HMS Al Rawdah
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Al Rawdah, U-2502 and U-2326.jpg |Ship caption= HMS Al Rawdah berthed next to U-2502 and U-2326 in 1945. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship name= HMS Al Rawdah |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=10 June 1911 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=1941 |Ship decommissioned=1946 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Scrapped, 1953 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship tonnage= {{GRT|3549}} |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion= |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Al Rawdah was a ship of the Royal Navy. She was built in 1911 and originally christened Chenab for the Nourse Line of London.
In 1930 the ship was sold to Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock and renamed Ville De Beyrouth. In 1939 the ship was sold again and renamed Al Rawdah.
In 1940 the British Ministry of Shipping requisitioned the vessel and she was managed by the British-India Steam Navigation Company Ltd. In 1946 Al Rawdah was returned to her owners, and scrapped in 1953.
Internment
Between 1940 and 1946 the vessel (described as a "hulk") was used as a military base and prison ship for Irish Republican internees and prisoners. Internment on the Al Rawdah began in 1939 as it was moored just off Killyleagh in Strangford Lough. Conditions on board the ageing ship were not good - food was described as "abominable" by survivors.McGuffin, John, (1973), Internment, Mercier Press, Limited, Tralee, Chapter 5, ISBN 9780900068195 Internees were packed in "bronchitic squalor" for months or years.Munck, Ronoldo, (1987), Belfast in the 1930's: an Oral History, St Martins Press, London, pg 20
On 18 November 1940 Irish Republican internee Jack Gaffney from Belfast died onboard the Al Rawdah.MacEoin, Uinseann (1997), The IRA in the twilight years 1923–1948, Argenta Publications, Dublin, pg 948, ISBN 0951117246 Before being sent to the Al Rawdah, Gaffney had been beaten and died suddenly, possibly from unhealed injuries. In October 1940 another Irish Republican internee - Sean Dolan from Derry died shortly after being released from the Al Rawdah. Nationalist members of the Northern Ireland Parliament raised the issue of internees being stranded on the ship while German aircraft and ships were attacking Belfast. On 12 February 1941 the last internees were relocated to other jails and they were finally released in August 1945.{{cite book |last=Thorne |first=Kathleen |author-link= |date=2019 |title=Echoes of Their Footsteps Volume Three |url= |location=Oregon |publisher=Generation Organization |pages=260, 262 & 263 |isbn=978-0-692-04283-0}}
In the 1920s another British prison ship (HMS Argenta) was used to house hundreds of internees at Belfast Lough where conditions were described as "unbelievable". Prisoners on the Argenta were packed into cages, often succumbing to disease and routinely suffered beatings from guards.McGuffin, pg 67.
See also
- {{HMS|Argenta}}
- {{HMS|Maidstone|1937|6}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.biship.com/fleetlists/fleetManagedvessels2.htm Info on Al Rawdah]
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Category:Fleet auxiliaries of the United Kingdom
Category:Defunct prisons in Northern Ireland
Category:Auxiliary ships of the Royal Navy
Category:Internment camps in the United Kingdom
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