# M.V. Menestheus



## lsdcb04 (Jan 9, 2008)

Hi, Can anyone help me with any information on the 
“M.V. Menestheus” of the 1940s.
It was a naval amenity ship that was converted into 
a “floating brewery” in Canada during the second world war.


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## ian d.cameron (Jul 3, 2005)

Hope this starts you off
http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum/Old Ships M/slides/Menestheus-02.html
http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/show/80823


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## Peter4447 (Jan 26, 2006)

Blue Funnel. 7493 tons 1929. Converted for Pacific operations conducted from forward bases devoid of normal shore facilities. Provided recreational facilities far in excess of that normally borne shipboard, even by deport ships and were for use by the fleet generally and not only by flotilla craft.
Agamemnon Blue Funnel. 7829 tons 1929 was similiarly converted into a Amenities ship.
Both were returned in 1946.
Peter4447


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## Vintage38 (Aug 15, 2010)

She was fitted out in Canada. My father was Chief Steward and accompanied the ship in Canada. I was 7 years old when VJ Day was celebrated and a year later, on my eighth birthday my Mother, elder brother and I stayed on the ship at Hepburn-on-Tyne and witnessed the tearing out of the polished Maple woodwork and finely engraved scenes from Greek Mythology on the glasswork in the bars, crudely ripped out and thrown overboard onto the dockside. Even at that tender age, it seemed to me a terrible waste. The compensation for my brother and myself was returning home with volumes of redundant sports kit, cricket, tennis sets etc., which we could never have afforded to buy ourselves even if they had been available at that time. My Father's two Chinese stewards walked the streets of Newcastle all day to find candles for my Birthday cake they baked for me. It was all quite memorable, and I do recall her as a fine Blue Funnel Line ship.


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## BillH (Oct 10, 2007)

lsdcb04 said:


> Hi, Can anyone help me with any information on the
> “M.V. Menestheus” of the 1940s.
> It was a naval amenity ship that was converted into
> a “floating brewery” in Canada during the second world war.


MENESTHEUS (1929 - 1953) Agamemnon class steel motorship.
O.N. 161134. 7,797g. 4,800n. 460.0 x 59.4 x 29.2 feet.
Two, 8-cyl. 4 S.C.S. A. (740 x 1500mm) oil engines made by Akt. Burmeister & Wains Maskin-og-Skibsbyggeri, Copenhagen, driving twin propeller shafts. 8,600 BHP. 16 kts.
6.8.1928: Launched by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd., Dundee (Yard No. 326), for the Ocean Steamship Company Ltd. 
1929: Completed. 
1940: Requisitioned by The Admiralty, converted into a minelayer and renamed HMS MENESTHEUS (M. 93). 
1942: Damaged by aircraft bombs off Iceland and taken in tow by AGAMEMNON for repair at Lochalsh. 
1943: Sent to Vancouver and converted into a recreation ship. 
1945: Joined the Pacific Fleet after the war. 
1948: Returned to her owners. 
16.4.1953: Abandoned on fire following an engine room explosion whilst off Punta Eugenio in a position 25.28N., 113.21W. 
20.4.1953: Towed into Magdalena Bay. 
5.5.1953: Towed into Long Beach for inspection by fire investigation specialists on behalf of the Company. 
6.1953: Boston Iron and Metal Company commenced demolition at Baltimore.


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## kingorry (Aug 13, 2010)

The Blue Funnel liner MENESTHEUS was converted into an 'amenity ship' in 1945. A naval detachment and a Royal Marines Band joined the ship at Vancouver in December 1945, and the MENESTHEUS arrived at Yokohama in January 1946 to join the 'Fleet Train'. She was the only floating brewery in the world and was capable of brewing 1,800 gallons of beer daily from distilled sea water.
Lt.Commander George Brown, a professional brew master from Burton-on-Trent, was in charge of this operation and over half a million pints were sold to the men of the Royal Navy.
The MENESTHEUS was also equipped with a theatre and cinema, and a revue company of sailor artists gave a two-hour show called 'Pacific Showboat'. ("It ain't half hot,Mum?")
The atomic bomb and an earlier than expected end to the war made the MENESTHEUS redundant as a floating 'Fleet Club', and she returned to the UK in July 1946, and rejoined the Blue Funnel Line in 1948.
I seem to remember that several of the ships I sailed on in the 1960s and 1970s were referred to as 'floating breweries'!!??
John Shepherd (R783921) - 'kingorry'


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

According to Duncan Haws, _Blue Funnel Line, _Menestheus became a RN minesweeper in 1940, and her sister Agamemnon became a minelayer at the same time.
Menestheus is pictured in that book as having two funnels at the time she became a recreation ship, and I heard that the second funnel was a dummy, kitted out as a recreation room.
regards, 
Pat


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## Tom Inglis (May 3, 2007)

Pat Kennedy said:


