History |
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RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE
M.V. CIRCASSIA 1937 |
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Prewar
Service
Career (1937 - 1939): The
Circassia was built in 1937 by
Fairfield Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, Govan, Glasgow for Anchor
Line and their service to India. Indeed she was the first motor ship
built for Anchor Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage from Glasgow and
Liverpool to Bombay in October 1937. During the Second World War, like
many oceanliners, she was requisitioned as a troopship. On the 3rd
September 1937 when war was declared, the Circassia was in Aden on her
way to Bombay. Completing that run, she arrived back in Glasgow in
October 1939 and was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war duties. War Service (1939 - 1946): She was
initially used as an armed merchant cruiser before becoming a troopship
from 1942. On a voyage to North Africa she was in the same convoy as
the Cameronia when that ship was torpedoed. With the convoy under
attack from the air, the Circassia was credited with having shot down
one of the planes. After further trips to North Africa she returned to
the Clyde in spring 1943 when she was rearmed with anti-aircraft
weapons. She was next seen carrying out exercises in assault landing on
the shores of the Firth of Clyde. In June 1943 she took on board troops
of the First Canadian Division and joined other ships in Gareloch to
prepare for Operation Husky which was the Allied Landings in Sicily. The
Circassia had a busy war and her troopship duties took her as far as
her familiar port of Bombay before returning to Naples to be detailed
for service with the US Naval Forces. In January
1944 she sailed with American forces and took part in the landings at
Salerno. When she arrived back in the Clyde in September she had been
operational for nearly 15 months. But soon she was off again to Bombay
and twice to Odessa with liberated Russian PoWs before bringing home
British prisoners who had been liberated in the Russian advances. Even in
July 1945 she departed Glasgow again for the Far East, putting Indian
troops ashore at Morib in the Malacca Straits. She arrived safely back
in the Clyde in March 1946 and was refitted to return to peacetime
duties. Postwar Service Career (1946 - 1966): But it was
not until 1948 that she was fit to resume her peacetime service to
Bombay with Anchor Line. She then continued in this long lived service
until 1966 when Anchor Line decided to discontinue the service after
110 years. The Circassia made the final passenger sailing and closed
110 years of history. This also was the end for her career as well as
she was soon sold for scrap and broken up in Alicante in Spain in
Spring 1966. It was the end of an era. |
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(c) The AJN Transport Britain Collection 2010 A Edward Elliott