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RAJULA (1926)
Service dates: 1926-1973
Official number: 149753
Shipping lines: BRITISH INDIA STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LTD.
Ship type:
Passenger/Cargo Ship.
Career
- 16.12.1925
- Keel laid.
- 22.09.1926
- Launched.
- 26.11.1926
- Delivered as Rajula for the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd at a cost of £232,733.
- 09.1938
- Requisitioned for the Munich crisis.
- 11.1939
- Served for four months as a Personnel Ship.
- 05.1940
- Became a permanent Personnel Ship serving mainly in Eastern waters.
- 1943
- Transferred to Mediterranean waters, landing troops successfully at Syracuse, Augusta and Anzio.
- 1944
- Involved in the Burmese coast operations as an ambulance transport.
- 06.1945
- Carried troops for the reoccupation of Rangoon.
- 1947
- Returned to commercial service. Her passenger accommodation now 37 first class, 133 second class and 1,727 deck passengers.
- 02.1962
- Underwent a major refit at the Mitsubishi yard in Kobe.
- 26.03.1964
- Fractured her starboard main engine crankshaft as she left Penang. She continued her voyage to Madras on the port engine and then returned to Singapore for repairs under her own steam, though with tug escort.
- 03.11.1966
- Ran through the path of a tropical cyclone on her way from Negapatam to Madras. Seven ships were driven ashore and totally lost, but the Rajula clawed her way stern-first off the coast, along which she had been driven 48km (30 miles), and finally berthed safely at Madras the following afternoon with little damage. The Indian passengers held an impromptu thanksgiving service to the stout old ship on the wharf as they disembarked.
- 27.01.1971
- Rescued the fifteen survivors of the Japanese fishing vessel Ohzuru Maru No.1, which had burnt out 485km (300 miles) west of the Nicobar Islands. They were picked up both from the sinking ship and from the water in Rajula’s crash boat and landed at Madras.
- 01.10.1971
- Management transferred to P&O General Cargo Division.
- 10.10.1973
- Sold to The Shipping Corporation of India Ltd, India, and renamed Rangat for service to both the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- 12.05.1974
- Laid up in Bombay.
- 30.08.1974
- Delivered Sold to Maharashtra Shipbreaking Co Ltd, India, for demolition at Bombay.
- 12.1974
- Demolition commenced.