Strathaird
.jpg) The P&O liner Strathaird in Fremantle Harbor
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The Strathaird (I) was a 1932 passenger and cargo ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was built for the Australia service. During the Second World War , the ship served as a troop transport in the Far East . In 1961 the Strathaird was scrapped in Hong Kong after almost 30 years of service .
Early years
The 22,544 GRT motor ship Strathaird was built in January 1930 at Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. in Barrow-in-Furness and launched there on July 18, 1931. She was baptized by Lady Margaret Mackay Shaw, daughter of James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape , a chairman of P&O. The Strathaird was the second of five ships of the "Strath class". The others were the Strathnaver (1931), the Strathmore (1935), the Stratheden (1937) and the Strathallan (1938). The sister ships had yellow chimneys and were otherwise completely painted in white, which is why they were called The White Sisters.
The Strathaird had three chimneys, two masts and two propellers . The 194.67 meter long and 24.44 meter wide ship was powered by two turbo-electric steam turbines, which enabled a maximum cruising speed of 20 knots. During the test drives on January 10, 1932, a speed of 23 knots was even reached. The machinery was based on that of the Viceroy of India , which had been commissioned in 1929. The Strathaird had space for 500 first class passengers and 670 tourist class passengers.
The ship was completed on January 20, 1932. On 12 February 1932, ran Strathaird in Tilbury on her maiden voyage to Sydney via Marseille , Suez , Bombay and Colombo from. She stayed on this route until the beginning of the war. On December 23, 1932, the Strathaird was the first P&O ship to set sail on a cruise . She undertook a five-day trip from Sydney to Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean . In the late 1930s she set sail from British ports for more cruises. On July 18, 1933, she was the first P&O ship to dock in Tangier (Morocco).
In November 1934, the German writer and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch traveled to Australia on board the Strathaird to take part in an anti-war congress. When he was denied entry in the port of Melbourne , he jumped from the deck of the ship onto the quay and broke his leg. In March 1938, a passenger from Bombay died in Fremantle. All first class passengers have been quarantined and the scheduled cruise from Sydney to the Fiji Islands in April has been canceled.
World War II and after
Between 1939 and 1946, the Strathaird served as a troop transport during World War II. On August 26, 1939, she was requisitioned by the British government for this purpose. She mainly transported troops from Australasia to the Far East. In January 1940 she transported the first New Zealand contingent to Egypt and the Middle East . In May 1940 the helped evacuate British women and children from Aden to Bombay. When the Strathaird underwent a major overhaul in Liverpool in June 1940 , it was suddenly ordered to transport 6,000 soldiers, hundreds of civilians, 200 children and gold from British banks to Plymouth .
In March 1941 she collided on the Clyde with the Stirling Castle of the Union-Castle Line and had to interrupt her troop trip to Cape Town for repair work. On February 6, 1943, she collided with the Orontes and on February 19, 1942 with the Durban Castle . It was also used to evacuate US troops from Brest . During the war, the ship carried a total of 128,961 emergency services and covered 387,745 nautical miles. In July 1946, the ship underwent another major overhaul in order to make it afloat again for the transport of passengers after the war. In this context, the first and third chimneys, which had only been dummies, were dismantled. The passenger capacities also changed. From January 5, 1948, the Strathaird was back in passenger service from Great Britain via India to Australia. In the same year, the Australian cricket team, called The Invincibles , went to England on board the Strathaird . In June 1954, the transport of 1250 passengers in only one class was switched. From then on, Bombay was no longer called.
When the Canberra (45,270 GRT) was put into service in 1961 , the old Strath-class ships were no longer needed. On March 28, 1961, the Strathaird made the last time from Tilbury to Sydney. She left Sydney for the last time on May 9, 1961. On June 17, 1961, she ran from Tilbury to Hong Kong, where she arrived on July 14 and was scrapped at the Shun Fung Ironworks.
Web links
- Brief summary of the ship data in The Ships List (lower third)
- The P&O passenger liner Strathaird (facts and photos)
- Full history of the Strathaird
- Information on the White Sisters