Stratheden
 With the tug Carlock on the Brisbane River
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The Stratheden was a 1937 passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was built for passenger and mail traffic from Great Britain to Australia . Sold to Greek owners in 1963, the ship was scrapped in Italy in 1969 .
history
The 23,722 GRT Stratheden was the fourth of five sister ships that P&O put into service during the 1930s. The others were the Strathnaver (1931), the Strathaird (1932), the Strathmore (1935) and the Strathallan (1938). They were the largest ships in the history of P&O until then and were only surpassed by even larger ships after the Second World War .
The ship, 202.54 meters long and 25.02 meters wide, was built like its sister ships at the Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. shipyard . in Barrow-in-Furness . It had a chimney, two masts and two propellers, and was powered by steam turbines that allowed a top speed of 20 knots. There was space for 530 first class passengers and 4500 tourist class passengers on board. Characteristic of the five ships were the yellow funnels and the white hull painting, which gave them the nickname The White Sisters. The names of the ships began with the syllable Strath. In the case of the Stratheden , the name was borrowed from a small hamlet in the Scottish district of Fife .
The Stratheden was launched on June 10, 1937 and was completed on December 16, 1937. On December 24, 1937, she left for her maiden voyage to Brisbane . Like her sister ships, she served as an Allied troop transport from 1939 to 1945 . Except for the Strathallan , which was sunk by a German submarine in 1942 , the White Sisters survived the Second World War . After the Stratheden had been repaired again in 1946-47, she resumed passenger service for P&O in June 1947.
On September 15, 1963, she left for her 55th and final crossing to Australia. Then she was sold together with the Strathmore to the Greek ship magnate John S. Latsis (1910-2003) from Piraeus and renamed Henrietta Latsi . The Strathmore was given the new name Marianna Latsi . In 1966 the two ships exchanged names. On May 19, 1969, the former P&O liner arrived in La Spezia , Italy , where it was scrapped.