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PARINGA (1936)
Service dates: 1936-1962
Official number: 165362
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY; FEDERAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY
Ship type:
Refrigerated Cargo Liner.
Career
- 25.05.1926
- Ordered transferred to the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
- 19.09.1936
- Launched.
- 17.12.1936
- Delivered as Essex for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company at a cost of £356,500, but bareboat chartered to and managed by Federal Steam Navigation Company Ltd.
- 11.08.1936
- Sank the tug Te Awhina with her starboard screw while berthing at Auckland.
- 07.06.1940
- Requisitioned for the Liner Division.
- 27.11.1940
- Employed as a ‘mechanical transport ship’ until November 1944.
- 06.01.1941
- Left Gibraltar in convoy for Malta.
- 16.01.1941
- While berthed at Malta, she was hit by a bomb on her port side next to the funnel; 16 of her engine room crew were killed and 23 injured. Towed to Frenchman’s Creek.
- 07.03.1941
- Again damaged by bombing, the engine room being flooded to a depth of 9m (29.5ft). Moved to Rinella Creek to await repairs.
- 12.04.1942
- Set on fire in an air attack and also damaged by falling masonry. She had to be beached.
- 01.07.1943
- Moved from Grand Harbour and anchored off Gozo.
- 21.08.1943
- Left Malta in tow of the tug HMS Jaunty for Algiers where she arrived on the 25th and left again for Gibraltar on the 29th with additional tug Charon.
- 01.09.1943
- Arrived at Gibraltar for temporary repairs.
- 24.11.1943
- Left Gibraltar in tow of the Dutch tug Zwarte Zee.
- 03.12.1943
- Tow parted in heavy weather off Cape Finisterre, but reconnected on 4th.
- 11.12.1943
- Arrived in Falmouth for repairs.
- 11.1944
- Repairs completed.
- 04.1945
- Took munitions to Australia, returning with apples from Tasmania and meat from New Zealand.
- 02.1946
- Suffered severe engine trouble homeward-bound from Auckland.
- 30.05.1946
- Returned to commercial service.
- 07.02.1947
- Reverted to P&O management and operation and renamed Paringa for the UK/Australia trade.
- 17.05.1955
- Returned to Federal management and operation.
- 24.05.1955
- Renamed Norfolk.
- 01.09.1962
- Sold for £127,000 to Toyo Menka KK, Japan, who began demolition at Yokosuka on the same day.