S.S.  H I M A L A Y A     1948
       
RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE                                                                                                                                                                                                                              THE SHIPS OF P&O

    

Welcome to our website paying tribute to the famous S/S Himalaya. Back in 1946 P&O had ordered its first new passenger liner of the postwar period. The Himalaya finally emerged in 1949 and was a splendid ship and the fastest and largest ship P&O had ever owned until that time. She had a top speed of 25 knots.

The Himalaya was a contemporary of Orient Line's Orcades and these ships marked a gradual coming together of the new liners of each company in the postwar era. She was a record breaker and cut the UK to Bombay passage by 5 days and reduced the overall voyage to Australia from 38 days to just 28 days. Indeed the six ships worked closely together on their Australian service with their sailing schedules organised so that sailings alternated between P&O and Orient. Thus they formed a Southern Dominions "Big Six" fleet. In January 1958 P&O and Orient services to Australia were extended across the Pacific in a joint service marketed as Orient & Pacific Line. The Himalaya inaugurated the operation and sailings continued from Sydney to Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, Vancouver and San Francisco. In 1974 the venerable Himalaya was finally retired from service.

This website aims to record the history of this famous British ocean liner and act as a virtual home to honour and commemorate this fine ship. We hope you enjoy this website and when you leave we hope you will visit again soon


   

S.S. HIMALAYA









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Her Regular Service Route: England to India and Australia

 London (Tilbury Docks) - Southampton – Gibraltar – Marseille (UK bound only) – Naples – Port Said – Suez Canal – Aden – Bombay - Colombo – Fremantle – Melbourne – Sydney.

THE PENINSULAR & ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY

(P&O LINE)



This Website is based on content from the SS Maritime website (www.ssmaritime.com) with the kind permission of Reuben Goossens

(c) The AJN Transport Britain Collection 2007                                                                                                                                                                                 A TRANSPORT BRITAIN WEBSITEDocument made with Nvu