HMT
Nevasa was 9071 gross tons, length 480.5 feet x beam 58.1 feet,
one funnel, two masts, twin screw, speed 14 knots, accommodation
for 128-1st and 98-2nd class pasengers. She was launched 12th
December 1912 by Barclay, Curle & Co., Glasgow for British
India Steam Navigation Co., she started her maiden voyage from
London to East Africa and Calcutta on 22nd March 1913. In August
1914 she was taken over and converted to a troopship, and from
January 1915 to 1918 was fitted as a 660 bed hospital ship. Used
in the East Africa, Persian Gulf, Salonika and Mesopotamia campaigns.
Later in 1918 she was used as a North Atlantic troopship, ferrrying
US troops and later repatriating Allied forces. In late 1919 she
resumed commercial service on the UK - East Africa and UK - Calcutta
services. In 1925 she was rebuilt as a permanent troopship with
capacity for 1,000 men. In 1935-37 she carried out a series of
off-season educational cruises for the School Journey's Association,
London and in 1937 attended the Spithead Coronation Naval Review.
Between 1939 and 1945 she trooped steadily and was used between
the UK, India, Basra, Madagascar and for the Normandy Landings.
She resumed commercial service in 1946 but was basically a troopship.
After the war she sailed between Southampton and Singapore and
when she went out of troopship service she spent many years in
the Mediterranean full of British schoolchildren on holidays.
Detail
taken from The
Shiplist, see also the Clydeside
Shipping Database |