SS Georgic

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Hello all,

I'm looking for information about the S.S. Georgic on which my mate's dad sailed on as a soldier from Liverpool to India during the Second World War. I believe it's the Cunard/White Star Line ship that saw service between 1934 and 1956 before being scrapped.
I thought it would be a nice idea to find a picture of this ship for his dad as he talks about it quite often. His health is not the best at 78, having recently undergone heart ops and strokes and his eyesight is failing by the day but he is so lucid in his memories. His mind is as strong as it always was but his body is letting him down.
It would be nice if he could see a picture of the ship he has such fond memories of just one more time. I think it's the Cunard liner but he did say that it sailed out of Liverpool, the journey took about 4 weeks, was 28,000 tons and that it had been raised from a previous sinking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[greg robertson]

Here is a couple of links Iain:

http://www.greatoceanliners.net/georgic2.html

This is my webpage of drawings - Georgic is included:

http://www.geocities.com/greggy12580/mainpage.html

 

[Mark Baber]

Here's another:
http://www.greatships.net/georgic2.html

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

God, he's going to love these. Thanks so much.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Mark Baber]

Iain---

Tonight I scanned and posted a postcard from my collection, showing Georgic as a troopship, albeit after her December 1944 return to service as a one-funnel ship. Don't know when your mate's dad was on her, but I thought he might be interested in this one too.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OceanicSteamNavigationCo/files/HMT%20Georgic%20

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

What can I say? I'm seeing him tomorrow - he's going to be thrilled by all these pictures. I owe you both a pint.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

"Marvellous!", "Fantastic!", "Super!"
Those are just a few of the words Malcolm used when I showed him these pictures. It really made his day. When I first showed him the troopship photo, he sort of looked a bit blank. Oh God, I thought, wrong ship. Next, I showed him the 2-funnel version and his face just lit up. "That's her!", he almost shouted, "that's how I remember her!". It was just one of those priceless moments.

He went on to tell me how he and his army buddies explored every part of the ship, despite the purser's best attempts to restrict them from out-of-bounds areas. How they climbed up the inside of the mast to the crow's nest. How the first few days of the voyage out made everyone sick because of the rough weather in the Bay of Biscay and the fact that they had to sail not less than 3 miles off the French coast for hundreds of miles because of submarines and maintaining radio contact etc. He also said something I never heard before - an anti-magnetic strip put up around the ship to push away mines. The meals they ate, the dormitories, the noise of the anchor chains in the anchor chamber (they were on D "D for dog" deck right up the front), his mate throwing his boots overboard, a fellow being sick in his dinner tray right opposite him at the dinner table "It was as green as grass". Nice. He also told me of the rocking from side to side of the ship and the pitching and rolling which he would stand at the stern, look down and see the propellors clear the water before pluging back under. "Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch to wer-wer-wer-wer-wer". He also told of their slow progress across the Arabian sea due to a bent propellor.

He sailed out on her prior to her near-destruction by bombing in the Suec Canal in July 1941. He said he didn't recognise her drastically changed appearance from two funnels to one because when he boarded her again 4 years later, he was near-death with malaria (he still suffers symtoms now 60 years on) and just wanted to get home from India.

He then proceeded to take down a model Titanic he'd built years ago, his wife started to groan. "That cost a fortune. I saw an even bigger one in the shop window after but I wasn't going to tell you about it. Not until the shop closed down anyway", chuckling to herself.

Thanks for making an old man very happy. I can see him siting there now, perched on the edge of his armchair, looking at his pictures over and over again, his blue eyes all lit up, a broad grin on his chubby Clark Gable look-a-like face, his wife sat across from him, pretending to read the paper, sneaking a quick peek now and then, smiling to herself.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Mark Baber]

Thanks for making an old man very happy.

 

[Joshua Gulch]

He also said something I never heard before - an anti-magnetic strip put up around the ship to push away mines.

What you describe is a degaussing cable. These would be mounted along the length of a ship's hull and would reverse the magnetic field of the hull when a current is passed through them. By changing the ship's magnetic field, magnetic mines don't detonate when the ship passes them.

I hope that made sense. I know the principle, but not the science of the technology.

Josh.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>By changing the ship's magnetic field, magnetic mines don't detonate when the ship passes them. <<

Eh...you hope!

The idea, at least as it was explained to me, was to reduce the ship's magnetic field. I remember the degausing facility in San Diego that ships were occasionally tied up to for a really thorough job. This involved wrapping thick electrical cables around the ship then passing a current through them to accomplish this. A very time consuming and labour intensive effort.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Sadly Malcolm passed away last week. At his funeral today, his voyages aboard the Georgic were mentioned and so it seems as if the ship left a long-lasting impression on him which has passed onto his family. I'll be raising a glass or two to Malcolm tonight.

Cheers,

Boz