There must be many, many Malayans with fond memories of the old Kedah. She used to steam from Singapore to Penang in 19½ hours while the mail train took 28 hours. Although the standard of comfort aboard was high, the ship was designed for war as well as peace-- her speed could allow her to maintain station with destroyer patrols, on which she acted as a communications vessel.
Her best peace-time trip from Singapore to Penang was done at an average speed of 20.4 knots.
The Straits Times, 13 January 1953.
She summed up the interwar prosperity and ordered world of interwar British Malaya that the war would forever change and in which she did her part to win. And enjoyed a notable post-war career as the first passenger ship of the new nation of Israel almost 80 years ago.
Join us on a voyage (but a short one, just one night!) on "The Little Queen of the Malacca Straits"
T.S.S. KEDAH
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| T.S.S. Kedah on trials, the fastest (20 knots) merchantman of her size (2,499 grt) in the British Merchant Navy in the inter-war era. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
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| T.S.S. Kedah, by Laurence Dunn. |
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| After two decades, Kedah became Israel's veritable Ship of State, s.s. Kedmah. Credit: ssmaritime.com |
Hail, Mother! East and West must seek my aid
Ere the spent gear shall dare the ports afar.
The second doorway of the wide world's trade
Is mine to loose or bar.
Singapore stanza from The Song of the Cities by Rudyard Kipling.
Affectionately dubbed "The Little White Ships" by Malayans, the Straits Steamship vessels contributed in no small measure to the opening up of Malaya.
The Straits Times, 11 May 1951.
One of the features of Malayan ports most likely to catch the eye of even an unobservant newcomer is the number of small vessels with blue and white black-topped funnels, They vary in size from quite tiny craft, suitable for negotiating the bars which the small tidal ports and for penetrating winding rivers, to vessels of over 2,000 tons which trade between the larger ports and which are fitted to carry passengers with the maximum comfort in tropical areas. Painted white, and spotlessly clean, these vessels more correspond to private yachts than ordinary commercial craft.
British Malaya, May 1927.
In the British Empire, uniquely created by maritime enterprise and maintained by seagoing, coastal and river commerce, whose true flag was indeed the Red Ensign, nowhere else did British merchantmen from crack P&O mailships and sturdy Blue Funnel cargoliners to 75-ton coasters of "The Mosquito Fleet," play more of a role than in Southeast Asia, especially the Straits Settlements on the Malay peninsula. The Malacca Straits, Kipling's "second doorway," after the Straits of Gibraltar, was Britain's portal to the riches of Southeast Asia off whose sandy, jungle fringed foreshores plied one of the most forgotten yet important of all companies that made up the British Merchant Navy: the Straits Steamship Company.
What was the finest vessel ever built for coastal service in Malaya from Singapore to Penang, Kedah, figured in name at the very onset of the British presence in the region in the late 1770s which had long been under Portuguese and Dutch influence. The East India Co., aiming to secure trade routes between India and China, soon set upon the Malayan peninsula and the Straits of Malacca but it was another company, Jourdain, Sulivan and de Souza of Madras who sponsored Captain Francis Light to approach the Sultan of Kedah to open local markets to the British. It was trade first but military protection next and in response to threats from Siam to the north, the Sultan sought British defenses and ceded the island of Penang to the British in 1786 and later adjoining territory on the mainland. So it was that Kedah and Penang were already set pieces of the puzzle.
Next and most importantly, Singapore, at the very end of peninsula and its own island, was established by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 when he took advantage of a succession dispute within the governing sultanate and in recognition of one sultan over another, gained permission to build a British trading post at this strategic port. In 1824 the British and Dutch formalised a treaty dividing the region between themselves and transferring Malacca to British administration.
The inevitable expansion of British control throughout the Malayan peninsula continued into the 1800s and in 1826 the region administered as the Straits Settlements and finally in 1867, control of the old East India Co., which had collapsed after the Indian Mutiny, led to the creation of the Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements. The northern provinces, including Kedah, passed from Siamese control to British in 1909.
This was potent political power but as with everything in the British Empire, production and profit and the development of natural and imported resources reigned supreme in newly British Malaya as the Industrial Revolution hit its stride. Here, as with elsewhere in the Empire, labour in the form of Chinese immigrants, had to be imported as the local Malays were largely engaged in traditional agriculture and fishing trades.
In Malaya, the one great native natural resource and first to be exploited was tin. First extracted by imported Chinese labour, increasing mechanisation including massive floating dredges in the early 20th century put extraction on an industrial scale and by the 1920s, British Malaya produced over half the world's tin supply.
