From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

SS Ranpura

British ocean liner (1924–1961)

Summary

British ocean liner (1924–1961)

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United Kingdom
flag	[[File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg	60px	RN Ensign]]
builder	R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company
launched	13 September 1924
acquired	September 1939
commissioned	December 1939
reclassified	Armed merchant cruiser
fate	Broken up in 1961
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
tonnage	*16,583 gross register tons
length	547 ft
beam	71 ft
propulsion	quad expansion steam engine
speed	17 kn
complement	323 (as armed cruiser)
armament	*8 × 6 in (152 mm)
armor	none

8755 deadweight tons
2 × 3 in (76 mm) (76.2 mm)

The '*SS *Ranpura''''' was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner built by R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Newcastle upon Tyne for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company in 1924. She was the first of the P&O 'R' class liners that had much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay. She was launched 13 September 1924 and sponsored by C.C. Straker, wife of the chairman of Hawthorn Leslie and Company.

In 1936, she was assigned to transport $50 million (1936 prices) worth of Chinese artwork from London to Shanghai. The art had been on display in England as part of the largest exhibit of Chinese art to appear in England to that point. On 14 April, she encountered a storm off Gibraltar and ran aground in the Punta Mala after dragging anchor. She was refloated without damage on 16 April and resumed her trip to China.

She was requisitioned into the Royal Navy on the onset of World War II and finished conversion 30 November 1939 as the armed merchant cruiser '*HMS *Ranpura'''''. The installation of eight six-inch guns gave her the firepower of a light cruiser without the armoured protection.

World War II

Her sister ships SS Rawalpindi, SS Ranchi and SS Rajputana were also converted to armed merchant cruisers. Except for small corvettes, the converted passenger ships like HMS Ranpura were the only armed protection for most of the early convoys. With their six-inch (152 mm) guns, they were the only escorts that could engage German surface ships. After conversion, Ranpura was assigned to the Mediterranean, where she served until February 1940, when she was transferred to the South Atlantic. She served with the Halifax Escort Force in May 1940, then was assigned in March 1941 as part of the force transferring gold from Britain to Canada for safekeeping during the war. After October 1941, she transferred to the Indian Ocean.

HMS Ranpura (F93) was sold to the Admiralty in 1943 and converted to a repair ship. She served in the Royal Navy as a fleet depot ship until 1961, when she was broken up. She took part in the 1956 Suez Crisis.

References

Bibliography

References

[http://www.freewebs.com/shippinglines/ships1920to1930.htm P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930] {{webarchive. link. (30 January 2010)
Wireless to the New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/15/archives/50000000-art-on-ship-aground-near-gibraltar-en-route-to-china.html?scp=1 "$50,000,000 Art on Ship Aground Near Gibraltar En Route to China"], ''The New York Times''. 15 April 1936. Page 1.
[https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/17/archives/liner-ranpura-refloated-ship-carrying-chinese-art-aided-by-tugs.html?scp=1 "Liner Ranpura refloated"], ''The New York Times''. 17 April 1936. Page 10.
[http://www.the-weatherings.co.uk/pccship0531.htm "SS Ranpura"], the-weatherings.co.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
"Allied Warships of WWII - Repair Ship HMS Ranpura - uboat.net".
(March 2022)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ocean-liners steamships world-war-ii-passenger-ships-of-the-united-kingdom world-war-ii-auxiliary-cruisers-of-the-royal-navy world-war-ii-cruisers-of-the-united-kingdom 1924-ships ships-built-by-hawthorn-leslie

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about SS Ranpura — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report