The B Class
1959-1971
If the middle years of the 1950’s had seen the BI building ships in the accepted general cargo liner mould, the end of the decade saw a complete departure with the building of five sister ships for the Australia-India and Persian Gulf trade, entirely different in appearance and layout from anything the Company had hitherto owned.
The design for the new class was entrusted to the naval architects, Burness, Corlett & Partners, and as a result of competitive tendering the order for all five ships went to a yard which had never previously built for the Company, the Govan yard of Harland & Wolff. The sisters had four cargo holds served by derricks, including one of 30-tons, on the sharply raked mast between Nos. 2 and 3 hatches. A light signal mast supporting the radar scanner arose out of the funnel immediately abaft the bridge and all other cargo was worked by five electric cranes mounted on the centreline. Two other firsts in the Company were fluorescent lighting in all the holds and push-button automatic opening hatch covers.
From the heavily raked bow, the sheer line ran aft in a long ellipse to the bridge, whence a combined bridge and poop continued to the stern. For the first time in a BI ship there were no crew berthed either forward or aft, the Indian crew having cabins in the centrecastle, though there were cabins in the deckhouse aft for ten extra crew members or for tally clerks as required. Officers were housed in the streamlined, curved deckhouse amidships and there was an owners’ cabin were two passengers could be carried. All the accommodation was air-conditioned. The single lifeboat each side was raised on gravity davits and the funnel sloped sharply aft, as did the two white bands.
The engine room also marked a departure with a type of engine new to BI, the Harland-B & W opposed piston model. Even more important was the universal adoption of alternating current for all electrical purposes on board, including the deck cranes, the first complete application of this mode in a British-built ship.
Bulimba
Photograph kindly supplied by Captain Richard Teo
6,796 g, 3,669 n, 7,324 dw. 395.0 (426.5 oa) x 59.3 x 32.5 dft 25.6 feet.
1 x 6-cyl. 2S.C.A. B&W diesel by the shipbuilder, 5,800 bhp, 17.49 k (trials).
36,000 cf refrigerated space. Launched 25/9/58 delivered 26/3/59.
The first of the new class was given the Australian name of Bulimba (after a suburb of Brisbane) when she was launched by Mrs R B Monteath, wife of one of the Company’s General Managers, in September 1958, so it was appropriately launched with a bottle of Bulimba beer from Queensland rather than the usual champagne. Between the time of launching and delivery the white painting on the hull was taken down a further strake to the main deck level, which made the B-class look rather larger they actually were. As the lead ship of the class, Bulimba was the focus of attention at all ports of call during her maiden voyage and was chosen to house the Australian exhibits for a trade fair to Malaysia in April 1963. Perhaps because of this, she was sold on 19th November 1971, after 12 years’ trouble free service, to the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation and registered at Penang as the Bunga Kenanga. In 1977 she became the Seasprite of the Seasprite Shipping Enterprises Corporation, registered first at Monrovia under the Liberian flag but transferred later the same year to Greek registry at Piraeus. Her end came on 1st July 1979, when she ran aground in Kori Creek in the Gulf of Kutch and had to be abandoned as a total loss.
September 1958 Launch.
With Thanks to David Milligan. Originally in BI News.
Bankura
6,793 g, 3,693 n, 7,274 dw. Dimensions - as per Bulimba. Engine as Bulimba. 17.67 k (trials).
42,600 cf refrigerated space.
Launched 22/1/59, delivered 28/8/59
Bankura. Photograph by Captain J.E.Wills
The second ship was the Bankura (modern form of Bancoora, a town and district in the Burdwan division of Bengal), launched by Mrs W J Campbell, wife of one of the Company’s Managing Directors, in January 1959. For much of her career she was the New Zealand trade ship, running first from Calcutta and Singapore but latterly from Persian Gulf ports and Bombay. She was sold on 3rd August 1971 to South-East Asia Shipping Pte. Ltd. of Bombay, who renamed her Mahabharat until selling her in 1980 to Lion Shipping Co. Pte Ltd. of Singapore for whom she traded as Cherry Singa. She returned to India for scrapping at Port Alang, Bhavnagar, where she arrived on 26th April 1983. Work was completed in March 1984.
Barpeta
42,600 cf refrigerated space.
