AN INDIAN OCEANCROSSING
Shortly after the end of World War II the British India Steam Navigation Company ordered a series of three passenger/cargo carriers for its ‘Apcar’ service between Calcutta and Japan. The ships, delivered by British builders as Sangola, Sirdhana and Santhia, were of about 8,600grt in size and offered several ranges of accommodation, from Saloon class to Deck class, along with considerable space for both dry and refrigerated cargo in four holds. Propulsion was provided by two four-cylinder Doxford diesels of 5,900bhp driving twin screws to give a relatively slow but economic service speed of 14 knots.
Their use on the Apcar route was short-lived once reliable air service was established, and all three were rerouted to services from India to the Persian Gulf and East Africa by the early 1960s. This was shortly after one of British India’s four D class ships on the Persian Gulf run, Dara, had been destroyed by a terrorist’s bomb off Dubai in 1961.
One of the triplets, Sangola, which had been badly damaged in a grounding incident at Calcutta in 1953, was sent for demolition during 1963 while another, Santhia, was sold to the Indian government to trade between Bombay and Mombasa as State of Haryana. Sirdhana, the last of the three under BI colours, soldiered on in both Gulf and East Africa service until she was retired and broken up for scrap at Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1972 (see SM, Feb 1988).
In June 1970, after coming for Bombay, but was informed by the clerk at the company’s Mackenzie Dalgety agency that the ship had already sailed. Noting that the next vessel for Bombay would be the Shipping Corporation of India’s 8,908grt , he suggested I visit their offices at Renmar House to enquire about passage.
