The final crew list of the DERBENT confirms that the ship was owned by the Admiralty, the Lord High Admiral being none other than Winston Churchill at the time. The DERBENT was manned by a civilian crew, as was common practice amongst Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels. The crew list records the name, age, place of birth, address, and the ship on which each of the crew last served.

The crew of the DERBENT hailed from many places in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and even from further afield: Texas, USA; Cape Town, South Africa; Jamaica; Denmark; and Greece.

Many of the crew joined at Plymouth in August 1917, after the DERBENT had completed her voyage in convoy from Hampton Roads. Others joined at Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol. These dates provide further clues to the pattern of voyages undertaken under the command of Arthur Falconer in late 1917. All these journeys would have been around the Welsh coast.

Source:
BT 165/1737. Extracted Logs: Ship's Name Derbent Official Number 136706 Dates of Voyages 3 February […] 30 November 1917. BT - Records of the Board of Trade and of successor and related bodies. The National Archives, Kew.