RMS Mooltan
Encyclopedia
| RMS Mooltan | |
RMS Mooltan |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
| Port | London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... |
| Owner: | Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. |
| Service: | London, India, China, Australia, mail and passenger service. |
| Ordered: | 1918, Yard No 587 |
| Builder: | Messrs Harland & Wolff,Ltd,Belfast. |
| Launched: | 15 February 1923 |
| Maiden voyage: | 5 October 1923 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, Sold to British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage) Ltd in 1954, she was broken up by Metal Industries Ltd at Faslane in Scotland. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 20,847 gross tons. 12,836 net tonnage. Deadweight 16,032 tons |
| Length: | 600.5 feet |
| Beam: | 73.5 feet |
| Depth | 48.5 feet. Draught 34.1 feet (10.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 Quadruple-expansion steam engines, producing 15,300 shaft horse power (13,300 ihp). Inverted direct acting, balanced to eliminate vibrations. Twin Screw. Boilers:6 D.E. and 2 S.E. Boilers with a steam pressure of 215 lb (97.5 kg). Fuel: Oil Oil An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils.... |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots |
| Paintwork | Black hull with white line, red boot-topping, upper works stone, funnels black. |
| Complement: | 327 First Class, 329 Second Class, Crew: 423 made up of 10 officers, 94 seamen, 22 engineers, 82 firemen and 215 saloon crew. |
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
placed the order for RMS Mooltan with Harland and Wolff
Harland and Wolff
Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....
Ltd on 29 November 1918. On the same date, an order was placed for her sister ship
Sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...
RMS Maloja
RMS Maloja
RMS Maloja was an English steam-powered ocean liner that saw service during the first part of the twentieth century.The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company placed the order for RMS Maloja with Harland and Wolff Ltd on 29 November 1918. Yard No. 588 was assigned to the project and work...
. RMS Mooltan was given the yard #587 and work began on her in the Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
shipyard. She was launched on 15 January 1923. She was then put through her sea trials and was finally delivered on 21 September 1923. At that time she was the first P & O ship over 20,000 tons, but she had sacrificed speed for reliability and comfort. The Mooltan had broad decks and would have a reputation for magnificent steadiness, although, because of her small rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
, handling would prove to be difficult.
Maiden voyage
Maiden voyage
The maiden voyage of a ship, aircraft or other craft is the first journey made by the craft after shakedown. A number of traditions and superstitions are associated with it....
on 5 October 1923. She left the Port of Tilbury
Port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London; as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes. There are also...
, and via Suez canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
arrived in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 21 December 1923, calling at Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
, Ceylon (Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on her way. She would make the voyage to Australia many times carrying many thousands of immigrants to a new life in Australia. In 1929 SS Mooltan was refitted with new engines, namely, two British Thompson Houston exhaust-driven electric turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
s and motors with the effect that her top speed was increased to 17 knots (33.3 km/h). The accommodations were also overhauled. In 1931 she was again in the shipyard. All the accommodations were again overhauled and improved. In 1933 she carried Douglas Jardine
Douglas Jardine
Douglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
's MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
test team back home to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
after the controversial “Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
” Test Series (see link at the bottom of the page). In 1938 alterations were made to the ship which allowed her to carry chilled beef.
Wartime requisition
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and her allies realised that they would need ships for troop and equipment movements. On 6 September 1939 SS Mooltan was requisitioned for service as an armed merchant cruiser
Armed merchantmen
Armed merchantman is a term that has come to mean a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value...
and was converted for such a task. Part of the conversion was the removal of her second funnel
Funnel
A funnel is a pipe with a wide, often conical mouth and a narrow stem. It is used to channel liquid or fine-grained substances into containers with a small opening. Without a funnel, spillage would occur....
, which was in any case a dummy used to ventilate the engine room below; this was done to improve the arc of her anti-aircraft guns. Later on in the war the funnel was replaced but in a shorter form. As an armed merchant cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
, SS Mooltan served in the South Atlantic based in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, and she had the satisfaction of not losing a single merchant ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
placed in her care. On 31 July the Mooltan was on the western approaches
Western Approaches
The Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the...
en route from Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
to Freetown when she was attacked by a German reconnaissance aircraft
Reconnaissance aircraft
A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance.-History:The majority of World War I aircraft were reconnaissance designs...
; she survived intact. On 20 January 1941 she was returned to P & O for conversion to a troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
. The work was carried out by R & H Green and Silley Weir Ltd in Tilbury. The work was then completed at Tyneside
Tyneside
Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
, Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
and by May 1941 she had been fully converted. In 1941 she carried troops out to the Middle East Campaign, and in May 1942 she took part in the North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
n landings at Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
as part of Operation Torch
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....
. She was returned to P & O after the war on 16 July 1947.
Peacetime and a return to normal service
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
work, and carrying “Ten Pound Poms
Ten Pound Poms
Ten Pound Poms is a colloquial term used in Australia to describe British subjects who migrated to Australia after the Second World War under an assisted passage scheme established and operated by the Government of Australia.The scheme, a follow-on to the unofficial Big Brother Movement,...
” to Australia under an assisted passage scheme established and operated by the Australian government. The return trips were filled with P & O's own passengers. In April 1949 the Mooltan arrived at Tilbury the day after one of her passengers had died of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
. This was a Mr. Richard Allen (aged 69; he was a conveyancer and his cause of death, which is mentioned on the passenger list, is given as chickenpox). For the next three days the Mooltan was placed under quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
before any of her passengers or crew could disembark; during this period five more of the passengers died. On 18 November 1953 SS Mooltan slipped out of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia, on her last ever voyage, (Donald Seymour was the carpenter), arriving at Tilbury on 7 January 1954. Her mainly Asian crew joined the brand new RMS Arcadia three weeks later. On the 23rd of January 1954 SS Mooltan was sold for the sum of £150,000 to British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage) Ltd and she was sent to Metal Industries Ltd at Faslane in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
where she was broken up.
Specifications
- OWNERS: The Peninsular & Oriental Steam NavigationSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
Co.
- SERVICE: London, India, China, Australia mail and passenger service.
- NATIONALITY AND PORT: British. Belfast.
- BUILDERS: Messrs. Harland & Wolff, Ltd., Belfast, 1923 yards (1,758.4 m) No. 587
- OFFICIAL NUMBERS: 145435. signal letters KPNG. call signCall signIn broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
GFBC
- TONNAGE: 20,847 Tonnes gross. 12,836 Net tonnage. Deadweight 16,032 tonnes
- DIMENSIONS: 600.5 feet (183 m) long between perpendiculars.Breath 73.5 feet (22.4 m). X Depth 48.5 feet (14.8 m). Draught 34.1 feet (10.4 m). 5 decks.
- ENGINES: 2 Quadruple expansion 4 cylinder reciprocating steam engines. 15,300 shaft horse powerHorsepowerHorsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
Inverted direct acting, balanced to climate vibration. Twin screw. Normal speed of 17½ knots.
- BOILERS: 6 D.E.and 2 S.E. boilers, 215 lb (97.5 kg) shaft horse power pr. Oil Fuel
- PAINTWORK: Black hull with white line, red boot-topping, stone upper works, black funnels.
- COMPLEMENT: 327 1stT class passengers, 320 2nd class passengers.
Technical drawings
