British War Medal 1914-18 To Edward Bowe, Greaser Merchant Fleet Auxilliary

British War Medal 1914-18
E Bowe, GSR M.F.A.
With copy of Navy ID Card Born in 1885 in Birkenhead Served on board The Brandenburg in 1919
Brandenburg, a twin-screw, steel-hulled steamship completed in 1901 by Bremer Vulkan Aktiengesellschaft of Vegesack, Germany, for the North German (Norddeutscher) Lloyd (NDL) Line, of Bremen, was allocated to the United States when the victorious Allied powers parceled out Germany’s merchant marine after the Great War, and was commissioned at Southend, England, on 9 May 1919, Lt. Cmdr. Hiram L. Irwin in command.
Sailing for Plymouth on 10 May 1919, Brandenburg arrived at her destination on the morning of the 11th, where she provisioned and coaled. Within a week of her arrival, despatches concerning the ship indicated that the Allied Maritime Transport executive had allocated Brandenburg for “trooping between England and Northern Russia” and that repairs to fit her out for that service were estimated to take from three to four weeks.
A shortage of enlisted men in the U.S., however, prompted Vice Adm. Harry S. Knapp, Commander, U. S. Naval Forces in European Waters, to arrange for the British government take over the ship for the transport duty since the “trooping” would probably last through the summer. Accordingly, Brandenburg sailed for Liverpool on the afternoon of 17 May and arrived there on the afternoon of the 20th. At 1300 on 20 May 1919, Brandenburg was decommissioned and turned over to the Alfred Holt Steamship Co., accredited representatives of the British Admiralty. Brandenburg’s former American crew then sailed for the United States in the transport Louisville (Id. No. 1644).
Contemporary British mercantile lists carry Brandenburg as being operated by the Holt firm under government auspices at the outset. She remained in the hands of the Holt conglomerate, which included the Ocean Steamship Co. (or, more colloquially, the “Blue Funnel” Line) through 1923. She was renamed Hecuba in 1923 and was broken up for scrap in Italy in December 1924.

Code: 55365