmises that the picture shows...

This welldressed young pair were found in a reader’s family photograph album. There is no date on the picture.