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and had political and scientific objectives. It was initiated by the King of Denmark, Christian VIII,
with its main purposes the handover of the Danish colonies in India, following their sale to the
British East India Company, as well as a final Danish attempt to explore and recolonise the
Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The Galathea left Copenhagen on 24 June 1845 and, after a provisioning stop at
Madeira, sailed southwards around Africa to India, where she visited Tranquebar,
Pondicherry, Madras and Calcutta. In Calcutta an additional ship, the steamboat
Ganges, was purchased and the carrier Christine hired, to assist with work in the
Nicobar Islands. Considerable time and effort was expended at the Nicobars; most of
January 1846 was spent in the northern Nicobar islands, and February in the southern.
The TSS (Turbine Steam Ship)Maharaja, a ship built in 1879 was on a slightly
different route this time. It went south to Madras, with it usual load of
Bengali and Punjabi convicts, together with inanimate provisions and mail
loaded from the EIC and the P&T in Calcutta. At Madras, it loaded a motley
group of confused souls, clothed in no more than dirty single dhotis and small
bundles of belongings.
MS Dilwara
London-registered passenger/cargo ship "Rajula" (8,496 tons gross, completed November 1926 by Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow) arriving
at Penang in May 1971. As delivered she was certified to carry a total of 5,265 passengers (5,113 of them unberthed) but by the time of this
photo the number was down to 1,899 (including 426 bunked & 1,301 unberthed). Apart from war service she spent her whole life with B.I. on
the Madras-Straits service (the last 2 years being under the management of P&O General Cargo Division). In October 1973 she was sold to the
Shipping Corporation of India, renamed "Rangat" & placed on their Andaman & Nicobar Islands service but was laid up only 7 month later & 3
months after that (August 1974) was sold to Bombay shipbreakers.
The ocean liners such as S.S. Rajula, and its rival, The State of Madras, and much later their illustrious
successor, M.V. Chidambaram, used to call at Penang fortnightly on their 'Straits Service' between Madras (now
known as Chennai), Penang, Port Klang and Singapore.
Unfortunately, the Chidambaram was to last only 13 years in the Straits Service. On Feb 12, 1985, she was
carrying 702 passengers and a crew of 186 when she caught fire 500km off the Malabar coast of India. The
stricken liner was a heart-rending sight when she finally limped into Madras harbour with bodies floating on
her water-logged deck. The toll was 34 dead with 13 Malaysians among them.
Bombay-registered passenger/cargo ship "State of Haryana" (8,908 tons gross, built by Barclay, Curle & Co Ltd., Whiteinch,
Glasgow), owned by the Shipping Corporation of India, at Ballard Pier, Bombay, in January 1968. She was completed in November
1950 as "Santhia" for the British India S.N. Co. of London (see picture #22595) & bought by S.C.I. in December 1966. She then ran
on the Bombay/East Africa service until 1974 when she was transferred to the Andaman Islands service under the name
"Nancowry" (not to be confused with the later ship of the same name, the ex-B.I. "Karanja"; see picture #21550) until reverting to
her old name & being laid up in 1976. She was scrapped in Bombay in 1977.
STATE OF BOMBAY
M V ANDAMAN
Indian passenger/cargo ship "Nancowry" (10,294 tons gross, built 1948 by Alexander Stephen &
Sons Ltd. Linthouse, Glasgow & owned by Shipping Corporation of India) at Dammam, Saudi
Arabia, in January 1978. She was built at "Karanja" for British India Steam Nav. Co. of London &
bought by S.C.I. in 1976. She was broken up in Bombay in 1988.
Bombay-registered passenger ship "Akbar" (6,600 tong gross, built 1972 by Helsingr Skibs. & Msk., Helsingr, Denmark), owned
by Mogul Line Ltd., arriving at Mina Salman jetty, Bahrain, in July 1972. She was built to operate as a pilgrim ship with 80 1st class
passengers & 1,500 pilgrims or as a general cargo ship with 12 passengers only. In 1986 Mogul Line was merged into the Shipping
Corporation of India, for whom she is still operating (mid-2013) on the Indian mainland to Port Blair (Andaman Is.) service; her
present passenger capacity is given as 121 cabin & 1,414 bunk/deck.
M V Harshavardhana
S S princess wrecked on North Sentinel Island one of the Andaman Islands lies
to the west of the southern part of South Andaman Island.