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CHITRAL (1925)
Service dates: 1925-1953
Official number: 148861
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY
Ship type:
Passenger Liner.
Career
- 10.1923
- Ordered.
- 27.01.1925
- Launched by the Hon. Elsie Mackay, daughter of P&O Chairman Lord Inchcape.
- 12.06.1925
- Ran trials and delivered as Chitral for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company at a cost of £771,759. Her name came from a town, river and region on the Northwest Frontier of India. Her sisters Cathay and Comorin were designed for the Australian run, and their delivery enabled P&O to restore the fortnightly Australian mail schedule, but they were also used on other routes and lacked the reserves of speed really required by a mail steamer.
- 1930
- Fitted with Bauer-Wach low-pressure exhaust turbines and Wyndham heaters to augment her speed and improve fuel efficiency.
- 1933
- Carried the (dismantled) gunboat HMS Sandpiper from Southampton to Shanghai for service on the Yangtze.
- 1935
- Transferred full-time to UK/Far East service.
- 30.08.1939
- Requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and converted in Glasgow by her builders. Her after funnel was removed and seven 6-inch and two 3-inch guns were fitted.
- 14.10.1939
- ‘Working up’ at Scapa Flow when HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed.
- 20.11.1939
- While serving on the Northern Patrol received news from the captured German merchantman Bertha Fisser of the approach of the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
- 23.11.1939
- Rescued 10 survivors from P&O’s Rawalpindi, also serving as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, which had been sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
- 09.1940
- Made three trooping voyages to Reykjavik as part of the reinforcement of the garrison in Iceland.
- 11.11.1940
- Sent to search for survivors of the Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay sunk by the German warship Admiral Scheer.
- 09.1941
- Transferred to the East Indies Fleet and remained in the Indian Ocean until the end of 1943 escorting troop convoys up the east coast of Africa.
- 10.04.1944
- Redelivered from the Admiralty. Converted to a troopship by the Maryland Dry Dock Company, Baltimore, USA, during which her second funnel was replaced.
- 14.09.1944
- Left Baltimore for voyage New York/Clyde with US troops.
- 17.09.1947
- Returned to her owners and reconditioned in London by R&H Green and Silley Weir Ltd. She returned to her pre-war black hull and funnels, not adopting P&O’s newer white livery. Her mainmast was removed and her forward well was plated in.
- 30.12.1948
- Re-entered the Australian trade carrying 740 emigrants on outward journeys in extremely spartan conditions.
- 1950
- Assisted with the repatriation of Dutch nationals from Indonesia.
- 02.1953
- Last sailing for Australia beset by mechanical problems including enforced conversion from quadruple to triple-expansion in 36 hours.
- 22.03.1953
- Arrived in London for the last time.
- 02.04.1953
- Sold for £167,500 to British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage) Ltd. Handed over for demolition to W H Arnott Young & Co Ltd., Dalmuir.