RMS Strathnaver

Building

The Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness built all five "Strath"-class liners. Strathnaver was launched on 5 February 1931, completed in September 1931 and left Tilbury on her maiden voyage on 2 October.

In 1929 P&O had introduced its first large turbo-electric liner, . The company chose the same propulsion system for Strathnaver and Strathaird, but the "Straths" were slightly larger ships, their turbo-electric equipment was much more powerful and they were about 3 kn faster than Viceroy of India.

Strathnaver and Strathaird were very similar. Each had four water-tube boilers and two auxiliary boilers. The boilers had a combined heating surface of 56000 sqft and supplied steam at 425 lbf/in2 to two turbo generators. These supplied current to two electric motors with a combined rating of 6,315 NHP or 28,000 shp. British Thomson-Houston of Rugby, Warwickshire built the turbo-generators and motors. The motors drove a pair of inward-rotating screw propellers. Strathnaver and Strathaird had three funnels but only the middle one served as a smoke stack: the first and third funnels were dummies.

Strathnaver and Strathaird were each equipped with direction finding equipment, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass In first class the ship had 262 single-berth rooms with the rest double-berthed, a special suite on "D" deck had 12 de luxe cabins each with a private bathroom. The tourist-class cabins were either two or four-berthed.

The ship was launched at Barrow on 5 February 1931 by Lady Janet Bailey, daughter of Lord Inchcape, the Chairman of P&O.

Service

Strathnaver and Strathaird mostly worked the Tilbury–Brisbane route They also undertook occasional cruises.

In October 1938 the ship was chartered to move 1,200 British troops from India to Palestine.

In 1939 or 1940 the two sisters were requisitioned as troop ships. Strathnavers war service included bringing Australian and New Zealand troops to Suez and Allied troops to the Anzio landings. She remained a troop ship until November 1948, when she was returned to P&O. In her nine years of government service she carried 129,000 troops and travelled 352,000 miles.

P&O had Harland and Wolff in Belfast refit her for civilian service. First class was abolished and all accommodation was made tourist class, which slightly increased total passenger capacity from 1,168 to 1,252.

Originally planned to be retired in mid-1962 the Strathnaver was retired a few months earlier due to an Australian government decision not to reserve any more berths for migrants in the first five-months of 1962. P&O sold Strathnaver and Strathaird for scrap to Shun Fung Ironworks of Hong Kong. replaced both Strathnaver and Strathaird on the Australia route.

Notes

References

References

1. (1937). "Lloyd's Register of Shipping". [[Lloyd's Register]].
2. {{harvnb. Talbot-Booth. 1942
3. "Strathnaver (1931)". poheritage.com.
4. "R.M.S. Strathnaver in Simon's Town". Simon's Town Archives.
5. (6 February 1931). "P. And O. Liner Launched".
6. (5 September 1931). "The Strathnaver".
7. Goossens, Reuben. (2011–2012). "RMS Strathaird". SS Maritime.
8. (10 October 1938). "News in Brief".
9. (August 2013}} The dummy first and third funnels were removed, which made ''Strathnaver'' look more like her later sisters ''Stratheden'', ''Strathallan'' and ''Strathmore''. ''Strathaird'' had already had her dummy funnels removed in 1947. When she returned to service in 1950 she had accommodation for 567 passengers in first-class and 458 in tourist-class.{{Cite newspaper The Times). "Strathnaver Back In Service".
10. (12 December 1961). "Two Liners To Be Broken Up".