Arrived Long Hope Bay (Scapa). Coaled ship 900 tons. Single derrick collier and so slow work. Left off coaling at noon to provision ship. Went to ‘Gourka” for meat and spuds.
Editor’s Note: Gourka is actually the S.S. Ghourko, as described in the comment below. In the link above, information is on page 86 of the PDF that it leads to.
November 20th 1914
My take is ‘Gouska’: she must have been a supply ship.
Usually there is some record of a ship, even just a newspaper clipping but this Gouska doesn’t exist online. Then again, there was no mention of the ship that Meurer was on when he surrendered the German Fleet either. I finally found that name but not through Google.
Thanks!
SS Ghourko
“In the fullness of time a real canteen appeared at Lyness where a man could at least get a snack and a drink as a change from the daily round of ship’s fare, but long before this there was a canteen ship in the anchorage which became a special feature. This ship, S.S. Ghourko, carried provisions and canteen stores, but in addition a large part of the hold space was converted to perform the various functions of a lecture room, a church, a theatre or a boxing ring. All these were in constant demand and no one who served in
the fleet will forget those often boisterously cheerful evening parties; there was no lack of theatrical talent and any ship could claim the Ghourko’s services to throw a party. Dramatic experts vied with one another to outdo previous performances and meanwhile, of course, the fleet cinema organisation soon provided a service in the larger ships to which the smaller ones were invited as guests.”
I added a link but left the spelling the same as in the diary. Very interesting! Thanks.