**COMPLETED** S S Strathnaver

[a chesters]

If this is on the wrong board, could the mods please move it?

I am seeking information about the voyage of the S S Strathnaven which left Bombay India, and got to Southampton 24 June 1940, via Mombassa. I assume that it would have gone around the Cape, as Suez is not mentioned in the information I have gathered.

Where could I find out when it left Bombay?

I have got some information about its speed, 22 Knots, but as it was wartime, would it have been part of a convoy, or was it fast enough to go it alone.

My interest is because my father was on board, and married in the November of that year.

Any assistance would be very gratefully received

A Chesters

[seaweed]

I guess that the information you have gleaned is from the The passenger arrivals on Ancestry.

 The easiest way to find out when she left Bombay is to download her WW2 movement card.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/browse/C15950
I cannot give you a direct link as it seems the TNA computer is down for maintenance work.

That said. Troopships sometimes do not have a movement card due to security issues. If this is the case you would need to look at her logbook for the dates in question. Unfortunately this is not available online. If you cannot find the Movement Card for STRATHNAVEN, make another post and I will endeavour to tell you the procedure for finding her logbook.

[a chesters]

seaweed
Thank you very much for that information.

I am not sure if she was a troop ship, as my father was a Methodist Minister, but that could, I suppose, mean that he could have been acting as a chaplain on the voyage. He was also a high school principal at the time.

[barryd]

If scrapping in 1962 was a happy ending then SS Strathnaver had one. A website details some of the wartime exploits of the ship.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/220099/thread/1218531427/last-1313569667/S+S+Strathnaver

[seaweed]

A little more.
 Seems she sailed from Bombay  as an independent 24th May 1940. She sailed via the Cape and Freetown.
http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?search.php?vessel=STRATHNAVER~armain
She did not become a troopship until 1941 so your father as a Minister would probably have been just an ordinary passenger returning from India.
Her logbook for the duration of the voyage is lodged with the National Archive under her official number 162619. It may or may not give details of the voyage, depends on how fastidious the writer was. You would need to visit Kew to view.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8197065&CATLN=6&Highlight=%2C162619&accessmethod=0

[a chesters]

Thank you both very much for that information.

barryd, that website gives some very interesting information on the general wartime voyages

seaweed, the first website you gave, gives the details for the voyage my father was on. I noticed that she was in Bombay for only one day, a very quick turnaround I would think.

Unfortunately, as i live in Australia, I cannot go to Kew to check the logbook. I will have to try to prevail on my brother, who still lives in UK, to go and have a look.

Again, many thanks for your interest and help.

[seaweed]

She arrived in Bombay on the 23rd and sailed on the 24th, a possible period of 48 hours seems unexceptional to me. Her logbook should give exact times of arrival and departure.

[a chesters]

Thank you for that seaweed.

As a non sailor, in any form, I have no idea regarding turnaround times.

I suppose I should have had some idea, as the cruise liners which come into Sydney seem to go quickly.