# Advice wanted please



## Tom Ainge (May 15, 2017)

My grandfather Henry Ainge was a ship's purser sailing out of Liverpool on merchant ships (White Star/Elder Dempster lines) before and during the First World War. He was involved in two separate incidents when his ship was sunk by torpedoes in the Atlantic but he survived and was apparently given a bravery award over and above the normal campaign medals. I have searched the UK National Archive and Liverpool Library but am told many White Star Line crew lists were lost in the Second World War blitz on London. He also sailed on the Muraji and Karma ships prior to the First World War. My search for further information has now run aground so any advice would be warmly welcomed.


----------



## Roger Griffiths (Feb 10, 2006)

Hello and welcome,
Was your grandfather born 28/4/1882 in Birkdale. If so his medal listing is here.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8073729
Don't know if he was given a further bravery award but poster Hugh Maclean is the man to talk to concerning Merchant Navy medals. Hopefully he will see your post and reply with good information or advice.
Further, I don't know if you have seen the record at the pay to view site Find my past. Not much info other than he was a Chief Steward, but there is a photograph of him taken around 1918.
Can you confirm this is your man. We can then maybe be able to assist you.

regards
Roger


----------



## Hugh MacLean (Nov 18, 2005)

Hello and welcome,

As yet I have found no information in my sources or elsewhere of any gallantry medals for Henry Ainge. My sources are quite complete for WW2 but WW1 is more difficult and The London Gazette also drew a blank.

I have a list of some of the officers of the RMS BATANGA in 1902 with Chief Steward listed as H Ainge.

Further more he appears to be aboard the ss APPAM in 1916 when she was taken by the German merchant raider SMS Möwe in the Atlantic on 15 January 1916. The Möwe (literally 'Seagull' - a name the Germans made great play on) was a converted merchantman of 4,500 tons which was fitted as a minelayer and armed fore and aft with two groups of guns and two torpedo tubes. Her appearance as a trader was preserved by having the Swedish colours painted on her sides. The SS Appam, a merchantman of 7,781 tons, was carrying bullion and passengers, including the Governors of Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The bullion was removed to the Möwe and Leutnant Berg, acting First Officer of the Möwe, commanded the German prize crew that took the Appam (together with her original passengers and additional prisoners collected by the Möwe) to the USA.

The ship was original reported missing and one of her lifeboats was found intact and empty by a steamer causing concern at the time. H Ainge is noted as being the chief steward aboard in some newspaper accounts of the time. Google SS APPAM for more info. 

Regards
Hugh


----------



## Hugh MacLean (Nov 18, 2005)

Tom Ainge said:


> I have searched the UK National Archive and Liverpool Library but am told many White Star Line crew lists were lost in the Second World War blitz on London.


Not sure where you get your advice from but crew lists or more specifically crew agreements which were part of the ship's Official Logbook were not the property of the White Star Line. It is true that not all crew agreements/lists have survived, especially those that were subject to the loss of a ship and in those cases the actual lists of the crew were confirmed by the use of shore-side copies of the agreements. 

To search for your relative using crew agreements you need to know the name of a ship he served in preferably one at the end of his service as you can usually - with a bit of luck - back track his service this way as the previous ship was usually listed in those agreements. The problems come when the name of a previous ship is not recorded and this sometimes happens when a shore-side copy has been used after the loss of a ship. 

We know he served aboard APPAM when she was attacked by MOWE in January 1916. You may wish to check the following Crew Agreement for APPAM for the year 1916 which is held at Kew in piece BT 99/3263 under the ship's official number,
135442. 

Regards
Hugh


----------



## Roger Griffiths (Feb 10, 2006)

Hello Hugh,
Lot's of crew agreements for White Star Line vessels for the dates in question at MHA. Also the 1915 crew agreements at NMM on line. I have advised the OP via PM.

regards
Roger


----------



## Hugh MacLean (Nov 18, 2005)

Thanks Roger..

Regards
Hugh


----------



## Tom Ainge (May 15, 2017)

Thanks to you both...I shall pursue the lines of enquiry you suggest and, if I have the good fortune to unearth further information, I'll keep you posted. I live near the National Archive in Kew so will visit. Incidentally, it was they who advised me that the White Star crew lists were located in Liverpool. 

However, it was the Liverpool Library archive department that subsequently told me that many White Star line crew lists had been destroyed in the blitz.

Originally, I had tracked which White Star line ships sailing out of Liverpool were attacked/sunk in the First World War which would thus reduce my search parameters to 8 ships:

Laurentic
Delphic
Justicia
Britannic
Cymric
Arabic
Afric
Oceanic


However, if I can't locate the crew lists for those ships it seriously impedes my search. 

Just to clarify Roger's point in his first post to me, the H.Ainge that I am looking for is the same person that he details as being born in Birkdale in 1882. 


Finally, excuse my ignorance but what does the acronym MHA stand for?

Kind regards

Tom


----------



## Roger Griffiths (Feb 10, 2006)

Hello Tom,
MHA stands for Maritime History Archive at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
https://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/searchcombinedcrews.php

Most repositories including TNA and MHA use the ships official number to catalogue Crew Agreements.
You can find O/N's in Lloyd's Register or from this site
http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/data.php.
ARABIC O/N 118023
CYMRIC 106898
BRITTANIC 137490
GEORGIC 105326
DELFIC 106851
AFRIC 110537
SUTHERLAND 113434
LAURENTIC 127959
JUSTICIA 137544

Don't forget 1915 Crew Agreements are on line from NNM Greenwich.
http://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/

regards
Roger


----------

