Talk:SS Omrah

The Omrah is Beramba?

Diring the AfD discussion on the Beramba article, it occured to me that the ship known as Beramba, was either the name adapted/ adopted for the ship when it came into use by the Australian Navy or is a poor trancription of an Australian salty dog recounting his days at sea. If you say The Omrah with an Australian accent you get pretty close to Beramba.

Here are the contents of that article (deleted by the time you read this) in case anyone wants to follow up and establish this as a positive connection rather than my speculative original research. I'm crossing out the bits I think were mistaken, you know how those Aussies are with the storytelling!

Beramba

The Beramba was a German (British ship put into military service) freighter ship captured in World War I and used as a British (Australian) troopship. At the end of the war, the Beramba was carrying about 1200 passengers to Europe from Australia when there was an outbreak of Spanish flu on board. Twenty-four people died during the voyage.

Sources

• Oral history transcript from William Allen - tape 1
• Oral history transcript from William Allen - tape 2

Thanks, ChildofMidnight (talk) 00:38, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's a bit more flesh on the issue from the AfD investigation:

• "...and ourselves, went aboard the Beramba in Melbourne bound for Aden … not Aden … yes Aden it was and eh eventually into Cape Town and on our way from Cape Town to Sierra Leone, which is on the West African coast the … what we term the Spanish Flu broke out… it was a devastating disease and eh … all the medicine on the ship was used up." from transcipt

• Obituary about the guy who talks about the 1918 sailing of "Beramba" (the Omrah?) from Australia, says they arrived in Devonport [1]

• Pdf article that talks about the sailing of the Beramba which they seem to format in a way that may suggest they aren't sure about the ship name? and an outbreak of Spanish Flu aboard it. (notes port of call in Capetown in case that helps)[2]

Omrah sources

• Mentioned in list and requisitioning discussed [3]

• A good site with a lovely photo of the Omrah [4]

ChildofMidnight (talk) 01:04, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Excellent summation, ChildofMidnight. I would like to point out, though, that the latter two sources (identified as 3 and 4) are specifically about Omrah. The two oral history transcripts are from William Allen who identifies passage on a ship named Beramba. Sources 1 and 2 are an obituary and a eulogy for Allen and recall his same memories. Given that there is no independent verification that a ship capable of carrying 1,200 passengers named Beramba ever existed, it's quite likely that Mr. Allen's memories were not completely clear on the name of the ship he sailed on. I'd like to caution that any attempts by us to conflate Mr. Allen's Beramba (whatever her actual name) and Omrah would fall squarely into the realm of original research and should be avoided. — Bellhalla (talk) 11:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I added subsections for clarity as I should have done right off. I was listing sources for Beramba and the Omrah, but should have made a distinction between them. ChildofMidnight (talk) 03:09, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with everything you've said. I was just trying to include all the sources that were uncovered and discussed at the AfD. I probably should have been clearer about which have to do with the Beramba and which with the The Omrah. I agree at this point the connection between the two is original research, but if the records of the Omrah exist and include an itinerary and ports of call, I think it might be possible to match up the information. How many troops ships would have been going from Australia to G.B. at that time? At any rate I wanted to include the Omrah information because there seems a lot that could be expanded including perhaps getting access to that nice photo? ChildofMidnight (talk) 13:36, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Omrah cannot be Beramba. Omrah was sunk in May 1918, the Beramba article source states that the ship was being used as a troopship at the end of the (First World) War (ie Nov/Dec 1918 or later). Therefore they can't be the same ship. Mjroots (talk) 09:02, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

The Beramba source is one guy's oral history, so it's not very reliable. How many troops ships were captured from the Germans? What were their names? I would say that if World War I was from 1914 to 1918, and it was sunk in May of 1918, is was being used as a troop ship at the end of the War based on 1914, 1915 being the beginning and 1918 being the end of the war. I suppose it depends what he meant by "end of the war". But he doesn't say the ship was being used when the war ended does he? ChildofMidnight (talk) 17:40, 21 December 2008 (UTC)