TSS Fairstar
TSS Fairstar
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Oxfordshire |
| Owner: | Bibby Line |
| Route: | Various |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan |
| Launched: | 15 December 1955 |
| Maiden voyage: | 28 February 1957 |
| Out of service: | 1962 |
| Renamed: | Fairstar, 1964 |
| Refit: | 1963–1964 (from Troopship to Liner) |
| Name: | Fairstar |
| Owner: | SITMAR, P&O |
| Port of registry: | Monrovia, Liberia |
| Route: | UK-Australia Liner run, South Pacific, New Zealand, Asia |
| Maiden voyage: | 19 May 1964 |
| Out of service: | 1997 |
| Identification: | 5MXH |
| Nickname(s): | "Fairstar the fun ship" |
| Fate: | Scrapped at Alang, India, 1997 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: |
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| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 187.76 m (616 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 23.86 m (78 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in) |
| Decks: | 10 |
| Propulsion: | 4 × Pametrada steam turbines manufactured by the shipbuilder, double reduction gears to twin screws, 18,000 shp (13,423 kW) |
| Speed: | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
16 |
| Capacity: |
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| Troops: | Oxfordshire: 1,000 |
| Crew: |
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TSS (Turbine Steam Ship) Fairstar (Fairstar, the Fun Ship) was a popular Australian based cruise ship operating out of Sydney for 22 years. Originally completed in 1957 as the British troopship Oxfordshire, was converted to become the Fairstar in 1964 for immigrant voyages and from December 1974 was permanently engaged in cruising.
In the early 1950s, the British War Office still regularly required the transportation of troops to and from garrisons in many parts of the Empire. The Ministry of Transport had contracts with several shipping lines to transport the officers, troops and their families. One particular shipping company, The Bibby Line, had a long history of transporting troops; in fact from as early as 1854 during the Crimean War. In 1953, Bibby Line was made an attractive offer by the British Government to build a new vessel for troop transport. A simultaneous arrangement was made with the British-India Steam Navigation Company for an almost identical vessel, which would become Nevasa. These new ships would become the largest and last British vessels built solely for trooping. It was intended that the pair would take up twenty-year charters from the British Government, to secure their employment. Consequently, Bibby Line sold the original 1912 Oxfordshire and plans for the new ship proceeded with the ship to be built at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow. The keel of the new vessel (designated as 'Ship No. 755') was laid down with 8,396 tons of steel assigned for the construction. On 15 December 1955 the Oxfordshire was launched by Lady Dorothea Head, wife of the Minister for War, Lord Head. Fitting out of the ship took over a year, with her sea trials commencing on 29 January 1957.
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