> According to Duncan Haws, _Blue Funnel Line, _Menestheus became a RN minesweeper in 1940, and her sister Agamemnon became a minelayer at the same time.
> Menestheus is pictured in that book as having two funnels at the time she became a recreation ship, and I heard that the second funnel was a dummy, kitted out as a recreation room.
> regards,
> Pat


That's correrct Pat. She was requisitioned by the admiralty in1942 and converted to a mine layer as HMS Menestheus. She was however bombed off Iceland and towed into Lochalsh by her sistership Agamemnon. In 1943 she was sent to Vancouver for conversion to a Recreation ship with two funnels and hull painted white. Agamemnon was also a minelayer and then recreation ship. Agamemnon was luckier than Menestheus and survivrd until break up 1963. For her last 10 years or so she was on the Singapore / Aussie run and I sailed on her as a middy in 1959/60.
The best ship/trip ever for me.
Regards
Tom


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Tom, 
I saw the Agamemnon a couple of times out East, probably in Singapore where these old timers tended to congregate. I remember looking at the topped up derricks at No 3 and 4 hatches and thinking how short they were compared to those on the modern 'M' boat I was on.
Regards, 
Pat


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## Vintage38 (Aug 15, 2010)

*Menestheus 1946*

Looking through some family papers I came across the attached photograph. I can't tell you where it was taken, but it is as she arrived in the Tyne, white and with two funnels.
Regards
Ian]


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## colinhotham (Feb 7, 2011)

My father was the Royal Marine Bandmaster on the Menestheus in 1945 when she was converted.
Colin.


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## Vintage38 (Aug 15, 2010)

*"Menestheus"*

Hello Colin,
I'm afraid I cannot tell you much more than was in my Post last August. My father was torpedoed, aged 15 in the First World War and then three times in WWII. When young, my brother and I had a theory that they sent him with the Menestheus to Vancouver because fellow sailors were beginning to regard him as jinxed as far as convoys were concerned, and that was why the powers that be removed him from the action. When I became older and wiser I thought to myself that in reality my father was just the man you should be alongside as he had the survival knack.
Of the four of us who were there on the Tyne for the conversion back to the Blue Funnel specification, I am the only one left who remembers, as my elder brother died in October last year.
Sorry not to have been more help.
Regards
Ian.


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## colinhotham (Feb 7, 2011)

Thank you Ian. It is good to meet someone who also has a connection with the Menestheus.
Regards,
Colin.


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## Don.O (May 5, 2011)

*HMS Menestheus*



lsdcb04 said:


> Hi, Can anyone help me with any information on the
> “M.V. Menestheus” of the 1940s.
> It was a naval amenity ship that was converted into
> a “floating brewery” in Canada during the second world war.


HMS Menestheus became an amenity ship when she was converted from a minelayer, not minesweeper as stated in Duncan Haws book Blue Funnel Line page 101 and she was the only one completed in that form. The Agememnon went to be converted in the same way but conversion was not completed due to the cessasion of hostilities and the lack of need and money and she was handed back to Blue Funnel Line.
Both ships formed part of the 1st. Mining Squadron attached to HMS Trelawney in Kyle of Lochalsh along with the Southern Prince, Port Napier and Port Quebec.. The Port Napier suffered a fire and turned turtle when loaded with mines in early 1941 and is now used by divers for their recreation. Southern prince was the flagship of the squadron until she was damaged by a torpedo and left the unit, the Agememnon taking over as flagship.
My father was on Menestheus from 1940 till October 1943 when the unit disbanded and he took us up to Skye in March 1941 as no air raids occured that far up and it was much safer that the Portsmouth area.
She was towed back to Kyle by the Agememnon on 6th February 1941 after hitting a British mine on her way to lay another minefield, not as stated elsewhere after being bombed off Iceland. I remember dad saying they had been bombed by a Fokker Wulf Condor but he never mentioned being towed back after it. I never saw her being towed in as we weren't up there then. He said that the plane was so low that he could see the gunner thumbing his nose as he flew over so low that one of the bombs bounced off the deck and the second one went through the deck and out through the side. 
They sailed out one day without mines and under sealed orders and it transpired that they were to sail as a dummy convoy to lure the German battlecruisers and the Tirpitz away from Convoy PQ17. As it turned out the Germans didn't evev know they were around and consequently PQ17 went down in history as a naval disaster - fortunately for the families of the minelayers but not for those of the lost ships of the convoy.


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## kathleens (Nov 1, 2011)

It's so great to find this site! It's my father's 87th birthday on Nov 2nd and I was trying to find some sites that might interest him when I stumbled across this forum. He was an Electrical Engineer on the MV Menestheus when it was being refitted in Vancouver. (And many merchant ships before and after the war.) Hopefully he will join this forum and be able to add to it. His name is Bill Mulhearn.


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## Jasmi (Aug 29, 2012)

Hi My Dad Charlie Carpenter was on the Menestheus Sept 42 to June 43. Its been wonderful reading all about her!. I'm just trying to place his war years together. Thanks

Janette


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

Greetings *Janette* and a warm welcome to* SN*. Bon voyage.


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