'Sunk Ships Shatt-el Arab 1914', Mesopotamia, 1914

Photograph, World War One (1914-1918), 1914.

The steamer SS Ekbatana, scuttled near Dabba Island south of Basra, partially blocking the Shatt al-Arab Waterway. In August 1914 the Hamburg-American liner's German crew were reported to have been involved in preparing disused shipping for scuttling. Several vessels were sunk by Turkish forces in an attempt to disrupt the progress of Royal Navy ships and the 'Indian Expeditionary Force' that arrived in the region in November 1914.

From an album of photographs compiled by Sir Ernest William Charles Bradfield (1880-1963), Indian Medical Service. Bradfield commanded the River Ambulance SS Sikkim during the Mesopotamian campaign.