Schoolboy cruises on the SS Uganda
2007-01-21 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipshttp://www.ssuganda.co.uk/educ/index.html
"Schoolboy cruises were pioneered in the UK during the 1930's using troopships that were idle during the summer. Inevitably this venture was stopped by the Second World War and unfortunately it was not resumed when peace returned. However, when the Government announced that it would cease trooping by sea in 1960, the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd. (known as B.I.) decided to convert one of its troopships, MS Dunera to a permanent educational cruise ship.
MS Dunera, of 11,162 tons and built in 1937, was converted to a floating school with dormitory accommodation for the pupils, classrooms, a lecture theatre/cinema, a library and deck space for sports, together with cabin accommodation for teachers and independent cabin passengers. She set off on her first cruise from Greenock on the 12th April 1961 and completed a further 14 cruises that year.
Although initial school bookings were poor, B.I. demonstrated their faith in the venture by introducing a second ship the following year. The MS Devonia, formerly the MS Devonshire of the Bibby Line, was a near sister of the MS Dunera. As the educational cruising scheme developed momentum, and pupils had time to save and/or earn money towards their fares, loadings improved and B.I. introduced their third and largest ship, the 20,527 ton SS Nevasa in 1965. Educational cruising reached its peak with around 60 cruises each year.
However, the MS Dunera and MS Devonia were both approaching 30 years of age and becoming expensive to maintain. Hence the decision to replace them with the SS Uganda that was becoming redundant on the company's East African service. In contrast with the three previous educational cruise ships, which were all former troopships with mess areas that needed relatively little modification to form dormitory accommodation, the SS Uganda required a major conversion. Work was carried out by Howaldtswerke AG at Hamburg. Most of her former cargo holds were converted to the student areas and the upper decks were extended to provide additional cabin accommodation. Moreover the quadrupling from around 300 passengers to a total of 1,200 students and cabin passengers necessitated a substantial increase in the galley, laundry, fresh water and electrical generation capacities. Her tonnage had increased from 14,430 to 16,607 tons. "
http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/KenUg.html
Educational cruising was not new to BI for they had been organising 'schoolboy cruises' as far back as the 1930's. They were not a permanent occupation for BI vessels in those days, but were run in the summer months prior to the start of the trooping seasons. The students slept and lived in the mess decks fitted with hammocks as used by the servicemen.
The first 'schoolboy cruises' were in the BI troopship of 1912, Neuralia (9,082grt).
They had been organised by a retired post office official from Edinburgh, George White. George White had the idea of using a suitable passenger ship for schoolboy cruises and he discussed this with some Scottish headmasters. As a result Mr George Robertson, headmaster of George Watson's College, formed the Secondary Schools Cruise Association which later became the Scottish Secondary Schools Travel Trust. Charter arrangements were negotiated through James Little & Co Ltd, a firm of shipbrokers on the Baltic Exchange. The first cruise, between 5th July and 8th August 1932, was such a success that others followed. In 1935 the cost of a 14-day cruise was £5! The old Nevesa (9,070grt) os 1913 joined Neuralia and, in 1936, they were replaced by the newly built Dilwara (12,555grt) and Dunera (12,615grt). In 1938n the deterioration in the political scene necessitated an extended trooping season and this brought an end to the 'schoolboy cruises'. . I wonder how many of them travelled on them later as servicemen, perhaps on their last voyage before making the ultimate sacrifice.
It was these pre-war cruises which provided the germ of an idea in 1961, when a decision by the government to discontinue trooping by sea suddenly made all the troopships redundant. BI had to find an alternative employment for the vessels, or sell them.
The school cruises of the 1960's were to be very different from their earlier counterparts. Then there had been no formal education on board, they had simply enabled the students of the 1930's to travel abroad. This time there would be proper facilities for classes and lectures and purpose built accommodation. The first ship to run a post-war cruise was the Dunera in April 1961. After a slow start the idea of educational cruising had really caught on by 1963. By the time Devonia (12,795grt ex-Bibby Line Devonshire) had joined Dunera, and both ships were well booked. One factor that helped to make the ships a success was the first class accommodation had been left intact, and additional revenue was obtained from the 190 full-fare paying passengers who lived entirely separately from the students. Although the profits for the company were marginal, the growth in demand from education authorities and schools, at home and abroad, encouraged BI to take the decision to convert the troopship Nevasa for educational cruises. Nevasa had been built in 1956, and, after only six years of service, she was laid up in the river Fal. This bold move proved that BI were convinced there was a long-term future for educational cruises.
....
