This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan’s Merchant Navy, created shortly after the country’s independence from Britain in 1947. In that year several Muslim families involved in shipping moved from India to Karachi, where they established the new nation’s first shipping lines. Other companies were formed by leading Muslim industrialists, either to trade between the two separated wings of Pakistan or to carry goods, such as Pakistani grown cotton, overseas.
One firm, the Pan-Islamic Steamship Company, was established specifically to transport Muslim pilgrims on their Hajj to Saudi Arabia. These companies were nationalised in 1974 to create the state-owned Pakistan Shipping Corporation (PSC), which was merged with the government’s own National Shipping Corporation in 1979 to form today’s Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC).
EAST & WEST STEAMSHIP
One of the first Pakistani shipping lines to be created after independence was the East & West Steamship Company, established by the Cowasjee family at Karachi in August 1947. The Cowasjees had chartered vessels for many years through their bunkering and stevedoring company, Cowasjee & Sons, and in 1946 purchased their first vessel, the 4,729grt Seringa, built in 1913 as Falls City for Wm Reardon Smith & Sons.
After Pakistan became independent, the family began acquiring a number of war surplus Indian naval trawlers, several of which were converted for coastal trading. One of these, the 1942-built Fatima (ex-HMIS Shillong), became the first ship to be listed on the newly established Port of Registry at Karachi. Thereafter, a series of elderly steamers, all built in the 1920s, were placed in service between east and west Pakistan.
Two of these, the 6,167grt (ex-) and 6,640grt (ex-), were later lost, the former going down (ex-) was obtained and shortly thereafter the 9,568grt passenger/cargo carrier (ex-), the latter coming from Germany’s Hamburg Süd. This vessel, designed for service between Europe and South America, had cabin accommodation for 28 passengers and was refitted to carry 250 in economy class. Her success on the run between Karachi and Chittagong spurred East & West to order its first and only newbuild, the 11,046grt , delivered by Scotland’s Burntisland Shipbuilding Company in 1966, eight years prior to the company’s nationalisation.
