RMS Strathaird - Service

Service

Strathaird joined Strathnaver on the Tilbury — Brisbane route via the Suez Canal. However, in December 1932 Strathaird became the first P&O ship to work a cruise, when she took a five-day excursion from Sydney to Norfolk Island. Later in the 1930s she made occasional cruises from UK ports.

In 1939 or 1940 the two sisters were requisitioned as troop ships. Strathaird made two convoy voyages taking troops from Australasia to the Middle East Theatre of the Second World War and then went to Liverpool for a refit. This was interrupted in June 1940 when Strathaird was ordered to take part in Operation Ariel to evacuate British and Allied personnel from western France. Strathaird evacuated 6,000 civilians and troops from the port of Brest. She remained a troop ship until the end of 1946 when she was returned to P&O.

P&O had Vickers-Armstrong refit and overhaul Strathaird, starting in 1947 and completing work in January 1948. Her capacity for first class passengers was increased to 573 and her tourist class accommodation was reduced to 496. This reduced her total passenger capacity from 1,166 to 1,069. Her dummy first and third funnels were removed, which made Strathaird look more like her later sisters Stratheden, Strathallan and Strathmore.

In 1954 P&O had Strathaird refitted again. First class was abolished and all accommodation was made tourist class, which increased total passenger capacity from 1,069 to 1,252. Strathaird made her first departure from Tilbury in her new form on 8 April 1954.

At the beginning of the 1960s Strathnaver and Strathaird were almost three decades old and no longer reliable enough for mail and passenger service, so P&O replaced both ships with SS Canberra. P&O sold Strathnaver and Strathaird for scrap to Shun Fung Ironworks of Hong Kong. Strathaird left Tilbury on 17 June 1961 for Hong Kong, where she became the first of the "Strath" class liners to be scrapped. Strathnaver followed her to the breakers in 1962.