But it was rubber that became king with the development of the motorcar and again like so much of the Empire, a resource that was not even native to Malaya (just as coffee is not to Kenya) but imported by the British, one Henry Ridley, and found to thrive in the local climate and soil. By the 1920s, Malaya and Dutch Sumatra produced most of the world's rubber and British Malaya was, after the First World War, the most prosperous and profitable of all Britain non settler colonies.
Welding the wealth of Malayan rubber and tin into the Imperial chain of commerce was severely impacted by the colony's terrain of dense jungle in the south and mountain passes north and both of the principal ports-- Penang and Singapore-- be situated on islands unconnected with the mainland. Roads were poor and the development of railways lagged owing to the difficult terrain. What Malaya did have was coastline-- all 1,285 miles of it and so it was that coastal shipping came to play an enormous role in its trade, transport and development, more than any single British territory.
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| Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt (left) and family. Credit: Singapore National Archives. |
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| Two of the Chinese business magnates who helped found Straits Steamship Co.: left: Tan Keong Saik and right: Tan Jiak Kim. Credit: The Straits Times Annual, 1 January 1968. |
Supreme among what came to be known collectively as "The Mosquito Fleet" was the Straits Steamship Company of Singapore whose role as lifeline of the colony is not reflected in its public awareness, indeed there were few lines more devoid of self-generated publicity. Reflecting the multi-cultural aspects of Malay and its close ties to the neighbouring Dutch colony of Sumatra, Straits was founded on 20 January 1890 by Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt, the senior partner of W. Mansfield & Co. Ltd. in Singapore, who were agent for Alfred Holt (Blue Funnel Line) and Chinese merchants Tan Kiak Kim, Lee Cheng Yan, Lim Ho Pua and Tan Keong Saik, A. P. Adams, D. J. Mathens and J. Burkinshaw, also of Mansfield.
Straits' initial fleet of five small coasters-- Sappho, Will o' the Wisp, Malacca, Billiton and Hye Leong-- thrived and the fleet and fortunes of the company prospered with and fostered the economic growth of Malaya, the bill of lading (including coffee, pepper, tobacco, rice), loaded by the ships' own longshoremen coolies, as varied as any carried afloat. Most of its initial trade was on the west coast carrying tin ore from Perak and Selango to the tin smelters on Pulau Brani on Singapore island. Much of the human element of the company, both executive and shipboard, originated from Malacca and the challenging aspects of the many coastal "ports" (many were no more than strips of sandy beach) rendered Straits seamanship unrivalled in the merchant navy.
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| Empire Marketing Board poster: "Penang, British Malaya" by Kenneth D. Shoesmith. Credit: Bonhams. |
When it came to passenger trade, it mainly Chinese labourers who came to the rubber estates and tin mines and as many as 250,000 Chinese passed in and out of Singapore every year and for many the final leg of a long journey was made in Straits ships, transhipping often from Blue Funnel line. In his history of Straits Steamship Co., Home Port: Singapore, Tregonning wrote of the line's deck passengers:
A most astonishing number [of people] were found lying on their rattan mats or squatting in groups on the decks of Straits ships.. Possibly no other line in the world could match the assortment. It might have a Burmese woman next to an Iban timber-cutter; an Anglo-Burmese railway official next to a Brunei fisherman; a Buddhist monk from Thailand next to a Muslim hadji; Sikhs, Malays; dapper Vietnamese; a half naked Dyak and a Dusan policeman; a Murat and a Suluk; a Javanese and an Achinese; Muslims returning from Mecca, a Nepalese seller of precious stone, a Tamil rubber tapper, an Arab coming from his shop in Tunis, and above all, Chinese.
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| Empire Marketing Board poster: "The Market Garden of the Tropics: Malayan Pineapples" being harvest by Chinese workers. |
The Straits S.S. Co. was a firm of great ethnic diversity. Its board was Sino-British, its shore-side technical and managerial staff comprised Britons, Eurasians and Chinese, its shore labour Chinese and Malays, it sea-staff Britons, Chinese and Malay.
Fiddler's Green, The Great Squandering: 1921-2010, Vol. Five of A History of the British Merchant Navy.
The first newbuildings for the line, built in Britain, were the 900-ton Juno and the 1,200-grt Cilo in 1894.
Bogaraardt was succeeded by C.H. Laird, of the famous shipbuilding firm, (1896) and D.K. Sommerville (1902) and henceforth Straits had a Sino-Anglo management and board. In 1908 Caledon Shipbuilding completed the 1,279-grt, 244 ft. x 35 ft. Ipoh and three years later the 1,451-grt, 274 ft. x 38 ft. Klang for the Penang and Port Swettingham routes, each carrying about 65 First Class and some 600 deck passengers.
