In the far east in 1945 were many British & Commonwealth and allied servicemen awaiting repatriation and still serving. There were few R&R facilities and Winston Churchill came up with an idea for Amenity Ships to fill this gap. He tasked the British Admiralty with this and two ex Blue Funnel ships, the Agamemnon and Menestheus were sent to Canada for conversion. The Agamemnon went to the Esquimalt shipyard on Vancouver Island, but was never used due to the end of the war. The Menestheus went to the False Creek shipyard in Vancouver and was converted.
An extra funnel was fitted and the ship gutted ready for installation of the following. A 400 seat theatre, a dance floor, a swimming pool, a hospital with operating theatre, a cafeteria, a corner drug store, shopping centre, tailors shop, dry cleaning plant and laundromat, a 5000 volume library and a non-denominational chapel.
Finally (and perhaps most importantly?) a complete brewery was installed producing 9000 gallons of beer a week from de-salinated seawater! Some for use onboard and some for other ships of the line met en-route.
The theatre produced a show called PACIFIC SHOW BOAT with an all male cast but including as it says in a copy of the programme I have: BOGUS GIRLS OF THE FLEET! The Royal Marine 'Seafarers' dance band under the direction of Bandmaster Charles Hotham RMB LRAM, provided the music for the show and dancing.
The Menestheus sailed west in February 1946 visiting Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and various other bases en-route for the UK via the Suez Canal.
The three photos show the Menestheus before and after conversion and the old theatre in Vancouver where the show was put on for local people before the ships departure.
I am indebted to Carrie Schmidt, Librarian/Archivist of the Vancouver Maritime Museum for help with my research for this article.
Colin.
