E.M.F.

Can not help WRT the passenger list, but as regards back up batteries, I can confirm that the radio transmitters on board ships were required to have backup batteries in or immediately adjacent to the radio room. Exact arrangements differed but a 6 volt or 12 volt vehicle type lead acid battery  for LT or filament supplies was usual, trickle charged from the lighting supply.

The emergency HT supply often used large banks of dry batteries.  about 100 batteries in series, each of the 4.5 volt 126 "door bell" type was one arrangement. Able to provide several hundred volts HT at an amp or so. Replaced once a year or after significant use.

At the time in question, the emergency transmitter on a ship MIGHT JUST POSSIBLY have been an arc transmitter. A high powered electric arc from an induction coil and a tuned circuit.

Did the 126 door bell batteries have two terminals with screws to secure the wires, initially made of brass then in more modern time made of plastic?

I have just found this picture of a 126 battery.

www.radiomuseum.org/.../ever_battery_126.html

Z.

Vintage marine radios.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g503775-d8600890-i184647415-Sandford_Mill_Museum-Chelmsford_Essex_England.html

Z.

Yes they did, earlier versions had brass terminals and later ones had plastic terminals. 

In the 1970s power cuts I made dozens of very basic lights for friends and relatives that used one of these batteries. E10 bulb holder connected to the screw terminals via two very short pieces of wire. 3.5 volt 0.3 amp bulb. No switch needed, insert bulb to light, remove bulb to extinguish. Long run time, enough light for safe movement.

Torch batteries were hard to find, but door bell batteries were in plentiful supply.

During the 70s power cuts a friend made simple automatic emergency lights for his home as his elderly mother was nervous. The system involved a mains' relay and a battery bank, and some extra low Voltage lamps.  He showed me some large capacitors which were used to delay the relay dropping out too soon for some reason. They energised the coil for a period of time after power was lost. I am struggling to remember why the time delay was needed.

Z.

Zoomy, I don't think that you have a hope in hell's chance of success, though I do like the initials.

I was once asked if I could identify the erstwhile owner of a napkin ring based upon the names of a number of HM ships and shore establishments which were engraved on the ring. Fortunately, I had access to Navy Lists at work and I managed to solve the problem. The key was to see who had served in ship A and ship B, and then see which of them had served in ship C, etc.

It was a bit tedious, but very satisfying and of course (as with some of you in here) done in the firm's time.

Try https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/passenger-lists/

Clive

The passenger lists do become available occasionally on auction sites. It is just a waiting game. Was it E.M. Forster that cruised in 1936 on Arandora Star in the Med?

Z.

I do have an original passenger list for S.S. Arandora Star for 22nd Jan. 1936, so they are available.

Z.