# Rajula



## Johnsonsyard

Hello , Does anybody know any history of this ship in 1944 1945 when it was a troopship during the Burma campaign and subsequent move into Malaysia and Singapore ? Thanks Nick


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## John Briggs

In 1940 she trooped mainly from Bombay to Suez and from December 1941 she carried Indian troops to Singapore for its defence returning on homeward voyages loaded with evacuees until the Island finally fell to the Japanese on the 15th February 1942. In July 1942 she carried the 6th Australian Division from Colombo to Australia for their redeployment to New Guinea for its defence. She also attended the successful Allied landings at Syracuse, Augusta and Anzio in 1943. Then in 1944 she carried troops out and wounded back at the Burma assaults when acting as an ambulance transport. The following year she trooped Calcutta to Malaysia and Rangoon for their reoccupation.


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## Hugh MacLean

Nick,
The ship's movments for the period you are interested in up until the end of Dec 45. Courtesy of Hague: http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?home.php~armain

Madras, Nov 9, 1945 - Independent - Port Swettenham, Nov 14, 1945
Port Swettenham, Nov 17, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Nov 22, 1945
Calcutta, Nov 28, 1945 - Independent - Singapore, Dec 6, 1945
Singapore, Dec 7, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Dec 13, 1945
Calcutta, Dec 21, 1945 - Independent - Rangoon, Dec 23, 1945
Rangoon, Dec 25, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Dec 28, 1945

Regards
Hugh


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## Johnsonsyard

Hugh MacLean said:


> Nick,
> The ship's movments for the period you are interested in up until the end of Dec 45. Courtesy of Hague: http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?home.php~armain
> 
> Madras, Nov 9, 1945 - Independent - Port Swettenham, Nov 14, 1945
> Port Swettenham, Nov 17, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Nov 22, 1945
> Calcutta, Nov 28, 1945 - Independent - Singapore, Dec 6, 1945
> Singapore, Dec 7, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Dec 13, 1945
> Calcutta, Dec 21, 1945 - Independent - Rangoon, Dec 23, 1945
> Rangoon, Dec 25, 1945 - Independent - Calcutta, Dec 28, 1945
> 
> Regards
> Hugh


Thanks Hugh , Just been checking out how Dad got to Darjeeling after being injured in Burma. Rajula seems to fit the bill. Still waiting for TNA to contact with details post September 1945 re his squadron in Singapore to narrow the search for his ship to Bombay.


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## Johnsonsyard

John Briggs said:


> In 1940 she trooped mainly from Bombay to Suez and from December 1941 she carried Indian troops to Singapore for its defence returning on homeward voyages loaded with evacuees until the Island finally fell to the Japanese on the 15th February 1942. In July 1942 she carried the 6th Australian Division from Colombo to Australia for their redeployment to New Guinea for its defence. She also attended the successful Allied landings at Syracuse, Augusta and Anzio in 1943. Then in 1944 she carried troops out and wounded back at the Burma assaults when acting as an ambulance transport. The following year she trooped Calcutta to Malaysia and Rangoon for their reoccupation.


Thanks John, my Dad was injured after a raid on his airfield in Burma and was shipped to Calcutta and on to Darjeeling to recover, I reckon Rajula is a likely bet to get him there .

Nick


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## Malky Glaister

I visited Rajula in Madras, about 1970 whilst onboard mv Dunelmia as 4/Eng.

What a fabulous ship. The engineroom contained, I may be incorrect here, 2 quadruple expansion steam engines as main propulsion with goodness knows how many boilers. There was a lift also! Our SD14 was nothing compared to the Rajula. I have somewhere a photo.

regards Malky


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## steamship

*Steamship*



Malky Glaister said:


> I visited Rajula in Madras, about 1970 whilst onboard mv Dunelmia as 4/Eng.
> 
> What a fabulous ship. The engineroom contained, I may be incorrect here, 2 quadruple expansion steam engines as main propulsion with goodness knows how many boilers. There was a lift also! Our SD14 was nothing compared to the Rajula. I have somewhere a photo.
> 
> regards Malky


The information I got was that the Indian govt. badly wanted to put an indian ship on that route which was the last one BI had. Anyway they pulled an inspection and the Rajula failed. They weren't given time to make repairs so they lost the charter to an Indian national ship. 48 years and it could have been longer. Just like Irn Bru made in glasgow from girders.


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## shipmate17

Broken up Bombay 1974. renamed RANGAT 1973.


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## steamship

shipmate17 said:


> Broken up Bombay 1974. renamed RANGAT 1973.


Hi, I never heard that she was renamed for a year. Who renamed her and who owned her and worked her for that last year?


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## alastairjs

October 10th 1973 acquired by the Shipping Corporation of India and renamed Rangat, placed on the Calcutta-Port Blair, Andaman Islands service. May 2nd 1974 laid up in Bombay, stripped of all fittings and lifeboats and broken up later that year by Maharashta Shipbreaking Co. She was owned briefly by P&O in April 1973 following the formation their Passenger Division in '71, into which all the Group's passenger vessels progressively transferred, but she was already up for sale so her P&O career was brief.
Regards,
Alastair


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## steamship

It appears that my information was not all quite correct about the eventual end of the Rajula. Thanks for the information Alistair. I was particularly interested in the ship as she was built in Glasgow and I served my apprenticeship with Barclay Curles drydock where I worked on quite a few old steam recip engines. The last one I ever saw was on the beach near the whitefish locks where they had pulled the wreck of a wooden laker up. It was still attached to some of the frames and part of the keel. The locals from Sault st. Marie were amazed when I was able to describe how it worked. One guy was fascinated when I described how the banana link worked and the whole engine went into reverse. Thanks again for the info.


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