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| Ipoh of 1908. Credit: facebook. |
This new tonnage was of a specialised character, necessitated by the peculiarities of the ports to which the vessels traded. The ships had to be of restricted draft in order to pass the shallow bars of the rivers in Malaya and to give, in addition to cargo, comfortable accommodation for passengers, whose main means of travelling between the port of Malaya was by ship.
The Straits Times, 11 December 1950.
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| Klang of 1911. Credit: facebook |
With the withdrawal of the German flag feeder services in Southeast Asia at the onset of the First World War, Alfred Holt & Co. acquired Straits Steamship Co. and its 17 ships in 1915 and from 1923 it was managed by Mansfield & Co. which had, of course, played a part in its founding Straits Steamship thrived under Mansfield and the melding of its local services with Blue Funnel had been in place since its inception given the latter dominance in the Far East trades, especially China.
Straits actively acquired rivals including the Eastern Shipping Co. (1922) with routes to Thailand and Burma, the Sarawak Steamship Co. and the Siam Steam Navigation Co. By the beginning of 1922, the Straits Steamship Co. fleet comprised 24 vessels with a combined tonnage of 25,446.
The development of the Malay Peninsula by British interests had begun with tin, initially worked by Chinese immigrant labour but later by tin dredges. By 1930 the rubber production introduced at the turn of the century was immense in value, but while short lengths of road and railway joined the rubber estates and tin-producing areas with the small ports dotted between Singapore and Penang. Neither road or railway ran longitudinally down the sparsely populated peninsula. Even on Singapore island itself, outside the environs of the thriving port-city, nature was largely undisturbed a century after Stamford Raffles had raise the Union flag. Everything went by sea. And most was carried by the fleet of the Straits Steamship Co. managed from its headquarters in Ocean Building close to the landing steps at Collyer Quay.
The close association of this company under its parent, Mansfield & Co., with Alfred Holt's Ocean S.S. Co. in Liverpool was betrayed not only by the name of the head office but the funnel colours of its ships. These small vessels bore the distinctive black and blue of Holt's ocean-going liners, with the lower third white, so there was no mistaking the connection with a Semprong Kapal Blau of the larger line.
Fiddler's Green, The Great Squandering: 1921-2010, Vol. Five of A History of the British Merchant Navy.
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| Once a landmark of Singapore's waterfront, the magnificent Ocean Building was pulled down in 1970 for modern office buildings. |
Even if much of world shipping was in the doldrums in the early 1920s, the demand for rubber saw Malaya experiencing more than its share of "The Roaring Twenties" and this was reflected in a rapidly evolving modern Singapore City. A new landmark finished in 1923 was Mansfield-Straits magnificent new Ocean Building (designed by British architect Somers H. Ellis) at the waterfront, opposite Collyer Quay, with its overhanging balconies and tower which earned it the distinction of being the highest structure in the city. Adjacent Clifford Pier, too, was the passenger embarkation point for Straits, with big launches to take one out to the steamer anchor in the Roads overlooked by the Ocean Building.
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| s.s. Ampang (1925), typical of Strait Steamship Co.'s "White Fleet". Credit: National Archives of Singapore. |
Typical of Straits inter-war coastal fleet was Ampang which was built by George Brown, Greenock, in 1925, then dismantled and shipped in component pieces and reassembled at Straits own shipyard at Sungei Myok. At 213 grt (74 net), 118 ft. x 8.2 ft., with a speed of 10 knots from a single-screw reciprocating engine, she was ideal for the more local runs that formed the backbone of the company and indeed the transport and commerce of the inter-war colony. These were the little ships of Straits' "White Fleet" that linked the remote jungle plantations, tin mines and villages into the Imperial chain of commerce and communication carrying the Red Ensign into the heart of Southeast Asia
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| C.E. Wurtzburg, the guiding force of Straits' Steamship Co. in the inter-war years, and the man responsible for the conception of Kedah. Credit: The Straits Times Annual, 1 January 1968. |
The leading light at Mansfield-Straits between the wars was Charles E. Wurtzburg. Graduating with first class honours in Classics from Cambridge, he joined Alfred Holt in 1913, aged 22, and then came out to Singapore and Manfields in 1922 and would eventually succeeded H.E. Somerville as Chairman of the firm in 1932.
By 1932, Straits Steamships were operating 55 of the 81 local steamers out of Singapore.
By the 1930s the the Straits S.S. Co.'s services were extensive, and although only a handful of its ships grossed over 1,000 tons, it shifted an immense amount of cargo, and is, perhaps, the finest example of a fleet providing the feeder traffic that made Singapore the great entrepot it was. The little ships linked a thousand small kampongs (villages) and modest ports with the outside world. Except for a few hours when crossing the Strait of Malacca from Penang to Belawan, or on the run from Singapore to Sandakan in North Borneo, it ships were never out of sight of the land, but the complexities of littoral cabotage or the pilotage in the constantly silting rivers of the hinterland still required specialised skills.
