Searching Google.com
 for more info about ELDER-DEMPSTER SHIPPING history
(owned by Alexander ELDER of Glasgow,
 brother of JOHN ELDER (1824-1869),  engineer of steamships, died in Glasgow - no known children)
My STEAMSHIPS Webpage:
at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nancyelder/Steamships.htm

NOTES (from full online text):
"SS MENDI - history of a wrecked ship"
by Wessex Archaeology webpage:
at
http://tinyurl.com/23yjg5

SS MENDI photo and project download page:
http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/eh/ssmendi

See entry:
THE LOSS OF THE MENDI
4.3.1. The Mendi left Plymouth in the afternoon of
20th February [1917] under escort by the destroyer
HMS Brisk on an up-Channel course...."
....
APPENDIX X: OUTLINE HISTORIES OF ELDER DEMPSTER AND THE BRITISH
AND AFRICAN STEAMSHIP NAVIGATION COMPANY........ 93

Page 14:
3.2.3. The principal primary sources consulted for consideration of
the Mendi as a ship, its loss and its significance have been the
builder’s plans and records of the Court of Inquiry into the loss.
 A number of secondary sources have also provided very
significant quantities of data, principally Clothier’s Black Valour
(1987) and a number of histories of the Elder Dempster Shipping Line.

Correspondence and an archive provided by
 James E. Cowden, author of one of the two Elder Dempster fleet
histories, has also contributed important information.

Page 17:
4.2.6. British registered, the ship’s official number was 120875. It
was owned throughout its life by the B&ASNC, a company capitalised in
Edinburgh. By the time of its loss however, B&ASNC had become part of
the group managed or owned by the Elder Dempster Line.
...
4.2.8. Although the surviving archives of Elder Dempster do not
appear to contain any reference to the vessel (John Winrow, National
Museums Liverpool, pers. comm.), the surviving Board of Trade inwards
passenger lists (PRO/BT 26/257-626) suggest that it made 53 scheduled
round trip voyages between Liverpool and regular ports of call in
West Africa between 1906 and September 1916, an average of five to
six per year (Appendix V).

4.2.9. The Mendi carried a mix of cargo and passengers during these
voyages. It was capable of carrying a maximum of 100 first class and
70 second class passengers (Cowden & Duffy 1986; Haws 1990). Records
of the cargo carried have not been traced and may not exist as little
of the Elder Dempster and therefore B&ASNC records prior to 1932
survive (Davies 1973). However the Mendi does not appear to have been
a specialist vessel and it may therefore be assumed that typical
cargoes for the routes were carried, such as palm products when
inbound to Liverpool.

War Transport
4.2.10. The Mendi was chartered by the Ministry of Transport in
autumn 1916, presumably after the vessel’s return on 16th September
from Calabar in West Africa (PRO/BT 26/626/4). It left Liverpool in
October of that year, bound for West Africa as a freighter (Board of
Trade 1914-20: 7732, 2). Using fittings brought from Liverpool, it
was then fitted out as a troop transport at Lagos, the terminal port
of its outward voyage (Elder Dempster 1921)
...
4.2.13. Following conversion, the Mendi embarked a contingent of the
Nigerian Regiment at Lagos, further Nigerian troops at Calabar and
then sailed to Dar-es-Salaam on the East African coast, via Cape
Town. A photograph of the vessel embarking troops at Calabar has been
published in a book privately produced by Elder Dempster to pay
tribute to the contribution of the company and its employees to the
war effort (Elder Dempster 1921). In addition, photographs of the
Nigerian troops on the deck of the vessel and of officers embarking
are held by the Imperial War Museum, London (see project web pages at
http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/eh/ssmendi for one of the
images).
...
4.2.21. The Mendi called at both Lagos and Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The vessel stayed at
the Lagos for about three days, transferring a £5 million consignment
of government
bullion to HMS Cornwall. The vessel then spent four or five days in
Freetown to
wait for a convoy and to have a deck gun fitted (Elder Dempster
1921). The Mendi
then left under convoy with a number of other transports for
Plymouth, arriving on
19th February. The convoy was apparently unescorted (Clothier 1987;
Uys 1993) (see Figure 2)
...
4.3.
THE LOSS OF THE MENDI
4.3.1. The Mendi left Plymouth in the afternoon of 20th February
[1917] under escort by the destroyer HMS Brisk on an up-Channel
course. The weather was overcast and threatening mist, with light
winds and a smooth sea (Board of Trade 1914-20: 7732,
2). The Mendi was able to proceed at full speed, about 12 knots
...
4.3.5. Immediately after this, Yardley left the bridge to the Second
Officer and went to the chart room in order to fix a new position
from the sounding that had just been taken.
The vessel’s course was S.75(degrees) E magnetic. Meanwhile the
Fourth Officer on the bridge heard a vessel approaching through the
water and sounded the ship’s whistle. He then saw the masthead light
and port side light of an approaching steamer, which was on a
collision course with the starboard side of the Mendi.
4.3.6. The Second Officer immediately rang ‘full speed astern’ on the
bridge telegraph and gave the order ‘hard a starboard’, blowing three
short warning blasts on the whistle. However it was too late. The
master, hearing the telegraph wires and whistle, got
back to the bridge just before the two vessels collided.

