Dave Gittins
Member
Let's have some fun! I've just come across USAV Gen Frank s Besson Jr. She's a massive transport used by the USA.
Anybody got any more awful names for ships?
Anybody got any more awful names for ships?
Horrible names for ships.
- Thread starter Dave Gittins
- Start date
Arun Vajpey
Member
I would not call it "horrible" but a very strange name that I came across was that of the T & J Harrison Line ship named Student which seemed an odd name for a ship. There is a sort of Titanic connection and Steven Christian helped me with finding details of the ship. It regularly ran routes from Liverpool to South America dring the late Victorian and Edwardian era.
In a remote South Australian town called Aldinga, there is a large memorial to a local family called McRae. Among the names on that memorial is one Alan McRae (1889-1912) who is listed as "missing on the Titanic"; other accounts claim that he was a fireman on board the WSL ship. But there was no person - passenger or crew - named Alan McRae on board the Titanic.
But Alan McRae was certainly a ship's fireman and working on board the aforementioned ship Student when it sailed from Liverpool to Colon, Panama in late March 1912. While there he appears to have contacted some illness and unfortuntely died on 5th April 1912, 5 days before the Titanic set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage. It is uncertain where and how he was laid to rest but somehow someone believed that he was one of the 'Black Gang' of the Titanic and had died in the disaster.
In a remote South Australian town called Aldinga, there is a large memorial to a local family called McRae. Among the names on that memorial is one Alan McRae (1889-1912) who is listed as "missing on the Titanic"; other accounts claim that he was a fireman on board the WSL ship. But there was no person - passenger or crew - named Alan McRae on board the Titanic.
But Alan McRae was certainly a ship's fireman and working on board the aforementioned ship Student when it sailed from Liverpool to Colon, Panama in late March 1912. While there he appears to have contacted some illness and unfortuntely died on 5th April 1912, 5 days before the Titanic set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage. It is uncertain where and how he was laid to rest but somehow someone believed that he was one of the 'Black Gang' of the Titanic and had died in the disaster.
Steven Christian
Member
Yes I remember that ship and the story of Alan McRae with the info you provided about it. Also about how I thought in those days a South American run would be more interesting than just going back and forth from Southampton and NYC all the time. As for horrible ships names I would have to think about that one. Don't know that many ships.
Steven Christian
Member
Just thought of one. I guess at the time they probably thought it was a good idea but the S.S. Joseph Stalin sounds pretty horrible to me.
Samuel Halpern
Member
How about HMS Invincible, built in 1747. She sank in 1758 after hitting a sandbank in the East Solent.
Dave Gittins
Member
Ahoy, Arun!
Thanks for finding the end of the Alan McRae story. I researched him myself, but got no further than confirming that he was a real person and his date of birth. He was occasionally mentioned in the local press, without adding much.
Aldinga is not remote. It's fast becoming a southern suburb of the sprawling city of Adelaide. I've been there a few times and I've even ridden past the McRae monument in bike races. The stone is a pretty ordinary headstone that could be easily bought. I've attached my photo of it.
Thanks for finding the end of the Alan McRae story. I researched him myself, but got no further than confirming that he was a real person and his date of birth. He was occasionally mentioned in the local press, without adding much.
Aldinga is not remote. It's fast becoming a southern suburb of the sprawling city of Adelaide. I've been there a few times and I've even ridden past the McRae monument in bike races. The stone is a pretty ordinary headstone that could be easily bought. I've attached my photo of it.
Attachments
Arun Vajpey
Member
You're welcome! I believe the events that describe Alan McRae's last voyage on board the Student and his subsequent illness and death have been discussed in another thread here on ET. Not many details were available, but I found proof that he was a crew member (fireman) on the T & J Harrison ship and was on the trip from Liverpool to Colon, Panama at the end of March 1912. From what information could be gathered, he got ill (no details available) while in Panama and subsequently died; I think my sources felt that he must have died and laid to rest in Panama itself and the mention on the tombstone in Aldinga is just a memorial. Of course, the memorial unfortunately mentions Alan McRae as a victim of the Titanic disaster, which he certainly was not.
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Steven Christian
Member
A ship named Student?
During my research into a question raised by another poster (I will post the details shortly), I have received an e-mail from an official Governmental source where she says that the person that I was querying about was a Fireman on board a ship named Student in February-March of 1912. I could...
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
Just thinking outside the square...
Any possibility that when McCrae became ill he returned to England, on finding out himself he was really ill or for any other reason, he decided to actually leave on the Titanic?
A case of say, 5 days prior to departure some other fellow actually hired pulls out or becomes ill or something... McCrae does a switcheroo?
His family would know he left on Titanic, they probably screaming "don't go Alan, you're too ill, please don't go i have a bad feeling in me bones about THAT ship..." etc:
McCrae would have been possibly obstinate, unaccepting of illness.
Only officially he's not on the Titanic therefore no record...
Thoughts?
Arun Vajpey
Member
Ted, I'll try to respond to this post on a thread more approrpiate to Alan McRae (it is not 'McCrae', by the way) because I don't want to spoil the OP subject by going off rails too much.
Steven Christian
Member
That's a good one. I had to look that word up. Would defiantly be a bad name for a ship. Especially for people prone to getting sea sick. Even worse than naming a ship the Lethargic or the Colic.
Wonder if anyone wrote in suggesting GARLIC ....?..!!
Steven Christian
Member
I would bet that was on the list. I did a search and couldn't find a ship named "Icelandic". I would have thought that would have been a good name for a ship. Cheers.
Arun Vajpey
Member
If "Emetic" was suggested and found unacceptable, I guess "Cathartic" would have been even more so. 
