# H.M.S.Macedonia



## Steve Hodges (Feb 12, 2007)

Can any of you SN stalwarts please oblige me with photo and details of the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Macedonia - my dad was a Boy Stoker on her during the Battle of the Falkland Islands (WW1). I think she was too slow to keep up with everything else but managed to capture a German collier - any further detail would be appreciated.
Steve


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## Brian Twyman (Apr 3, 2005)

Steve

There is a crew photo but not much info at : 
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/armed_merchant_cruisers.htm


Brian


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## Hugh MacLean (Nov 18, 2005)

*HMS Macedonia*

Hello Steve,

Here she is: http://www.gwpda.org/naval/images/cfmacedonia.jpg

Regards (Thumb)


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## Bruce Carson (Jun 14, 2005)

Built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast for the P & O in 1903.
Maiden voyage was to Bombay in February 1914 and then on the London-Sydney route the following April.
In August, 1914 she became an Auxiliary Cruiser and the following year a Troopship.
She, with the cruiser HMS Bristol, sank the Graf Spees's colliers 'Baden' and 'Santa Isabel' off the Falklands in December 1914.
Bought by the Admiralty in 1916, but repurchased by the P & O in 1920.
In 1921, after refitting, her GT rose to 11,089 and was placed on the London-Bombay-Far East route.
Broken up in Japan in 1931.
10,512GT, 543'x 60', twin screw, 4exp, 17 knots.
377 1st class, 187 2nd class passengers (as built).

http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/falkland.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Falkland_Islands


Bruce C


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## Steve Hodges (Feb 12, 2007)

Thank you for your help, gentlemen. 
My dad must have joined her at the end of 1917, when she was trooping. He would then have been 15 years old, I know that he lied about his age to join up as he told me that the old C.P.O. at the recruiting office told him and his best friend to go and walk round the block and come back when they were 16. I think that initial training was pretty cursory. He was put on coal trimming on the "Macedonia", paired up with an old Liverpool Irish stoker who had to do most of the work for him. He said that she rolled like a pig. After the "Macedonia" he was posted to the tug "Hullman" towing ammunition and stores barges across the Channel and up the Seine.
After leaving the RN after the war, he joined the army in the early twenties and served ten years in the Royal Horse Artillery in India and Afghanistan ( they were still using horses then).
Dad was too old for the armed forces for WW2 so he served as a fireman throughout the war. He died in 2000. I was very proud of him.
Steve


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