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KARMALA (1945)
Service dates: 1947-1967
Official number: 181752
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY; EASTERN & AUSTRALIAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY LTD.; P&O ORIENT LINE; P&O LINES
Ship type:
General Cargo Liner.
Career
- 13.06.1945
- Launched.
- 13.07.1945
- Completed as Sheepshead Bay Victory for the United States War Shipping Administration. She ran aground three days after delivery, then spent a year trooping in the Atlantic before moving to the Pacific.
- 08.1946
- Collided with a US Navy tanker in Manila before being sent to San Francisco for repairs.
- 1947
- Sold to Stanhope Steamship Co Ltd (J A Billmeir & Co Ltd, managers), London, and renamed Stanholme.
- 16.10.1947
- Purchased by The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and renamed Karmala after a town in the Bombay presidency of northwest India. One of four North American-built cargo ships bought second-hand by P&O after the War; a sister (Mahanoy City Victory) became P&O’s Khyber.
- 09.1953
- Carried out a 12-metre aluminium launch from London for the British India Steam Navigation Company agents at Khulna.
- 03.1959
- Chartered to Eastern and Australian Steamship Co Ltd for their Australia/Hong Kong/Japan service.
- 05.1962
- Resumed P&O service but retained E & A’s Chinese crew. Management and operation transferred to P&O-Orient Lines.
- 1966
- Managers and operators restyled P&O Lines.
- 29.08.1967
- Sold through Mitsui Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Japan to Nan Tang Industrial Co Ltd, Taiwan, for demolition.
- 30.08.1967
- Delivered at Kaohsiung.