In July 1959 a beautiful ocean liner with a towering white hull and a tall buff funnel
Glid smoothly into Melbourne's Station Pier.
And this wasn't just any ship; it was the RMS Strathnaver.
and she’s hugely important to me and my family; because on board that ship
among the hundreds of immigrant families on board, there was one little one
that comprised my grandparents, my father and my aunty.
But Starthnaver was an important ship for a number of other reasons because when she was when first introduced in 1931
she represented a huge technological step forward for her owners, the P&O line
and completely changed the way that they would build and operate ships into the future. And here's why.
P&O is a household name in cruising today but some would be surprised to learn you can trace its history all the way back to 1822.
From the mid 19th century and into the 20th, it came to dominate many of the world’s passenger and cargo shipping lanes
with an expansive fleet of ships so ubiquitous that by 1910 it would have been difficult to find a port in the Far East
which did not have a P&O liner, with its stark black funnels, tied up or at anchor.
Their empire spanned the globe; a perfect mirror image of the influence of the British Empire itself.
Wherever Britons needed to go; P&O would take them there.
For decades, P&O liners looked like this.
So how did the company end up with a ship looking like Strathnaver?
Well P&O had built an empire on tradition; their ships were solid, built by some of the greatest shipbuilders of the era like the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard
but in the First World War the company took a massive hit, losing no fewer than 85 ships to enemy action.
Coming into the 1920s, the Company needed to drastically rebuild its fleet. So to do it, they turned to a formula which had always worked for them.
Steady, reliable ships with stuffy, timber-clad interiors. P&O’s mantra was a bit like if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
So right out of the gate after World War One P&O places orders with Harland and Wolff for two sisters for the Britain to Australia run; Mooltan and Maloja.
Externally, these two sisters looked really similar to P&O’s first Mooltan and Maloja of 1905 and 1910 respectively.
This set the pattern for P&O into the 1920s; classic-looking liners, with black hulls, black funnels
and superstructures painted a lovely, drab colour which the P&O Line executives called ‘Stone”.
Their ships mostly eschewed fancy turbine engines for the rugged and reliable expansion steam engine which had powered their ships since the 19th century
they wouldn’t be breaking any speed records, but they didn’t need to! They would chug along at the nice, happy speed of 15 knots.
Smoking Rooms were out of bounds to women still; and they carried twice as many first class as second class passengers. All was right with the world.
But then there came a shock; the world had changed.
The Edwardian era had given way to the Jazz Age. Art Deco was chic; timber-clad Edwardian smoking rooms were antiquated.
Everything about P&O’s entire fleet screamed outdated; the dark paintscheme had originally been practical.
During bunkering or re-fuelling, the coal-fired ships would get absolutely covered in coal dust and their funnels
would blacken thanks to the soot. Keeping them a dark colour would obviously hide the muck; but by the 1920s, ships were becoming oil-fired.
They didn’t require the arduous coal bunkering process any more. P&Os ships didn’t need to be dark and drab.
Although the line basically ran a monopoly on many far-eastern routes after it assumed control of the British India steam company
and had a majority stake in its chief rival, the Orient Line, the fleet looked - old. And sad.
Something drastic needed to be done. So P&O’s chairman, Lord Inchcape, thought about the conundrum and came up with a plan.
It called for a pair of ships the world had never really seen before. They would be named Strathnaver and Strathaird.
Everything about these two near-identical sisters would be revolutionary for P&O. First, and most obviously; their exterior design.
The ships were visually huge, but at about 22,000 gross registered tons they were not a massive size upgrade over preceding liners on the Australia run, like Mooltan at 20,000 GRT.
They just looked bigger; and more powerful, because instead of following the traditional lines of an Edwardian liner;
low, sleek and with little superstructure above the hull, Strathnaver and Strathaird were tall, and they had huge, towering superstructures that made them look solid.
Instead of the older tall, narrow funnels, Vickers Armstrong, the builders, had opted for three squat, round funnels;
two of which were actually dummies to balance out the exterior.
Because the two ships would be oil-fired, they only needed one funnel to vent the fumes. But there was another huge advantage here; the ships no longer needed to be painted black.
Instead, P&O went for a dramatic change; the ships would be painted all-white, with buff funnels and masts.
Just look at this comparison; here is what Strathnaver would have looked like if she was painted in the traditional way.
