Canberra (Greek Line)

Το Υ/Κ ΚΑΜΠΕΡΑ της Greek Line
Πηγή : www.simplonpc.co.uk/GreekLinePCs.html

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 128220

Kαι όταν πρωτοαγοράστηκε, το 1947 και ναυλώθηκε για πλόες στις Δυτικές Ινδίες (Καραϊβική)

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39066
πηγή : Ναυτικά Χρονικά

Thanks Toxotis and Ellinis for bringing up Canberra of the Greek Line. Canberra was a 7,707-ton ocean liner built at Alexander Stephen & Sons in Glasgow, the same shipyards that built Olympia in 1952. She was launched on November 9, 1912 and arrived in Australian waters in April 1913.

She was first placed in a route between Melbourne and Cairns in NE Australia, a natural base fro excursions to the Great Coral reef. At that time, she had space for 180 frst class, 180 second calss and 60 third class passengers. From October 1917 to September 1919 she was requisitioned and served as a troopship. She was back in service in 1920.

In 1925 she caught fire in Sydney and was kept off service for one year. She went back to service i teh east coast of Australia from June 1926 to June 1941 when she was again requisitioned by the navy. She was released in 1947 and was deemed unworthy of further use. She was bought by Chinese interests and towed to Singapore where she was sold to the Greek Line. At the age of 35 she was moved to Greece, refitted and began operating between Naples and Piraeus to South America. But in August 1949 she started serving the Naples to Sydney route

Her "Greek days" were relatively short, from 1948 to 1954! She was sold to Dominican Republic interests, named Espana and placed in the Spain to West Indies down to Trinidad and Tobago route. But by 1959 she was too old and was showing it... She was scrapped in September 1959.

Here is a photograph of Canberra in her early days.

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39105

One more photograph from her early days in Cairns.

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39107

A nice painting of Canberra in the late 1930s by Stan Stefaniak

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39108

Canberra was not a successful ship for the Greek Line. She was small, slow, a bit dated (approaching 40 years of age) and just simply not liked by the emigrants to Australia. Some even called her ugly...

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39109

in 1954, the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo had the fine idea to "contract" 5,000 poor Spaniards to work in the Dominican Republic. He paid their round-trip transportation, gave them free land and animals, etc. It was a dream... For this purpose he bought Canberra and named her Espana...

Here is the Spanish newspaper (December 27, 1954) of the city of Valencia Levante describing the departure so some of these lucky Spaniards... Espana is shown as well

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39112

And here is the description of Espana from a Spanish site. The postacrd is that of the Greek Line!

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 39113

Να ακόμα μία φωτογραφία από τις λίγες που υπάρχουν. Από το shipsnostalgia.

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 43239

Το Canberra ρυμουλκούμενο.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/StateLibQld_1_128407_Canberra_%28ship%29.jpg

one of the first icon of Goulandris Greek Line:

Plan of CANBERRA

Συνημμένο Αρχείο 197351

source ebay international