Her first class accommodation and, fortunately, all the beautiful decoration and woodwork were left intact. This, and the forward swimming pool, was for the use of the fare paying passengers. Further aft all the cargo holds and handling gear were gone, and in their place were 43 dormitories fitted with two tier-bunks. There were 14 well-equipped lecture rooms, seating over 330 students at a time, and also a library and information room. The tourist class dining saloon was now a mess hall, fitted for cafeteria service with seating for over 300 students at one sitting. Right aft, on the promenade deck, was the student's common room with large panoramic windows. Above this, at the after end of the boat deck, was the students' swimming pool and sports deck. The students' dormitory accommodation was totally separate from that of the cabin passengers, although the assembly hall/cinema, situated on the boat deck, was shared by all the passengers. It could seat 400 people at one time. This meant that the cabin passengers did not need to improvise and use their ballroom for film shows. Additionally, the whole ship was fitted with air conditioning which added to the comfort of both passengers and crew. Uganda could now carry 920 students and 304 cabin class passengers on her 'voyages of discovery'.
Uganda sailed from Southampton on her first voyage in her new role on 27th February 1968 with over 860 students from the counties of Norfolk and Northumberland and 50 from Czechoslovakia. Her cabin accommodation was almost full as well. This cruise took her into the Mediterranean with calls at Athens, Istanbul and Heraklion and it would not be long before the ship became a very familiar sight at ports all round the Mediterranean Sea. During these early years in her new career Uganda operated in conjunction with Nevasa. In the summer months she would sail from UK ports on cruises to the Atlantic Isle and the Iberian Peninsula, and in mid-summer, to the Baltic ports and the North Cape. Sometimes she would run charter cruises for various organisations, one of the most popular being for the National Trust for Scotland, when she would call at lesser known ports round the Scottish coast. On these chartered voyages cabin and dormitory accommodation were usually both occupied by adult passengers, all of them sharing the cabin class public rooms. In the autumn of each year Uganda would undertake a positioning cruise into the Mediterranean and operate fly cruises during the winter months, usually undergoing an annual overhaul at Marseilles.
For Uganda's cabin passengers there was the plush comfort of the ship's original first class accommodation, which, fortunately, was unspoilt. The wooden veneers, and the atmosphere of 'colonial splendour', so different from the 'plastic' cruise ships that were being built, soon became very popular and it was not long before the Uganda had built up a regular cruising clientele. For them there was also the added interest of the ports of call, all of them directed towards the educational aspect for the students. One example of this was when, in November 1973 she visited the locations of many epic sea battles. The battles which took place in the Dardanelles, off Malta, Greece and Crete and during the North African campaign in the Second World War, were all fully described by the distinguished naval historian and author, Captain Eric Bush DSO, DSC, RN (ret'd).
"Schoolboy cruises were pioneered in the UK during the 1930's using troopships that were idle during the summer. Inevitably this venture was stopped by the Second World War and unfortunately it was not resumed when peace returned. However, when the Government announced that it would cease trooping by sea in 1960, the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd. (known as B.I.) decided to convert one of its troopships, MS Dunera to a permanent educational cruise ship.
MS Dunera, of 11,162 tons and built in 1937, was converted to a floating school with dormitory accommodation for the pupils, classrooms, a lecture theatre/cinema, a library and deck space for sports, together with cabin accommodation for teachers and independent cabin passengers. She set off on her first cruise from Greenock on the 12th April 1961 and completed a further 14 cruises that year.
Although initial school bookings were poor, B.I. demonstrated their faith in the venture by introducing a second ship the following year. The MS Devonia, formerly the MS Devonshire of the Bibby Line, was a near sister of the MS Dunera. As the educational cruising scheme developed momentum, and pupils had time to save and/or earn money towards their fares, loadings improved and B.I. introduced their third and largest ship, the 20,527 ton SS Nevasa in 1965. Educational cruising reached its peak with around 60 cruises each year.
However, the MS Dunera and MS Devonia were both approaching 30 years of age and becoming expensive to maintain. Hence the decision to replace them with the SS Uganda that was becoming redundant on the company's East African service. In contrast with the three previous educational cruise ships, which were all former troopships with mess areas that needed relatively little modification to form dormitory accommodation, the SS Uganda required a major conversion. Work was carried out by Howaldtswerke AG at Hamburg. Most of her former cargo holds were converted to the student areas and the upper decks were extended to provide additional cabin accommodation. Moreover the quadrupling from around 300 passengers to a total of 1,200 students and cabin passengers necessitated a substantial increase in the galley, laundry, fresh water and electrical generation capacities. Her tonnage had increased from 14,430 to 16,607 tons. "
http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/KenUg.html
Educational cruising was not new to BI for they had been organising 'schoolboy cruises' as far back as the 1930's. They were not a permanent occupation for BI vessels in those days, but were run in the summer months prior to the start of the trooping seasons. The students slept and lived in the mess decks fitted with hammocks as used by the servicemen.
The first 'schoolboy cruises' were in the BI troopship of 1912, Neuralia (9,082grt).
