Ship Identification ? presumable leaving for Ceylon WWII

What Ho!

My first post here, but I think it will be one of Many.

I am researching some material I have purchased from a curiosity shop recently.

I have a young man who served in the Signals Section, RAF Station KANDY in Ceylon. He was fairly well off and reasonable educated and owned a camera I think a Box Brownie derivative (yet to be confirmed) I have developed some of the negatives and can almost see a story forming, this picture I think is the ship that carried them to Ceylon, I have cropped a section out of a larger one, the ships names is almost visable but not quite, does anyone know what class this ship is, its name and maybe sail dates ?

View attachment 17269

Here is a second picture of them standing on a desk, I presume its the same ship.

View attachment 17270

Thanks all
Clint

 

I think you will need one of those books U-boat commanders had in those hollywood films that told them which ship they were looking at though the periscope. Even so without the full outline, and unless somebody can clean up the image of the name, you may not have enough to go on. Obviously a steamer, probably a single funnel, but there were hundreds (perhaps thousands) of ships like this during the period. You might do better if you know the mans name and unit and searching back to his units movement to Ceylon. The ships name might be in the movement orders.

 

I have 2 mirrors and can fashion a periscope, I am half way there

I do know his name, where would I search for movements ?

 

Since you have his name check out our Military Record Search and Genological information sub forum, you should find links to Commonwealth servicemen records. If you however know his exact unit already you can google its history which may direct you further.

 

Since in the other thread you indicate you have the negatives there should be a developed date on the header or trailer to the roll. That would give you a no later than date for the arrival or departure. You then could go to a site like ConvoyWeb ConvoyWeb where you could look up the comings and goings in Ceylon.

 

Jeff is right. A higher resolution photo is needed. My first impression was that the first four visible letters were "NELA", but a clearer image is needed.

Don't forget to introduce yourself in the New Member section, Clint.

 

Thanks for the response guys, I will attempt to get a better copy of the picture 'developed' of course when I say developed I was describing my very crude attempt to turn a negative into a positive. The negatives in general are not in the best of condition, some have actually lost the images or are scratched to bits.

I actually held the negative onto 2 sheets of white paper against my patio door, then photographed them with an iPhone hands shaking at fingers length so probably did not get the best from the negative; and now I have a nickname of Heath! ; I will this afternoon make a diffused light box with the ability to vary the light and take a shot with my Canon EOS600 and appropriate lens.

The Negatives are singles,so no roll and no dates, I have 3 envelopes of slides, one from early, I say this because he travelled from Sevenoaks to Crayford to get them done, they contain his travels where as the latter 2 are from boots in Sevenoaks, where I guess sometime between the earlier shots and the later they started an 'in store' photography department.

I am going to look for some film for the Brownies I have and go and take some pictures of places he went, just to see if the camera still works and how hard it is to take a photo.

I have a lot of streams of activity on this as its like a big puzzle to me and I find these matters much more interesting that crosswords and the like, its a real person who lived locally to me, served in the War and I am sure these items have been hidden from anyone's views for many years, I would even bet the people who were his neighbours would have never known he was one of our hero's, let alone have had an insight into his life and travels like I am getting now !

 

Well I got carried away this morning, and I have tried a few times to get more detail from the negative, and have not been able to, even with a much better camera its lost in the grain, I will try a professional shop scanning now on this one but will wait until I have sorted through all the negatives and worked out which ones are worth getting done.

However I did a few more, one en-route ?

View attachment 17272


.... and here is one from the base in Ceylon, the sign in the background says Cypher Section, could this guy have been involved with the code-breakers? ....intriguing to say the least?

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Well that's definitely it for this morning, I have to get ready for some good old hard work now but isn't it great to be involved in a mystery

 

We may not be able to identify the ship, but the pictures are most wecome! Please feel free to post as many as you can for these are the kind that can all too easily be lost to history. It possible he might have had some part in code breaking, but more likely just encode/decypher of messages for units in his area of operations or base.

 

I got lucky!
Here's the arrivals and departures for the British Ship Melancha in and out of Ceylon:
Arnold Hague Ports database

There is some discussion on whether she was named Malancha or Melancha. But here she is:
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1096505

John

 

looks like that might be it. see

Old Ships M (Malancha-02)

Old Ships M (Malancha-03)

Old Ships M (Malancha-04)

Old Ships M (Malancha-05)

Old Ships M (Malancha-06)

Old Ships M (Malancha-09)

Old Ships M (Malancha-10)

 

Can't help with boats, but if you have a picture of the Brownie/s - I should be able to ID it, if you've not done so already.
Pull the film carrier out, and it may have a model label in it anyway.
(BTW: if it's 120 film, you're laughing - if it's 620, you're almost laughing as 120 fits 620 spools perfectly, but it is worth re-spooling as 120 tends to jam in 620 fittings.)

~A

 

Excellent job tracking down the ship, John. And great pics located by R Leonard, too.

 

are you shure its the Malancha? there were several Blueline ships which went to cylon, i did some digging on another forum deddicated to ships from WW2 and found out that there was another ship exactly the same as the Malancha and one such ship is the SS Melampus, which also went to Ceylon.

 

Gunney,
I think I stand corrected! The Melancha picture #9 is awfully close, but the Melampus picture is a dead ringer.
Old Ships M (Melampus-01)
Portholes, cranes, paint - all a match.
Nice job.
John

 

The foremast is also more like the Melampus pic. If that is not the same ship, there's a twin out there somewhere that we don't know about. Well done, Gunney.

 

thanks!!