# Iona, near east death ship



## dom (Feb 10, 2006)

came across this photo,ship flying the Greek flag,caption is near east death ship,anyone with knowledge of it


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## Paul UK (Jun 13, 2005)

Only guessing but is it one of the jewish migrant ships after WW2 going to Israel. She looks very heavily laden with people on deck.

Paul


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Morning Dom,

I have attached photo which is the same as yours. This vessel is called IONIA but all I have gleaned is that she is shown in a photo library and has something to do with old American history between the period 1900-1930. However I have not been able to find out why. There was another IONIA which was a passenger ship upto around late 1940's but it is not the same vessel. So you have stumped me.

Regards
Hawkey01(Cloud)


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## melliget (Dec 3, 2006)

Hi.

In Hocking's "Dictionary of Disasters at Sea", there are two ships of this name:

IONIA
Hamburg-Amerika Line; 1922, 3,102 tons
German steamship Ionia was torpedoed and sunk by a British
submarine on April 11th, 1940, in Narvik Fjord.

IONIA
Hellenic Mediterranean Lines Co, 1923, Hawthorn, Leslie &
Co.; 1,978 tons.
The Greek passenger ship Ionia went ashore on December 14th/
15th, 1944, at Arcaki Islet, near Skiathos. Three persons were
killed. Others were drowned when attempting to swim ashore, and
about 90 were rescued by naval craft.

Though that photo looks earlier than the 40's. Did a quick search of The Times 1900-1930 and found the following mention of a Greek ship Ionia and refugees (post Greco-Turkish war, I think):

"M. Doxiadis has accordingly instructed the Greek ship Ionia (12,000 tons) to proceed to-morrow to Pontus, where it is hoped that about five thousand will be rescued. These will be transported direct to the quarantine island of Makronissi, thirty miles south of Athens, where the Americans have established a camp for ten thousand refugees." 20 Jan 1923

Couldn't find any later mention of a sinking or any clues why, if this was the ship, it was referred to in that photo as a "death ship".

regards,
Martin


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Martin,
thats a bit more info. There seems to be a wide spread in the tonnages of these ships. I would have thought that the HML one was the one but I dont think from the picture that she could be 12,000 tons. I checked out Miramar but could not decide which it could be. I thought I had logged the site with the picture on it but I have cleared my history. If you Google "near east death ship" it will come up with the American pictures and the ship. Sounds like the Times report has the basis of it all. Will see if I can find out anything else when time allows. Maybe use the names of the American families from the pictures.
Regards
Hawkey01 - Neville


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

R651400 said:


> The fact she is Greek flagged and named, rules out the possibility of it being a post war "illegal" Jewish style Exodus but more likely to be Greeks fleeing the 1923 Turkish war of independence.


It might have been even earlier. Greco Turk wars of 1889 and 1912, both of which were acompanied by quite a few atrocities (as usual).
Ionia was also a greek province (or heavily settled area) on the coast of Anatolia. So presumably these are all refugees from there.
The "Great fire of Smyrna" in 1922 is another and very likely possibility ...

That and the fact that this is a cargo ship of a certain style, limits in my mind the choice of ships to about 3

Miramar : # 5614206 (this would fit an early event), 5516243 (but only if these are jewish refugees), # 1171308 (if it was after 1914).
Of course there is a good possibility that the ship shown is not in Miramar ...
The term: "near east death ship" might have been coined by a PR man.
This will take some digging around....


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

Is that a gun position near the stern, on top of the poop?

There is this possibilty, gleaned from an article about NZ war activities in Egypt and Greece early in WWII

quote:
Engineer Headquarters in the Hellas and 19 Army Troops Company in the Ionia had a most unhappy crossing for they ran into a gale that dispersed the convoy. Some of the transports, certainly the Ionia, were ill-found tubs with a habit of rolling alarmingly while every plate groaned under the strain of overloaded equipment and overcrowded men. The Ionia took twice as long as usual on the journey, wallowing, pitching and trying to sink under the stormy waters. Many of the sappers hoped she would succeed and thus end their misery.
End quote


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## melliget (Dec 3, 2006)

Sorry about delay - all these threads . It could be some sort of gun near the stern, Bearsie - it's hard to tell, isn't it. Or just the arm of someone reaching up to the flagpole?

That quote sounds like a definite maybe.. 

Re the tonnage, again difficult to tell. The figures on the deck are a little indistinct, so not easy to get an idea of the relative size. When I do a visual comparison with my dad's old RAN ship, HMAS Canberra, which was approx 10,000 tons (Washington Treaty), I think I tend to agree with hawkey01 - it looks to me to be shy of 12,000 tons, so perhaps not the Greek ship Ionia. But that's purely a guess..

regards,
Martin


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Martin,
I have today emailed a curator of a web site which shows a photo of the ship. I have requested any info that he/she is able to supply. A long shot but we will see.
Hawkey01


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Martin,
the curator was very rapid with his reply. Unfortunately he has no information.
So no further ahead, sorry.
Hawkey01


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## melliget (Dec 3, 2006)

Worth a try, Hawkey01. Not too worry. Maybe that title, "near east death ship", will just remain a mystery.. or an answer might pop-up further down the track.

regards,
Martin


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## tugboatbill (Dec 7, 2007)

The ship looks very much like the SS Baltrover as she was in the 1940's.
My father was evacuated to America in her during the war and has vivid memories of the crossing, dodging U boats most of the way. He now has a fine picture painted by Stephen Card showing her in Liverpool just before the Atlantic crossing. Does anyone have any more detail about her when she was the Baltrover and chartered to United Baltic.


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## tugboatbill (Dec 7, 2007)

PS. The painting in Liverpool clearly shows a gun mounted on the after deck, and my father still remembers the gun crew living just below in the poop.


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

I had forgotten about this as had failed to find anymore info. However the mention of the Baltrover from Tugboatbill made me look around again. 
Found the following - slightly précised on a web site www.archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com - it seems to have a lot of connections with our original search and looks to be the ship originally pictured. But why the term near death ship is still a mystery but maybe it could relate to her final demise.

quote -

Baltrover completed in 1913 at Irvines Shipbuilding & DD Co. Hartlepool as DIGBY for Furness WIthy. A single screw vessel of 3966 Grt. L365' x B50', for the Mersey to Canada service. Accommodation for 60 1st Class and 30 2nd Class passengers. During WW1 she became an armed merchant cruiser for the 10 Sqdn. In 1915 she was handed over to the French and renamed Artois still with the 10th Sqdn. After WW1 returned to owners and renamed DIGBY. Around 1926 she was placed in service between New York and Trinidad and renamed DOMINICA. 1936 entered service for UNITED BALTIC Corp London as BALTROVER for service between London and Gdynia. 1939 reverted to North Atlantic service until 1944. Sold in 1946 to Hellenic Mediterranean Lines and renamed IONIA for service between Piraeus and Egyptian ports. Sold in 1965 for further trading to the Far East. The same year she grounded in Djakarta and on a falling tide fell on her side. Becoming and constructive total loss.
Unquote.

So I believe we have found the ship OK but still no reason for the Near east death ship.

Hawkey01


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## Chouan (Apr 20, 2006)

I beleive that there was heavy loss of life through dysentry/cholera etc in the refugee camps. Similarly, when the White Russians were evacuated from the Crimea in 1921 (I think) they suffered similarly when they were left in Corfu (again, I think) until the international community could decide what to do with them. Either could possibly explain the "Death Ship" comment.


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## dom (Feb 10, 2006)

*dom*

date, flag,and the run[Med] could tie it in to the jewish homeland era.


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