The next of the sisters was Barpeta (after a town in Assam), launched by Mrs J H Fyfe, wife of one of the Company’s General Managers, in March 1960. She had an uneventful career with the Company until sold on 21st August 1971 to the Sudan Shipping Line Ltd of Port Sudan, by whom she was renamed Maridi. On 27th March 1980 she ran aground off the island of Oland, when outward bound from Oskarshamn to her own port. After lightening of some of the cargo, she was refloated on 1st April but an examination in dry dock showed extensive bottom damage and she was sold unrepaired to Sea Faith Navigation Ltd of Panama. They renamed her Spijkennisse but merely sailed her out to Gadani Beach, where she arrived on 28th October without ever having resumed service. Demolition by Habib Builders Ltd commenced on 29th October the same year.
Bamora
Bamora, Kiddepore Dock April 1963 (Photo from Andrew Lansdale)
42,600 cf refrigerated space.
Launched 6/9/60, delivered 30/1/61
The fourth of the B-class was the Bamora (after a village near Almora in the Kumaon District, North-west India), launched in September 1960 by Mrs R H A Bond, wife of the Company’s Commodore Commander. Like most of her sisters she gave uneventful service to the Company and was sold on 17 April 1971 to the Indo-Pacific Corporation of Liberia, under the management of John Manners & Co Ltd of Hong Kong, and was renamed Sumatra Breeze. That name proved short lived, as after only one voyage she became Trikora Djaya on charter to the Indonesian P.T. Trikora of Djakarta, but without change of owners. That came in 1973 when she joined her sister, Bankura, in the fleet of South-East Asia Shipping Pte Ltd as Mahabhakti. In 1980 she became the Dina of the Lyttelton Shipping Corporation under the Panamanian flag and two years later Yang Zi Jiang No 3 of the China Yangtze Shipping Co, as which she was still believed to be in service in 1994.
This photograph appeared in The BI News of April 1969, The Bamora is shown in Singapore with The Cathay astern and The Rajah ahead of her. The Rajah is clearly in British India livery also flying the House Flag, to whom did she belong I have no record of her in any of my reference books also that day The Sirsa was at anchor and Barpeta at the Keppel's yard.
John Cole states that Ranee and Rajah both belonged to the Asiatic S. N. Co. which was part of Turner Morrisons, by which remote connection was owned by either MacKinnon or British India (not historically the same). Based in Calcutta, registered in London or Glasgow the ships had names based on Indian noble ranks, Maharaja, Nabob, Havildar and so on. Traded mainly on the coal and rice trades on the coast, the last Company ships being Nurmahal and Nurjehan sisters of Trebartha and Trefusis of the Hain Line which eventually became Strath'N's.
Staffed by locally engaged Officers the crew coming from the Maldive Islands who enjoyed curry and potatoes for breakfast the ships were said to be very smart in their heyday.
Mark Kenyon confirms that the original Company was owned by an Armenian family whose name was Apcar, three out of five ships that they operated were named after family members and that British India bought the operation to prevent Japanese interests from buying Apcar and to extend its own theatre of operation.
The Apcar ships adopted British India livery in 1912 and used the name until well into the sixties, British India also bought a majority interest in Asiatic S.N. Co. in 1934 hence that connection. Sangola, Santhia and Sirdhana were all built for the Apcar service and the Chinese characters on the ships' sides simply read Santhia Apcar etc. I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to solving the mystery of the Rajah photograph above.
Bombala
6,745 g, 3,671 n, 7326 dw. Dimensions - as per Bulimba. Engine as Bulimba. 18.00 K (trials)
42,600 cf refrigerated space.
Launched 29/3/61 delivered 28/8/61.
The last of the B-class also received an Australian name, though not one the Company had used before. She was launched as Bombala (after the town and river in New South Wales) in March 1961 by Mrs P R Searcy, wife of the Senior Australian Trade Commissioner in London. Her one appearance in the headlines was spectacular. En route from Calcutta to Sydney on 9th March 1966, she was arriving at Singapore at 09.30 when she collided with the berthed Azuchisan Maru. This set up a chain of collisions in which the Japanese ship struck State of Madras, which in turn struck Munchen. She, too, joined her sister after sale, when she followed Barpeta into the ownership of the Sudan Shipping Line Ltd. on 4th September 1971 as Shendi. They sold her in 1980 to the Mah Boonkrong Shipping Co Ltd of Bangkok, who renamed her Supachai Bulakul, but they kept her for only a few months before reselling her later the same year to the China Ocean Shipping Co for whom she became Zhen Zhu Quan. She passed in 1986 to the Shandong Province Marine Shipping Co without change of name and in 1989 became Su Cheng of Jaingyin City Shipping Co, Nanjing, for whom she was believed to be still trading in 1994.