Port Adelaide Enfield Council has given a grant of $3000 towards the costs of staging ANZAC Light on the Water next year. Organiser John Williams, Vice President Merchant Navy SA, said the success of ANZAC Light on the Water on April 24 had led to it becoming an annual Anzac event.
An application had also been lodged by Merchant Navy Association SA with the Australian Department of Veterans Affairs for an additional $3000 so that the event could be expanded to include more South Australian schools.
The event focuses special emphasis on the men who rowed the men ashore for the 1915 Gallipoli landing and involves families in making paper lifeboats.
The paper lifeboats containing lit candles are launched on the Port River as a moving and symbolic personal tribute to merchant seamen who have participated in wars down the ages.
More than 500 paper lifeboats were launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons by Surf Lifesavers, who manned the pontoons in the inaugural event, and many of them had the names of those who had served at Gallipoli on the sides of them.
Port Adelaide was one of the main departure ports for merchant navy troopships during World War One and Two.
Members of families whose loved ones were lost at Gallipoli brought family albums and other mementos to Light on the Water to share with other Port Adelaide families.
Families are asked to give their support for the 2008 event by encouraging their local school to participate.
Information kits will be provided for distribution to schools and will contain
instructions for making paper lifeboats and supplies of tea light candles.
John would appreciate any support for the 2008 event from other Australian and overseas communities and can be contacted by email at johnwilliams@cobbers.com
People came from as far away as Leigh Creek, the desert town 567 kilometres north of Adelaide, to see the first ever Anzac Eve tribute to the merchant navy. Many of those who were there launched paper lifeboats with the name of their great grandfather or grandfather who served in World War One or World War Two.
Anzac Eve Photographs by Sama Reid, Publications Officer, Port Adelaide Enfield.
Port
Tribute of candles in the wind
Miniature Navy: North Haven Schools students Meghan and, clockwise from front, David, Thomas, Cheyanne and Chloe with their boats.
Photograph of school students: Sarah Reed The Advertiser
By Callie Watson The Advertiser
His great-grandfather fought in World War I and
A fleet of 1000 paper boats holding candles to represent Australians involved in the famous battle will be launched into the
WHAT IS THE MERCHANT NAVY?
As a Merchant Navy veteran, I addressed High School and Primary school students on “What is the Merchant Navy” last year and became aware of a lack of knowledge of elementary facts about maritime matters.
We in
This day was born out of Gallipoli, but how many of us are aware of the involvement of the Merchant Navy in that campaign? Australian merchant ships took all of our troops from Australian ports to Gallipoli, and in many cases landed our troops on the beach at ANZAC Cove in the ships’ lifeboats. These were manned by merchant seamen, who also came under the deadly fire from the Turkish guns.
The great majority of wounded at Gallipoli were taken in the ships’ lifeboats with merchant seamen again manning the oars to hospital ships waiting offshore.
The same merchant ships evacuated most of our troops from Gallipoli to
TROOPS LEAVE FROM
Many of 134 troopships that transported Australians to the battlefields of World War One embarked from Port Adelaide.
Troop transports were requisitioned by the Australian Government for transporting the AIF overseas but in addition to carrying troops, horses and military stores they also carried wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for
MERCHANT NAVY LOSSES
It is not widely known that about 6.5 per cent of all Merchant Navy personnel died on Second World War service, a higher percentage than any other Service, and that during the Allied recapture of the Philippine Islands there were more Merchant Navy casualties than those of all other Services combined.Of the seventy six merchant ships lost in Australian waters to mines, torpedoes, shelling and bombing, twenty-nine were Australian. The number of Australian merchant seamen lost on all the oceans will probably never be known.
There are no war graves to mark the passing of most of them.
http://www.merchant-navy-ships.com/
GALLIPOLI LIFEBOATS
A unique event marking a major chapter in the history of Port Adelaide South Australia will be staged on Anzac Eve April 24 on the
Gallipoli Lifeboats involves the making by school students, veterans and families of individual paper boats which when launched on the Port River near Lighthouse Square will each contain a lighted candle symbolising the Gallipoli landing.
Lighthouse Square at
A short prayer and blessing of the paper boats by the Rev David Ingleton from the Uniting Church will follow and the event will conclude with a lament by lone piper Don MacAuley. The Port Adelaide Sailing Club will retrieve all the paper lifeboats after the event to comply with EPA regulations.
Gallipoli lifeboats is being organised and staged by the Merchant Navy Association SA, Vindicatrix Association SA and the Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL with support from the
Caledonian Society and the Port Adelaide Sailing Club.
Port Adelaide South Australia:
