History

This first pair of the “Strath” ships was the crowning glory of the P&O fleet expansion of the 1930s. They introduced yet higher standards to the Australian mail service and are remembered with great affection by former passengers and crew members alike. The Strathnaver and Strathaird were imposing ships and were the first major P&O passenger ships to adopt the all-white hulls and buff funnels livery that was later to become P&O's signature livery. Indeed this colour scheme is still carried today by the cruise ships of P&O Cruises. They also adopted the turbo-electric machinery first pioneered on the Viceroy of India in 1929.

Design and Construction (1930 – 1931):

The Strathaird was the second ship of the pair, and was ordered in January 1930 as both the culminating achievement and swansong of the Lord Inchcape era of regeneration. She was launched on the 18^th July 1931 at Vickers Armstrong Ltd, Barrow in Furness by Lady Margaret Shaw, daughter of P&O Chairman Lord Inchcape. The second of five “white sisters” designed for the UK/Suez/Bombay/Australia run, her name comes from the title of Sir William Mackinnon, founder of the British India Steam Navigation Company, P&O’s largest subsidiary company, and was taken from the name of a headland on Skye in Scotland. Her first and third funnels were dummies. On the 10^th January 1932 she undertook her sea trials and was handed over to P&O.

Prewar Years (1931 – 1939):

She sailed on her maiden voyage from London on the 12^th February 1932 on the Australian mail service to Sydney via Marseilles, Suez, Bombay and Colombo. She entered service just in time for the ageing Chairman, Lord Inchcape, to see his accomplishment before his death in 1932. The new Chairman, Lord Craigmyle, was equally forward looking and positive and sought to give P&O a position of acclaim on the Eastern and Australian routes like that associated with Cunard Line on the North Atlantic.

When both the White Sisters had entered service in 1932 they also followed the Viceroy of India into a regular cruise programme and also became popular cruise liners when engaged on this work in between their regular sailings on the Australian run.

On the 18^th July 1933 she made P&O’s first outward call at Tangiers following pressure from local British residents. In 1938 she was fitted out to carry chilled beef with the same equipment now installed on her newer “Strath” sisters Stratheden and Strathallan. In March 1938 a passenger from Bombay died in Fremantle from smallpox; all first class passengers were quarantined, and a planned cruise from Sydney to Fiji in April was cancelled.

War Service (1939 – 1946):

On the 26^th August 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War, the Strathaird was requisitioned by the Government for service as a troopship. In January 1940 she carried the first New Zealand contingent bound for Egypt and the Middle East. In May 1940 she was involved in the evacuation of British women and children from Aden to Bombay. In June 1940 she was recalled out of an incomplete refit at Liverpool to Brest, where she embarked 6,000 troops, hundreds of civilians, 200 children and the gold from British banks in Paris, landing them in Plymouth. In March 1941 she collided with the Stirling Castle in the Clyde and had to abandon her troopship voyage to Suez via Cape Town. In January 1941 she landed the 1^st US Infantry Division in Belfast. In November 1942 she took part in the North Africa landings as part of Operation Torch.

On the 6^th February 1943 she was hit by the Orontes which had parted her forward cable during a quall in Glasgow. On the 19^th February 1942 she had a minor collision with Durban Castle in the Clyde. In late 1943 the Strathaird led the very first troopship convoy south through the Suez Canal after the Mediterranean had been declared safe and reopened for convoys.

In 1946 she was released from war duties and returned to P&O. In November 1946 she was sent to Vickers Armstrong Ltd to be refitted for a return to passenger service. During the Second World War she steamed 387,745 miles and carried 128,961 personnel.

The Final Years (1948 – 1962):

The Strathaird, as part of the refit she lost her two dummy funnels, and as a result the “Straths” appeared as a more uniform fleet. She returned to service on the Australian route carrying 573 First Class and 496 Tourist Class passengers. On the 20^th December 1947 she returned to commercial service.

On the 17^th January 1950 the Strathaird rescued 18 Cocos Islanders whose boats got into difficulties whilst trying to intercept Strathaird to obtain fresh food. They were later disembarked at Perth.

In June 1954 the Strathnaver and Strathaird were downgraded and converted to one-class ships, offering accommodation space for 1,250 Tourist Class passengers. Simultaneously they omitted the Bombay call, as India was now being well served by the faster vessels operating on the Far East service.

In February 1958 she evacuated Dutch Nationals from Djakarta to Rotterdam. On the 24^th June 1959 she rescued the two crew of a Tiger Moth aircraft which had crashed into the sea off Singapore. In September 1959 she was delayed in Australia with engine trouble.

In 1960 Orient Line and P&O Line merged and Strathaird passed to the ownership of P&O-Orient Lines. However following the emigration boom of the late 1940s and early 1950s, the emigrant trade had declined although it briefly flourished again between 1956 and 1960. However demand had fallen off again by the early 1960s so P&O considered that the Strathnaver and Strathaird could be retired leaving just Strathmore and Strathallan to cover this emigrant trade. On the 24^th February 1961 P&O announced the withdrawal of the Strathnaver in light of the Australian Government cancelled forward bookings for supported-passage British emigrants for the first five months of 1962. On the 18^th June 1961 the Strathaird made her final arrival in the UK. As a result on the 21^st July 1961 P&O sold the Strathaird for scrapping to Shun Fung Ironworks Co., Hong Kong. She arrived in Hong Kong for scrapping on the 24^th July 1961.