The Arlanza was built as one of three sister ships at Harland & Wolff in Belfast and launched on April 13, 1960. After delivery to the Royal Mail Line on September 23, 1960, the ship was put into service on October 7, 1960 on the route from London to Buenos Aires .
In 1969 the Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company bought the Arlanza and renamed it Arawa . From then on the ship was used for the service to New Zealand . At the beginning of the 1970s, however, the number of passengers declined and the liner service to New Zealand was unprofitable, which is why the ship was sold to the Norwegian Leif Höegh Group in 1971 and converted into a car transporter as the Höegh Transit . The dimensions of the ship increased because of the new superstructure to 178.01 meters in length and 26.29 meters in width, while the tonnage of 10,658 GT was much lower.
Under its new use, the ship remained in service for another ten years and was renamed several times during this time until it was sold to Taiwan for demolition in 1981. On December 9, 1981, the ship, now renamed Trotter , arrived in Kaohsiung . There the ship met its sister ships Amazon and Aragon , which were put into service in the same year and which were also converted into car freighters in 1971 and arrived at the same time for demolition.
literature
William H. Miller: Royal Mail Liners 1925-1971 . Amberley Publishing Limited, Stroud 2017, ISBN 978-1-4456-6128-5 .
