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SURAT (1948)
Service dates: 1948-1972
Official number: 182866
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY; P&O LINES; P&O ORIENT LINE; P&O GENERAL CARGO DIVISION
Ship type:
General Cargo Liner.
Career
- 15.03.1945
- Ordered.
- 16.07.1946
- Keel laid.
- 28.11.1947
- Launched.
- 19.10.1948
- Delivered as Surat for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
- 22.10.1948
- She ran on the North Continent/Grangemouth/London/ Southampton/Malaya/Singapore/Manila/Hong Kong/Japan/China service with Taiwan replacing mainland China as a port of call in the 1960s. She and her steam-powered sister Shillong were fitted with Cargocaire hold ventilation, while their motor-powered half-sisters had the Drihold system.
- 26.10.1953
- Loading in London for the Far East when cracks were discovered in one of her main boilers resulting in a 10-week delay in sailing to undergo repairs.
- 05.1960
- Management and operation transferred to P&O-Orient Lines.
- 23.01.1964
- Went aground some 23km (14 miles) from Kushiro, while bound there from Yokohama.
- 26.01.1964
- Refloated but found to have sustained severe bottom damage. She returned to service after repairs.
- 1966
- Managers and operators renamed P&O Lines.
- 10.09.1968
- Renamed Pando Head as part of the revision of P&O’s Far East cargo services: a faster service used new ships with Strath-names, while the older vessels operated a slower service using Pando names.
- 01.10.1971
- Management and operation transferred to P&O General Cargo Division.
- 09.04.1972
- Arrived at Inverkeithing for demolition.
- 10.04.1972
- Sold to T W Ward Ltd.
- 15.05.1972
- Demolition commenced.