4.3.7. At 04:57 on the 21st February 1917, the bow of other vessel,
the ss Darro (Plate 1), struck the Mendi with a heavy right angled
blow between No. 1 and No. 2 Hold hatches, about 12 feet forward of
the watertight bulkhead which divided the holds (Figure 1). The depth
of the cut was about 20 feet and therefore, crucially, below the
waterline (Board of Trade 1914-20: 7732, 3)
....
4.4.13. The official number of deaths was 646: 30 crew members, two
military officers, seven non-commissioned officers and 607 black
labourers (Board of Trade 1914-20: 7732, 6).
The total number of survivors was given as 267 (Board of Trade
1914-20:7732, 5)
....
4.4.15. Yardley’s reputation does not appear to have suffered as a
result of the loss of the Mendi. He was given command of RMS Burutu
and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross following an action
with a German submarine off Liberia in 1918.
After the war he continued to captain ships for Elder Dempster until
his retirement in 1928. The career of Captain Yardley is discussed in
more detail below

****
4.9.33. The Mendi archive held by Mr James Cowden contains an
unsigned description of the wreck entitled ‘Recent Diving Activities
on the ss Mendi’.
This appears to have been written for the magazine of the Elders of
Elders.
It is undated but was probably written in the late 1980s or early
1990s.
 It describes the wreck as lying on a gravel/sand seabed and as being
mainly broken up. The most distinguishable parts of the wreck are
described as being the bow and stern and the boilers.
4.9.34. The stern is described as standing over eight metres high.
 Forward of this the wreck is described as becoming more flattened
until there is no discernable edge to the wreckage and the remains
trail off onto/into the seabed, ....

Page 62:
4.10.99. Following the war Yardley continued to work for Elder
Dempster on the West Africa routes. He seems to have earned a
considerable reputation for treating his black crew members and shore
gangs considerately. He was presented with a solid silver African
bowl by the Lagos shore gangs on his last voyage before retirement in
1927 (Cowden, pers. comm.), when he commanded the first diesel engine
passenger ship of the Elder Dempster Line (Clothier 1987). He was
also awarded the Lloyd’s Silver Medal for life saving at sea as a
result of his rescue of four West Africans from a capsized canoe in a
tornado and he was appointed Knight Official of the Liberian Humane
Order of African Redemption.
 In addition he received the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society’s
Medal and Diploma and a silver cigarette case presented by the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty in recognition of services rendered
during the Great War in conveying confidential mails overseas,
together with a fine mahogany grandmother chiming clock presented by
his brother shipmasters at Elder Dempster (Cowden & Duffy 1986).

**
Page 80:
The following artefacts are currently displayed at the Arreton
Shipwreck Centre, formerly the Bembridge Maritime Museum, and are
either owned by Martin Woodward or on loan.
None of the artefacts have been fully recorded, although they are
listed on the centre’s database, which will shortly be updated
(Martin Woodward, pers. comm.). WA has not examined the existing
database and do not know whether it complies with the relevant MDA
guidance and standards. As with post-1993, these probably represent
only a small proportion of the material salvaged from the site during
this period. WA understands that all of the artefacts recovered from
the site by Martin Woodward have been reported to the Receiver of
Wreck (Martin Woodward, pers. comm.):
....
Small ceramic bowl, white glazed, blue transfer printing,
central crest with B&ASNC flag and text ‘B&ASN Co. Ltd.’ and
 ‘Elder Dempster & Co. Ltd.’ above and below respectively.

***
Page 82:
APPENDIX IV: DESCRIPTION OF THE MENDI
General Specifications
The Mendi was a single screw steel steamship, described as a ‘steel
screw steamer’ by its builders, Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. The
Mendi was built at their yard at Linthouse in the Govan area of
Glasgow and was launched on 19 June 1905.
The vessel was built for British and African Steam Navigation Company
Ltd. Lloyd’s
Register for 1916-17 recorded them as owners, with Elder Dempster &
Co. Ltd. as managers. British flagged, the vessel’s port of registry
was Liverpool

The Mendi is given the abbreviated ship prefix ‘RMS’ in the tribute
to its fleet published by Elder Dempster in the aftermath of the war
(Elder Dempster 1921). This prefix, whose longer form is ‘Royal Mail
Ship’ (sometimes Steam-ship or Steamer) was used for seagoing vessels
that carried mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. The
prefix would be used only when the vessel was actually contracted to
carry mail, at other times it would revert to the normal prefix for
the vessel type, in the Mendi’s case ‘ss’. The Elder Dempster use of
this
term suggests that at the time of its loss, the Mendi was contracted
to carry mail.

Biblio:
COWDEN, James E.
 The Price of Peace: Elder Dempster, 1939-1945.
Liverpool: Jocast Ltd., 1981.

 COWDEN, James E. & DUFFY, John O.C.
 The Elder Dempster Fleet History, 1852-1895.
Mallet & Bell Publications,    1975.
**
ANTIQUE BOOK CO:
has book:
http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/kaater/28219.shtml

"The Elder Dempster Fleet in the War."
Liverpool: Elder Dempster & Co. Ltd., 1921.
 73 pp. Sm. 4to.
Three quarter brown cloth in imitation of leather over
mottled maroon cloth, titles and medallion stamped in gilt
(hardback).  First edition. Illus. with 1 color & 10 b/w photos.
Very good+, boards lightly rubbed, scattered foxing to edges and leaves;
a handsome copy.
 Covers SS Falaba, SS Ilaro, SS Yola,
 SS Mendi, SS Memnon, SS Aburi, SS Abosso, SS Addah, SS Elele,
SS Eloby, SS Karina, SS Akassa, SS Sapele, SS Umgeni, SS Apapa,
SS Asaba, SS Agberi, SS Estrella, SS Indore, SS Burutu, and more.
OCLC shows only 4 copies.
USD 100.00
   Offered by: Kaaterskill Books - Book number: 28219

*******