RMS Strathaird

RMS ''Strathaird'', later TSS ''Strathaird'', was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).

She was the second of five sister ships in what came to be called the "Strath" class. All previous P&O steamships had black-painted hulls and funnels but ''Strathaird'' and her sisters were painted with white hulls and buff funnels, which earned them the nickname "The Beautiful White Sisters" or just "The White Sisters". ''Strathaird'' and her sister ship were Royal Mail Ships that worked P&O's regular liner route between Tilbury in Essex, England and Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. In 1935, they were joined by the third ship of the class, .

''Strathaird'' remained in service for almost 30 years, being scrapped in 1961.

Building

The Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness built all five "Strath" class liners. ''Strathaird'' was launched on 18 July 1931, completed in January 1932, and left Tilbury on her maiden voyage on 12 February 1932.

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 faster than ''Viceroy of India''.

''Strathaird'' was very similar to ''Strathnaver''. Each had four water-tube boilers and two auxiliary boilers. The boilers had a combined heating surface of and supplied steam at 425 lb_f/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. Like ''Strathnaver'', ''Strathaird'' had three funnels but only the middle one served as a smoke stack: the first and third funnels were dummies.

''Strathaird'' and ''Strathnaver'' were each equipped with direction finding equipment, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass As built, ''Strathaird'' had accommodation for 498 first class and 668 tourist class passengers.

Service

''Strathaird'' joined ''Strathnaver'' on the Tilbury — Brisbane route ''via'' the Suez Canal. However, in December 1932, ''Strathaird'' became the first P&O ship to work a cruise, when she took a five-day excursion from Sydney to Norfolk Island. Later in the 1930s, she made occasional cruises from UK ports.

In 1939 or 1940, the two sisters were requisitioned as troop ships. ''Strathaird'' made two convoy voyages taking troops from Australasia to the Middle East Theatre of the Second World War and then went to Liverpool for a refit. This was interrupted in June 1940 when ''Strathaird'' was ordered to take part in Operation Aerial to evacuate British and Allied personnel from western France. ''Strathaird'' evacuated 6,000 civilians and troops from the port of Brest. In 1941, she supported the transfer of the first unit of Foresters from British Honduras (Belize) to Trinidad before transporting 114 Foresters to Greenock, Scotland. She remained a troop ship until the end of 1946 when she was returned to P&O.

P&O had Vickers-Armstrong refit and overhaul ''Strathaird'', starting in 1947 and completing work in January 1948. Her capacity for first class passengers was increased to 573 and her tourist class accommodation was reduced to 496. This reduced her total passenger capacity from 1,166 to 1,069. Her dummy first and third funnels were removed, which made ''Strathaird'' look more like her later sisters ''Stratheden'', ''Strathallan'' and ''Strathmore''.

In 1954, P&O had ''Strathaird'' refitted again. First class was abolished and all accommodation was made tourist class, which increased total passenger capacity from 1,069 to 1,252. ''Strathaird'' made her first departure from Tilbury in her new form on 8 April 1954.

At the beginning of the 1960s, ''Strathnaver'' and ''Strathaird'' were almost three decades old and no longer reliable enough for mail and passenger service, so P&O replaced both ships with . P&O sold ''Strathnaver'' and ''Strathaird'' for scrap to Shun Fung Ironworks of Hong Kong. ''Strathaird'' left Tilbury on 17 June 1961 for Hong Kong, where she became the first of the "Strath" class liners to be scrapped. ''Strathnaver'' followed her to the breakers in 1962.

Notable passengers

Egon Kisch

In November 1934, the Czechoslovak Communist writer, journalist and opponent of Nazism Egon Kisch sailed on ''Strathaird'' to Australia to speak at a conference organised by the communist Movement Against War and Fascism to mark the Centenary of Melbourne. When the ship called at Fremantle Harbour on 6 November, Federal authorities boarded her, told Kisch that he would be excluded from Australia under the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, and placed him in the custody of ''Strathaird''s master, Captain Carter.

On 12 November, ''Strathaird'' reached Melbourne, where a barrister for the Communist International Labor Defense organisation boarded her and served Captain Carter with a writ of ''habeas corpus'' to allow Kisch ashore to make his case for entry to the country. Australian authorities still did not allow Kisch ashore, so on 13 November, as ''Strathaird'' was leaving Melbourne, he leapt from the deck and landed on Station Pier, breaking his right leg. Victoria Police detained him and put him back aboard, but as ''Strathaird'' continued to Sydney Harbour Kisch's supporters took his case to the High Court of Australia, which ruled his exclusion from the country to be invalid.

On 16 November, ''Strathaird'' reached Sydney Harbour, where Federal authorities tried to use the Immigration Restriction Act dictation test to exclude him. NSW police took Kisch into custody but released him on bail and, after further legal process, he remained in Australia speaking to public meetings until March 1935.

Cricket teams

''Strathaird'' carried the 1948 Australian cricket team, nicknamed "The Invincibles", to England.

In September–October 1960, ''Strathaird'' carried members of the West Indies cricket team, who had been playing league cricket in England, from Tilbury to Fremantle and took them back in February–March 1961.

David Hill

Australian public administrator and businessman David Hill migrated to Australia together with two brothers aboard the ''Strathaird'' in April 1959.

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Strathaird
1931 ships
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
Cruise ships
Ocean liners of the United Kingdom
Ships of P&O (company)
Steamships of the United Kingdom
Troop ships of the United Kingdom
Turbo-electric steamships