Mooltan, like many steamships carrying the Royal Mail, were contracted to carry the mail between Australia and Britain. On occasion, parts of the ship were booked by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to carry troops and cargo.  The 3rd Australian General Hospital, AIF, was set up in response to a request from the British War Office by Thomas Henry Fiaschi, a well-known Italian surgeon. On 15 May 1915, the new unit sailed from Circular Quay, Sydney, on board Mooltan, just one month after its formation had been requested.

15th May 1915, ss Mooltan departing Sydney

On board were a number of Australian Army Nursing Service nurses. As recalled by Sister Anne Donnell, their uniforms were heavy and the weather on the voyage warm:

"We had another full dress parade this a.m. and sweltered in our heavy serge dresses, and wrung the perspiration out of them afterwards. Words fail me while this heat lasts - honestly we haven't ceased sweating since the third day out from Australia. A Sergeant-Major died suddenly in the small hours this morning - owing to the heat."

Anne Donnell, Letters of an Australian Army Sister, Sydney, 1920, pp.9-10)

The Mooltan arrived at Plymouth on 27 June and the unit travelled to London. There, preparations were made for their service in France at Etaples. However, on 1 July, 3 AGH received orders to proceed to Mudros on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea near Gallipoli. They were advised that a site had been selected for the tent hospital and that it would be provided with huts about six weeks after their arrival in Mudros.

 

Australian Nursing Sisters on board Mooltan in 1915

Tasmanian Nursing Sisters on board Mooltan, 1915

Australian Doctors on board Mooltan, 1915

Kit inspection on board Mooltan, 1915

First Aid lectures on board Mooltan, 1915

Orderly taking loaves of bread to the men's mess room on board Mooltan, 1915

Lecture Classes in mid-ocean, on board Mooltan, 1915

Troops' mess deck accommodation on board Mooltan, 1915

Mealtime on the mess deck on board Mooltan, 1915

Transportable Field Hospital, fully assembled on board Mooltan, 1915

Interior of Transportable Field Hospital on board Mooltan, 1915

Reinforcements to No:1 Australian General Hospital leaving Mooltan at Aden, 1915

Source of all the above photos: The State Library of New South Wales

Because of its position, the island of Lemnos played an important part in the campaigns against Turkey during the First World War. It was occupied by a force of marines on 23 February 1915 in preparation for the military attack on Gallipoli, and Mudros became a considerable Allied camp. The 1st and 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospitals, the 3rd Australian General Hospital and other medical units were stationed on both sides of Mudros bay and a considerable Egyptian Labour Corps detachment was employed. After the evacuation of Gallipoli, a garrison remained on the island and the 1st Royal Naval Brigade was on Lemnos, Imbros and Tenedos for the first few months of 1916.

On board ss Simla at Mudros Bay, Lemnos, Greece - British Troops leaving for Gallipoli.

Ships at Mudros Bay, Lemnos, 1915

Mooltan's Passenger Edith Wilson Yeaman, A Nursing Sister of The Great War

Christmas Day, 1915 - The Staff of 3AGH at Lemnos

Edith Wilson Yeaman, at the age of 30, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Victoria in May 1915, about three weeks after the landing at Gallipoli. She was a nurse at Melbourne Hospital and was also a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, a reserve that was established in 1900. In the AANS Edith would have attended lectures, done first aid, paraded and attended field camps. But it didn't actually prepare the nurses for the harsh conditions in a field hospital. The organisation and the nurses themselves were thrown in the deep end and they had to learn 'on the job' how to cope with trench foot, frostbite, shell shock, mustard gas, dysentery, gangrene, surgical nursing and shrapnel wounds. As well as nursing in tents, an extreme lack of supplies of food and equipment. And hospitals run according to strict military routines (when to get up, when to shave, when to bathe). It seems madness to insist that patients who were able had to stand to attention at the foot of their beds when the Medical Officer did his rounds each day! Nurses also had to escort convalescents to Egypt, England or Australia, they wrote letters home for ill soldiers, they became adept at scrounging supplies and extras for 'their boys'.

The unit arrived in England on 27 June 1915, expecting to be posted to France. However, on 1 July, the commanding officer was informed that they would instead be deployed to Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos, where they would nurse the sick and injured troops fighting in the Gallipoli campaign. Lemnos was only 50 miles from the fighting, whereas the hospitals in Egypt were over 650 miles away, a journey of 1½ days. When 3 A.G.H. first started admitting patients, the majority were wounded men from the August offensive, and it was these patients the hospital had been set up for, with operating theatres and surgeons on the staff. In later months, nearly all the patients were ill with either dysentery or paratyphoid. The staff of the hospital also fell ill, though the nurses suffered less, probably by practising better hygiene. in late November and December, the casualties changed again – troops were caught in freezing weather on the Peninsula without adequate clothing, and many were admitted to the hospitals on Lemnos suffering from severe frostbite. The last Australians were evacuated from Gallipoli on the night of 19/20 December, and many spent Christmas on Lemnos while waiting for further orders. The whole evacuation of allied troops took three weeks. In spite of earlier predictions that up to half the remaining forces could be killed, the evacuations were so well planned that there were minimal casualties, which was a relief to the hospital staff who had been prepared for casualties. With the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the hospitals on Lemnos were disbanded. The nurses boarded the hospital ship Oxfordshire on 14 January, and sailed out of the harbour at Mudros on 17 January, bound for Egypt.
"We have just seen the last of Lemnos. Of course we are glad, yet there are many things we will miss; the unconventional freedom and the unique experiences we had there… Goodbye Lemnos. We take away many happy memories of you. I would not have liked to miss you, yet I have no desire to see you again." —Sister Anne Donnell
3 A.G.H. was re-established at Abbassia in Egypt in early 1916 in an old harem, where it operated for approximately eight months. The staff then operated the Kitchener War Hospital at Brighton, England from October 1916 before moving to Abbeville, France, from May 1917.

On 30 October 1918, the Armistice between the Entente Powers and Turkey was signed at Mudros.

"The mails carried by the Mooltan were those which closed in Melbourne on June 13. The bulk was about normal. In addition to the mail matter for civilian addressees, the vessel had on board the Expeditionary Forces mails for Mesopotamia, Egypt, Salonika and France. All of these, except those for Franco, would have been put ashore at Port Said. If the mishap to the steamer had occurred after she had called at Marseilles the mails for Franco would have also been landed, and thus the whole of the letter portion of the mail would have been saved. It is probable, however, that the parcels and newspapers had been taken on to be landed in England by the steamer, so that news of their loss will not come unexpectedly when further details are available. Though the manifests of the vessel's cargo were not available tonight, it is understood that she carried a considerable quantity of chilled beef, a consignment of some 2,000 bales or wool, and about 3,000 bags of wheat, the complement usually taken by P. and 0. mail steamers in addition to general merchandise.

In connection with the loss of the Mooltan, the Minister of Defence- Senator Pearce - made the following statement to-day:-

The 273 nurses who left Australia in June last for war service at Salonika have arrived safely, and have been disembarked at Egypt.