Circassia (ship, 1937)
 As a troop transport during the Second World War
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The Circassia (III) was a 1937 passenger ship of the British shipping company Anchor Line , which was used in passenger and mail service on the route from Great Britain to India . From December 1939 she served under the designation HMS Circassia (F91) as an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) and later also as a troop transport and landing ship in World War II . 1947 returned Circassia for the same owner in the passenger traffic to India and remained nearly 20 years serving in until 1966 Spain was scrapped.
The ship
The Circassia was the first of three sister ships that the Anchor Line put into service from 1937 for the traditional trade route to India, which was then still part of the Commonwealth . All three were twin-screw motor ships with a volume of more than 11,000 GRT, each powered by two sets of eight-cylinder diesel engines from William Doxford & Sons . The average cruising speed was 16.5 knots, but up to 18 knots could be achieved. All three ships could carry 300 passengers in first and 80 in third class and were considered to be serious competition to the Indian service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) because of their high standards of equipment and catering .
The first of the three ships was the Circassia (III) (11,170 GRT) with hull number 661 from Fairfield Shipbuilders in Govan near Glasgow on June 8, 1937 . She was 154.23 meters long, 20.12 meters wide and had a draft of 9.45 meters. The motor ship had two masts , a chimney and two propellers . It was followed by the 11,136 GRT Cilicia , which was launched on October 21, 1937 and put into service in 1938. After the loss of the steamer Britannia (III) in 1941, the Anchor Line decided to build a third sister ship to replace it, the Caledonia (V) (11,152 GRT), which was not completed until 1948 with hull number 732.
On October 14, 1937, the Circassia ran on her maiden voyage from Glasgow via Liverpool to Bombay . Anchor Line's assistant manager, Philip Wood Runciman, who was on board the Liverpool section, told the Liverpool Daily Post : “This ship is our message to Liverpool. What better message could we send to any port? ”Less than two years later, the Second World War broke out, which initially ended the Circassia's career as a passenger liner.
In World War II
On October 14, 1939, the passenger ship was requested by the Admiralty for military service and converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser . The conversion was completed on December 20, 1939. The ship was equipped with eight 152-mm cannons and two 76-mm cannons and from January 1940 as HMS Circassia (F91) of the Northern Patrol of the Royal Navy operating in the waters of the North Sea and around Scotland . Its first in command was the retired merchant ship captain Henry Gerard Laurence Oliphant, a carrier of the DSO .
Over the next two years, HMS Circassia was successively assigned to other units such as the Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force, America and West Indies Station, North Atlantic Escort Force, America and West Indies Station and the Western Patrol. After March 1942 she was used by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) as a troop transport for some time before it was finally converted into a landing ship in 1943 . In this role she took part in Operation Husky (July 1943) and Operation Anvil (spring 1944).
Late years
In May 1947, after almost eight years of military service , the Circassia was returned to the Anchor Line and made afloat for renewed use as a passenger ship. On August 21 of the same year, she set out on her first civilian voyage after the end of the war. This was followed by almost 20 years without incident on the usual England – India route.
On January 13, 1966, the almost 30-year-old ship ran under the command of Captain Angus Colquhoun on its last regular voyage from Glasgow to Bombay. When she cast off for the last time in Bombay from Ballard Pier with 187 crew members and 300 passengers on board for the return voyage to England, the Circassia received a big farewell from hundreds of dock workers, sailors and onlookers. She returned to Liverpool on March 15, 1966. The ship went on a small cruise to the West Indies with current and former directors and chairmen of the Anchor Line, before arriving in Alicante, Spain , on April 25, 1966 , where it was scrapped. The passenger and mail traffic of the Anchor Line from England to India was then stopped after 110 years.
Web links
- Entry in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- Information about the year of the war service as HMS Circassia
- Detailed information and pictures about the three sisters Circassia , Cilicia and Caledonia
- The Circassia in a listing of ships of the Anchor Line (information and pictures)
- Picture gallery (the Circassia as a postcard motif) (below)