ssthemistocles

Here's a brief biography of A. Bertram Samuels, who may be the A. B. Samuels in the photo above. His age seems to be appropriate.

TYPHUS, WAR'S DREAD ALLY, BEATEN; News of Dr. Harry Plotz's Vaccine Discovery Comes When Europe Faces Awful Ravages from Scourge. April 18, 1915 The announcement of the discovery of a protective vaccine against typhus fever, the dreadful scourge that dogs the heels of war, following closely upon the confirmation of the germ origin of the disease by repeated demonstrations of a distinct causative agent visible under the microscope, is but another instance of the accuracy of modern laboratory methods and the continual progress of medical science. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20C1EFE385C1373...

books.google.com/books/about/The_Etiology_of_Thyphus_Exan... indicates that Baehr was a colleague of Plotz. Another copy, at archive.org/stream/etiologyoftyphus00plotrich#page/n1/mod... indicates that "The etiology of typhus exanthematicus" was first published in July 1915 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Authors were Harry Plotz, George Baehr, and Peter K. Olitsky.

NYT of June 28, 1915 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50F11FD3B5C13738... reported that Plotz and Baehr sailed on the Themistocles the previous day for Serbia for a year, armed with 20,000 tubes of typhus vaccine.

More about Dr. Harry Plotz: www.sciencephoto.com/media/227849/enlarge His January, 1947 obituary is here: select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70B17FF3E5A1B7B...

At least two of the people in

also sailed on the Themistocles in June 1915.

"The Committee of Mercy was established in October, 1914, with the approval of President Wilson, to help the women and children and other noncombatants made destitute by the war. Associated in the Committees formation were Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Miss Katharine B. Davis, Norman Hapgood, John Moffat and T. C. Glen-Coats, Mr. Elihu Root,honorary president, and the vice presidents include Dr. Charles W. Eliot,Harvard University, John Purroy Mitchel, ex-Mayor of New York, Miss Katharine B. Davis, chairman, Parole Commission of New York, and Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mr. August Belmont,treasurer. The Committee of Mercy, up to the summer of 1917, had collected more than $2,065,000. In addition to the relief administered through reliable agencies in France, Russia, Armenia, Serbia, Montenegro and Poland, considerable sums have been raised for other relief committees. Headquarters, 360 Madison Ave., New York City." net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/comment/Clarke/Clarke30.htm This article in the Columbia Alumni News says that the expedition to Serbia was made up of Columbia college men, with an instructor. There is a list of names, which are likely the men pictured. books.google.com/books?id=iowhAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA713&l...

Thanks for your research artolog. We'll add some of it to the record the next time we update.

Built 1911, 11231 grt. Transferred to Shaw Savill & Albion in 1932 and scrapped at Dalmuir in 1947.