They had been organised by a retired post office official from Edinburgh, George White. George White had the idea of using a suitable passenger ship for schoolboy cruises and he discussed this with some Scottish headmasters. As a result Mr George Robertson, headmaster of George Watson's College, formed the Secondary Schools Cruise Association which later became the Scottish Secondary Schools Travel Trust. Charter arrangements were negotiated through James Little & Co Ltd, a firm of shipbrokers on the Baltic Exchange. The first cruise, between 5th July and 8th August 1932, was such a success that others followed. In 1935 the cost of a 14-day cruise was £5! The old Nevesa (9,070grt) os 1913 joined Neuralia and, in 1936, they were replaced by the newly built Dilwara (12,555grt) and Dunera (12,615grt). In 1938n the deterioration in the political scene necessitated an extended trooping season and this brought an end to the 'schoolboy cruises'. . I wonder how many of them travelled on them later as servicemen, perhaps on their last voyage before making the ultimate sacrifice.
It was these pre-war cruises which provided the germ of an idea in 1961, when a decision by the government to discontinue trooping by sea suddenly made all the troopships redundant. BI had to find an alternative employment for the vessels, or sell them.
The school cruises of the 1960's were to be very different from their earlier counterparts. Then there had been no formal education on board, they had simply enabled the students of the 1930's to travel abroad. This time there would be proper facilities for classes and lectures and purpose built accommodation. The first ship to run a post-war cruise was the Dunera in April 1961. After a slow start the idea of educational cruising had really caught on by 1963. By the time Devonia (12,795grt ex-Bibby Line Devonshire) had joined Dunera, and both ships were well booked. One factor that helped to make the ships a success was the first class accommodation had been left intact, and additional revenue was obtained from the 190 full-fare paying passengers who lived entirely separately from the students. Although the profits for the company were marginal, the growth in demand from education authorities and schools, at home and abroad, encouraged BI to take the decision to convert the troopship Nevasa for educational cruises. Nevasa had been built in 1956, and, after only six years of service, she was laid up in the river Fal. This bold move proved that BI were convinced there was a long-term future for educational cruises.
....
Her first class accommodation and, fortunately, all the beautiful decoration and woodwork were left intact. This, and the forward swimming pool, was for the use of the fare paying passengers. Further aft all the cargo holds and handling gear were gone, and in their place were 43 dormitories fitted with two tier-bunks. There were 14 well-equipped lecture rooms, seating over 330 students at a time, and also a library and information room. The tourist class dining saloon was now a mess hall, fitted for cafeteria service with seating for over 300 students at one sitting. Right aft, on the promenade deck, was the student's common room with large panoramic windows. Above this, at the after end of the boat deck, was the students' swimming pool and sports deck. The students' dormitory accommodation was totally separate from that of the cabin passengers, although the assembly hall/cinema, situated on the boat deck, was shared by all the passengers. It could seat 400 people at one time. This meant that the cabin passengers did not need to improvise and use their ballroom for film shows. Additionally, the whole ship was fitted with air conditioning which added to the comfort of both passengers and crew. Uganda could now carry 920 students and 304 cabin class passengers on her 'voyages of discovery'.
Uganda sailed from Southampton on her first voyage in her new role on 27th February 1968 with over 860 students from the counties of Norfolk and Northumberland and 50 from Czechoslovakia. Her cabin accommodation was almost full as well. This cruise took her into the Mediterranean with calls at Athens, Istanbul and Heraklion and it would not be long before the ship became a very familiar sight at ports all round the Mediterranean Sea. During these early years in her new career Uganda operated in conjunction with Nevasa. In the summer months she would sail from UK ports on cruises to the Atlantic Isle and the Iberian Peninsula, and in mid-summer, to the Baltic ports and the North Cape. Sometimes she would run charter cruises for various organisations, one of the most popular being for the National Trust for Scotland, when she would call at lesser known ports round the Scottish coast. On these chartered voyages cabin and dormitory accommodation were usually both occupied by adult passengers, all of them sharing the cabin class public rooms. In the autumn of each year Uganda would undertake a positioning cruise into the Mediterranean and operate fly cruises during the winter months, usually undergoing an annual overhaul at Marseilles.
For Uganda's cabin passengers there was the plush comfort of the ship's original first class accommodation, which, fortunately, was unspoilt. The wooden veneers, and the atmosphere of 'colonial splendour', so different from the 'plastic' cruise ships that were being built, soon became very popular and it was not long before the Uganda had built up a regular cruising clientele. For them there was also the added interest of the ports of call, all of them directed towards the educational aspect for the students. One example of this was when, in November 1973 she visited the locations of many epic sea battles. The battles which took place in the Dardanelles, off Malta, Greece and Crete and during the North African campaign in the Second World War, were all fully described by the distinguished naval historian and author, Captain Eric Bush DSO, DSC, RN (ret'd).
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Date: 2012-09-23 05:54 pm (UTC)