Corfu (ship)
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The Corfu was a 1931 passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was used in passenger and mail traffic from London to the Far East and Australia . She was in service for 30 years, including as an auxiliary cruiser in World War II , and was scrapped in Japan in 1961.
Passenger ship
The Corfu was ordered on June 25, 1930 from the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow and was supposed to be named Chefoo . The 165.50 meter long and 21.79 meter wide ship was laid down on September 9, 1930 and launched on May 20, 1931. It was christened Corfu by Lady Patricia Margery Kathleen Mackay, the 15-year-old granddaughter of James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, chairman of P&O .
The Corfu was 14,293 gross registered tonnes (GRT) or 7812 net registered tonnes (NRT) and had a load capacity of 8,909 tonnes (DWT). She was powered by six Parsons turbines that worked on two propellers and had a maximum output of 14,000 Shaft Horsepower (SHP). The top speed was 18 knots. The Corfu could carry 177 passengers in the first class and 214 passengers in the second class. She had an identical sister ship, the Carthage (14,304 GRT), which was built at the same shipyard and was launched three months after her. The two ships were built for passenger and mail traffic to India, China, Japan and Australia and were therefore given the nickname Far East Sisters.
On September 24, 1931, the test drives were carried out, which the Earl of Inchcape personally attended on board his yacht Rover . It was handed over to the shipping company on September 29, 1931. On October 16, 1931, the Corfu ran from London on her maiden voyage to Southampton , Port Said , Aden , Bombay , Colombo , Penang , Singapore and Hong Kong . On May 20, 1932, she ran for the first time to Australia. On August 27, 1939, the Corfu was detained in Port Said for no reason.
Auxiliary cruiser in World War II
On September 14, 1939, the Corfu was confiscated by the British Admiralty . The next day it arrived in Belfast to be retooled at Harland & Wolff . The rear funnel was dismantled and the ship was equipped with eight 6-inch cannons and two 12-pounder cannons. After further renovations in Portsmouth , it returned to the Clyde for final conversion . On February 2, 1940, the Corfu was assigned to the Northern Patrol and served as an armed auxiliary cruiser in the North and South Atlantic . Its high speed meant it could easily overtake and intercept suspicious or enemy ships. On June 27, 1940, she came under the command of the South Atlantic Command.
On July 10, 1940, the Corfu collided with the aircraft carrier Hermes while leaving Freetown in heavy rainfall . The collision left a hole about ten meters wide to starboard . Accompanied by the heavy cruiser Devonshire was Corfu with the tail dragged forward back to Freetown that you have them to makeshift repairs. Parts of their armament were temporarily removed during this period and used to defend the coast. On January 17, 1941, the ship left Freetown with destination Calcutta to have the final repairs carried out there. On May 7, 1941, after several stopovers, it arrived in Calcutta.
The repair work was completed on September 8, 1941. Then the Corfu was used as an escort for ship convoys in the Indian Ocean . On October 17, 1942, the Corfu arrived in Southampton, where a six-month overhaul of the ship's armament took place. The ship was equipped with new 6-inch cannons, an airplane catapult and three Kingfisher seaplanes . In July 1943 it was launched in Freetown and in November 1943 repairs were made again in Durban .
On February 17, 1944, the Corfu was handed over to P&O again to have it converted into a troop transport . Work on this began on March 16, 1944 in Mobile (Alabama) by the Alabama Drydock Company and lasted over a year. The Corfu was in the first Allied convoy that arrived in Singapore on September 5, 1945 to liberate the city from Japanese occupation. By the end of the war, the Corfu had covered around 200,000 nautical miles as an auxiliary cruiser and 39,161 nautical miles as a troop transport and carried 15,028 soldiers.
Last years
On July 31, 1947, the Corfu was finally returned to its shipping company and modernized at its shipyard. With a capacity of 181 passengers in first class and 213 in tourist class, she re-entered commercial passenger traffic on January 22, 1949 with only one chimney and hull painted white .
In 1960 P&O merged with the Orient Steam Navigation Company to form the new P&O Orient Line. The Corfu and her sister ship Carthage , both of which were now almost 30 years old, were no longer needed and were sold to Japan for demolition. The Corfu was sold to Mitsui Bussan Kaisha in Osaka on March 14, 1961 and left London in April 1961 for Japan under the name of Corfu Maru . On October 17, 1961, the demolition company Miyachi Salvage Co. Lt. The demolition work in Sakai .