And here is how she looked in her smart new getup. Yeah. It’s a pretty big difference.
On the inside too, Strathnaver set a new standard for luxury on the Britain to Australia run. Gone were the stuffy wooden smoking rooms;
in their place were lush lounges, thickly carpeted featuring art deco artwork and furniture.
First Class was downsized, and on introduction there was no ‘Third Class’. Instead, much of the ship’s accommodation was taken up by ‘Tourist Class’
to reflect the growing size of the population which we now refer to as ‘middle-class’. For the first time, people who weren’t super-rich had means to travel.
And on Strathnaver, they could do it in style, and comfort. They had access to lounges, libraries and nurseries for the children; all beautifully decorated and very smart.
To emphasize the point, Lord Inchcape directed that even the menus and printed material
would showcase gorgeous art deco scenes and drive home that Strathnaver was a new ship for a new era.
But wait! In my hands I’m holding a book, which hints at the real secrets to Strathnaver’s success. This is a guide printed for the ship on how to operate her engines.
And when you open it up, like I did the first time, you might be a bit disappointed to not see any cool illustrations of engines or turbines.
No, the focus is on electrical circuits and generators.
The real secret to Strathnaver’s revolutionary approach lay down in the engine room
because instead of plodding expansion steam engines, there was a set of fancy new turbo-electric engines in their place.
Instead of driving the propellers directly, the turbines generated electricity and electric motors then powered the propellers.
This meant you could control the speed of the props without need for a complex, fragile gearbox
while also providing enough electricity to power the ship’s lights, communication systems and everything else.
P&O had tested this on the Viceroy of India which was built only 2 or 3 years before Strathaver’s introduction - but from the outside, you just couldn’t tell.
Older P&O ships - like RMS Mooltan of 1919 - put an emphasis on cargo-carrying, meaning the ships were covered in cranes and booms.
Mooltan here had no fewer than 16 of these huge, hydraulic cranes which towered over the boat deck!
But Strathnaver and Strathaird prioritised passenger capacity over cargo;
Strathnaver would carry 1170 passengers to Mooltan’s 660. This meant instead of towering cargo-handling machinery cluttering the decks,
Strathnaver’s decks were clean and open, and featured deck-tennis courts and even a verandah cafe for Tourist class, with stylish wicker furniture.
Lastly, even the name was a break in tradition for P&O. Previously their liners were named for cities in the colony; Chitral, Mooltan, Medina, Narkunda and so on.
This was decidedly colonial and a holdover from the 19th century;
instead, Strathnaver was named for Lord Inchcape himself, who was an Earl of Strathnaver in Sutherland, Scotland.
Strathnaver was finished in 1931 and sailed on her maiden voyage - but it wasn’t without incident.
For efficiency the ship was fitted with propellers that turned inward, and not outward as was tradition.
This had an adverse effect on manoeuvrability, and the ship to be a bit of a handful at first.
She even ran aground briefly in the Suez canal. This was later rectified with no noticeable effect on the engine efficiency.
Another small problem that was never really solved was more cosmetic, and it involved the funnels
only the center funnel was operational, so the oil smoke slowly turned the top black and grimy
while the other two funnels remained pristine, giving away the illusion somewhat.
Despite these little teething troubles, Strathnaver was met with enthusiasm by the public; So much so, that even in the face of the Great Depression
P&O went on to complete the sister ship Strathaird in 1932
and then order three running-mates through the rest of the 30s, Strathmore, Strathallan and then Stratheden.
Each was progressively bigger than Strathnaver, but obviously built to the same standard, featuring smart white hulls, buff funnels and slick art deco interiors.
All of these ships would have fascinating careers and I’ll probably do a video on each at some point.
But suffice it to say P&O’s gamble was a success and from then on, all new ships would follow the precedent set by Strathnaver in 1931
and to this day, P&O ships feature smart white hulls.
The last black-hulled P&O liners in service, Mooltan and Maloja, were retired and scrapped in 1954.
Strathnaver herself had a very long career, serving during the Second World War as a troopship
and finally as a single-class immigrant liner in the 1950s which is when she carried my family to Australia.
Which is why I have the accent that I do. Thanks Strathnaver!
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s your friend MIke Brady from Oceanliner Designs.
Thakyou so much for watching this video!
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