SS Ranchi

The SS "Ranchi" was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner. During World War II she served as an armed merchant cruiser HMS "Ranchi".

P&O career

The SS "Ranchi" was built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. at Newcastle Upon Tyne, England and was launched on 24 January 1925. She weighed 16,650 gross registered tons, her length was 547 feet and her beam 71 feet. She one of the P&O 'R' class liners from 1925 that had the much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay [http://www.freewebs.com/shippinglines/ships1920to1930.htm P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930] ] .

Named after Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand state in eastern India, she sailed on a regular route between England and Bombay, India. Later she sailed to the Far East. She carried 600 passengers.

econd World War

The SS "Ranchi" was requisitioned into the Royal Navy on 27 August 1939 (at the onset of World War II) and commissioned on 23 October 1939 as the armed merchant cruiser HMS "Ranchi" (Pennant F15). As an armed merchant cruiser she weighed 16,738 tons.

Her sister ships SS "Rawalpindi", SS "Rajputana" and SS "Ranpura" were also converted to armed merchant cruisers. Except for small corvettes, the converted passenger ships like the HMS "Ranchi" were the only armed protection for most of the early convoys. With their six-inch guns, they were the only escorts that could engage German surface ships. Very few convoys received the protection of the larger cruisers or battleships.

From October 1939 until February 1942 she served the East Indies Station; from March 1942 until January 1943 she was part of the Eastern Fleet (Indian Ocean). She was returned and use as a troopship by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) on 16 March 1943.

Two months after the end of World War II in the Pacific, in October 1945 the "Ranchi" sailed from Singapore to Southampton carrying amongst others released prisoners of war and civilian internees recently liberated from Japanese camps. Hilda Bates, who had been interned in Batu Lintang camp at Kuching, Borneo, wrote on 23 October 1945: "We are now speeding towards England aboard the S.S. "Ranchi", which is packed with troops and other ex P.O.W.s like ourselves ... In our cabin there are twelve women, - five of who [m] are returning home as widows.' Ooi, Keat Gin, 1998, "Japanese Empire in the Tropics", 631]

Post-war career

On 18 July 1947 the SS "Ranchi" was returned to her owners, P&O. The "Ranchi" was used as an emigrant ship between 1947 and 1952, when she completed fifteen voyages from England to Australia. The shipping nominal rolls are held at the Victorian Public Records Office, Melbourne, Australia.

SS "Ranchi" was broken up in Newport, Monmouthshire in 1953.

"Ranchi" in popular culture

The P&O liner SS "Canberra" doubled for SS "Ranchi" in the final episode of Tenko, the popular BBC TV series about women civilian internees in the Far East in 1984. [http://www.emmerdale.org/linerlovers/Canberra_Tribute.html]

In the "Tintin" book "The Blue Lotus," there is an ocean liner named SS Ranchi.

References

External links

* [http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/PO_Liners3.html#anchor10708 postcards of SS "Ranchi"]
* [http://www.ozhoo.net.au/~strathsisters/ranchi/index.htm photos of interior of ship]
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3370.html HMS "Ranchi" at uboat.net]
* [http://www.bubbledust.ca/HMS_Ranchi.html naval seaman's recollections of life on HMS "Ranchi" in WW2, with photographs and copy of ship's log for June 1940]