RMS Strathaird
RMS Strathaird, in her original form with three funnels, passing under Sydney Harbour Bridge
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: |
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| Namesake: | Strathaird in the Isle of Skye, Scotland |
| Owner: |
 P&O Steam Navigation Co
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| Operator: |
P&O Steam Navigation Co |
| Port of registry: |
 London
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| Route: | Tilbury — Brisbane |
| Ordered: | January 1930 |
| Builder: | Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow |
| Launched: | 18 July 1931 |
| Completed: | January 1932 |
| Maiden voyage: | 12 February 1932 |
| Homeport: | Tilbury |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | scrapped in Hong Kong, July 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | "Strath" class ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 638.7 feet (194.7 m) |
| Beam: | 80.2 feet (24.4 m) |
| Draught: | 29 feet 2 inches (8.9 m) |
| Depth: | 33.1 feet (10.1 m) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: |
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| Capacity: |
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| Crew: | 490 |
| Notes: | sister ship: RMS Strathnaver |
RMS Strathaird, later TSS Strathaird, was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).
She was the second of five sister ships in what came to be called the "Strath" class. All previous P&O steamships had black-painted hulls and funnels but Strathaird and her sisters were painted with white hulls and buff funnels, which earnt them the nickname "The Beautiful White Sisters" or just "The White Sisters". Strathaird and her sister ship RMS Strathnaver were Royal Mail Ships that worked P&O's regular liner route between Tilbury in Essex, England and Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. In 1935 they were joined by the third ship of the class, RMS Strathmore.
Strathaird remained in service for almost 30 years, being scrapped in 1961.
The Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness built all five "Strath" class liners.Strathaird was launched on 18 July 1931, completed in January 1932 and left Tilbury on her maiden voyage on 12 February 1932.
In 1929 P&O had introduced its first large turbo-electric liner, RMS Viceroy of India. The company chose the same propulsion system for Strathnaver and Strathaird, but the "Straths" were slightly larger ships, their turbo-electric equipment was much more powerful and they were about 3 knots (5.6 km/h) faster than Viceroy of India.
Strathaird was very similar to Strathnaver. Each had four water-tube boilers and two auxiliary boilers. The boilers had a combined heating surface of 56,000 square feet (5,203 m2) and supplied steam at 425 lbf/in2 to two turbo generators. These supplied current to two electric motors with a combined rating of 6,315 NHP or 28,000 shp.British Thomson-Houston of Rugby, Warwickshire built the turbo-generators and motors. The motors drove a pair of inward-rotatingscrew propellers. Like Strathnaver, Strathaird had three funnels but only the middle one served as a smoke stack: the first and third funnels were dummies.
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Wikipedia