Talk:SS Bantam (1930)

Two BANTAMS

There were two Dutch ships of the name operating in Southwest Pacific during the war. Lloyd's, 1941-42 shows the two together. Bantam (1929) of 3,322 GRT #19982 and motor ship Bantam (1939) of 9,312 GRT #19981. They had the same builder, but the larger ship is shown as Rotterdamache Lloyd with the smaller as KPM. There is a bit of confusion with these ships with Masterson's Army Transportation in SWPA 1941-1947 in Appendix 30 showing the newer, larger ship as "28 March 1943 (burned)" and Gill in his history of the RAN using the name without clear identification by year or tonnage in each case, though both are mentioned multiple times. Lloyd's leads one to think the smaller, older ship was the one bombed in the fact that the older, smaller Bantam drops off the list after 1944-45 while the newer, larger ship alone shows up in the 1945-46 register (both still show in the previous issue). So might the photo of the Oro Bay ship "DURING OPERATION LILLIPUT" that is not a more modern 9,000 ton ship positively putting the smaller ship in the Oro Bay operation while the larger is never clearly identified in the port. On the other hand, the AWM photo of the larger ship with "PORT SIDE VIEW OF THE DUTCH VESSEL SS BANTAM WHICH WAS HEAVILY DAMAGED BY JAPANESE AIR ATTACK AT ORO BAY, NEW GUINEA ON 1943-03-28 IN THE COURSE OF OPERATION LILLIPUT. NOTE THAT THERE WERE TWO DUTCH VESSELS OF THIS NAME IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS DURING WORLD WAR 2." So, if it was the larger ship bombed as Masterson and AWM 302971 indicate, this page about the older ship is in error. Gill lumps his bombed Bantam in with the KPM ships, an indicator it was the smaller—but then the line of which was KPM and which just "Dutch" sometimes blurs in the references. Two AWM photos argue for the smaller ship:

The big new ship compared with detail in SS Bantam on fire. Enlargements of both show the burning vessel with ports round the stern that itself appears more like the older ship, no mast of the type on the newer ship's afterdeck and empty lifeboat davits on the stern—that better fit the smaller vessel. Those two photos and Lloyd's dropping the smaller vessel a "decent time" (publication time) after the attack made one of the ships a hulk make me tilt somewhat toward thinking Masterson and the other AWM photo caption may be in error. Palmeira (talk) 19:34, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Update: This photo, THE WRECK OF THE DUTCH TRANSPORT BANTAM, pretty much nails it as the older ship that was bombed. The masts and configuration of the wreck are definitely that of older ship and not of the 1939 ship. Palmeira (talk) 22:25, 23 August 2013 (UTC)