SS Nevasa
_(Kiel_48.936).jpg) Nevasa at Kiel in 1971
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | SS Nevasa |
| Owner |
|
| Builder | Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow |
| Yard number | 733 |
| Launched | 30 November 1955 |
| Completed | 12 July 1956 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1975 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage |
|
| Length | 609 ft 3 in (185.70 m) |
| Beam | 78 ft 3 in (23.85 m) |
| Draught | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (April 2017) |
SS Nevasa, also known as HMT Nevasa, was a British troopship built on the River Clyde, Scotland, in 1955 (CM Repton Editor's note: HMT Nevasa must have been built BEFORE 1940 as my father, Geoffrey Christopher Tyrwhitt Repton and Jack Shuttle - see Jack Shuttle's 1939/45 Far Eastern war memoir, 'Destination Kwai' sailed in her to India in December 1939/January 1940 with the Queen's Royal Regiment and East Surrey Regiment respectively. Shuttle describes "the Bibby Line SS Nevasa, a 9000 tonne coal burning troopship of ancient lineage". Christopher Repton sent letters to his family from on board HMT Nevasa between December 1939 and January 1940. Both men were later interned as PoWs on Burma-Siam railway.) and launched on 30 November 1955. The ship was the first troopship built since the end of the Second World War and the largest troopship at that time to be built in the United Kingdom.
The Nevasa was owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company and was 20,527 tons. New features of the ship included stabilisers to reduce rolling in rough seas. The Nevasa had the capacity to accommodate 500 officers and their families and 1,000 NCOs and men on the troop deck. The ship was used to transport troops during the Suez Crisis in 1956. The ship transported many regiments to the Middle East and Far East including the 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) who left Southampton on 7 April 1962 and arrived at Penang on 28 April 1962 via Port Said and including stops at Malta and Aden. The 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) was the first unit to be posted to the Far East without any National Servicemen, following the end of conscription in 1961. The ending of National Service and the British Government's decision in 1962 to reduce the use of ships for movement of troops and increase usage of aircraft led to the Nevasa being withdrawn from service.
The ship was laid up in the River Fal from October 1962 to 1965. After this she became an educational cruise ship, later from 1968 with a sister ship the SS Uganda. The conversion of the ship cost £500,000 and took place in Falmouth, Cornwall. The oil crisis in 1973/74 and its effect on running costs led to the ship's final cruise in December 1974.
The Nevasa's final journey was from Malta to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in June 1975, where it was sent for breaking up. On the ship's final voyage were 69 crew and no passengers. The ship's route for the three-week journey from Malta was via Dakar, Cape Town, crossing the Indian Ocean to the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra to its final destination: the Port of Kaohsiung, in south-west Taiwan, on the northern South China Sea.
External links
- "A history of the SS Nevasa". SS Uganda Trust. Says 1956 version is the third SS Nevasa for BI Lines.
- "Merchant ships – British India". Sydney Heritage Fleet: Photographic Collections. (Also shows earlier SS Nevasa 1914–1948).