Fiddler's Green, The Great Squandering: 1921-2010, Vol. Five of A History of the British Merchant Navy.
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| Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) poster, 1920s (left) and route map c. 1929 showing the tortuous route from Singapore to Penang (via ferry from Prai) via Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. |
Frustrated by its geography, the development of that other great British Empire transportation mode-- the railway-- lagged in Malaya. It was not until 1923, with the completion of the causeway across from Singapore island to Johor on the mainland that the city was even connected directly to the Federated States Railways network permitting a through rail journey to Penang, except it was not but rather to Prai and later Butterworth to connect with the ferry to Penang Island, the journey on the slow metre-gauge line occupying some 25 to 27 hours (with an average speed of 25 to 35 miles an hour) and another 45 minutes for the ferry. Such was the state of the "improved" connection between the two greatest port cities in British Malaya in the mid 1920s.
Thus lay the inspiration by Mansfield Director Charles E. Wurtzburg in the mid 1920s amid booming economic times with record trade in rubber to offer a s faster, more convenient, even luxurious steamship connection direct from Singapore to Penang directly competing with the railway. To this would be an extension north to Belawan, in north Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, and developed by the Dutch as the principal port for Medan and a thriving harbour for the booming exports of tobacco, rubber and palm oil as well as accessing the refreshing highlands (4,000 ft above sea level) two hours by motor inland with their resort hotels luring British residents away from the steaming summers of Singapore. Straits had long operated a passenger-cargo service between Singapore and Penang but with ships of speeds that made the 350-mile sea journey even longer than that tedious "improved" rail trip.
What emerged from these considerations by mid 1925 was a"flagship" running a bi weekly passenger-mail-cargo service Singapore-Penang-Belawan-Penang-Singapore that could offer a direct Singapore-Penang journey in 21 hours or at least five hours faster by rail, and also provided an express tourist oriented extension to Belawan and the highland resorts of North Sumatra with a vessel not only capable of the speed (18 knots) required but also the comfort of a true luxury vessel, the first of its kind in the coastal services in the entire region. In this respect, it was similar to the same thinking that led to Matson's Malolo on the Hawaii run and Furness Bermuda's Bermuda: an express liner that was as much about reducing passage time between two points as it was developing tourist traffic.
Pipping everyone else with the news, the Liverpool Evening Express reported on 20 February 1926 that Messrs. Alfred Holt, "on behalf of the Straits Steamship Company" had booked an order for "a fast turbine twin-screw steamers for passenger service between Singapore and Penang." Ordered from Vickers, it made for a welcome busy flourish for Barrow which the previous week had won contracts for a Donaldson Line motorship and another 20,000-grt Orient liner (Orford).
The position in Barrow as regards shipbuilding undergone a change for the better during the past week-end. There have been rumours in plenty during the recent past, but very often it is wise to ignore them, for frequently the wish is father to the thought. With only a cruiser, the Cumberland, on the stocks and also a small floating dock for the Cheshire canals, shipbuilding was thin, for in about a month's time the cruiser will come off the stocks. Then the Donaldson Line placed an order for a special motorship for the Western Ocean trade similar to the Moveria which was delivered about twelve months ago. After a short period of waiting the welcome was issued that the Orient Steam Navigation Company has placed an order for another Australian liner similar to the Orama and the Otranto. Following this, comes the official statement that Messrs. Alfred Holt, on behalf of the Straits Steamship Company, have placed an order with Vickers Limited for a fast twin screw passenger vessel for the Straits Settlements and Penang service.
Few particulars are available at the moment in regard to the passenger vessel for the Straits Settlements. Beyond the fact that she has to have a fair amount of power and is intended for fast passenger service little Is known. Particulars will be available in due course.
Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 25 February 1926.
Details of the new ship and her name, Kedah, were first reported on 12 June 1926 by The Straits Times, perhaps coinciding with the laying of her keel at Barrow as yard number 628:
The new steamer which is being built for the Straits Steamship Company by Vickers, Ltd., Glasgow [sic], and which will be named Kedah, will be the largest and fastest vessel in the company's fleet.
The gross tonnage of the Kedah will be about 3,000 tons and her speed will be 18 knots. The intention is to place her on the direct Penang-Singapore run, and she will cover the distance in 21 hours.
Several new features are embodied in the design. The first-class cabins will be on three decks, with an open lounge on the boat deck and closed lounge on the promenade deck.
There will be accommodation for 76 first-class passengers, and no second class accommodation. Twelve single-berth cabins are to be built aft.
The ship will be 310 feet long, and will be driven by turbine engines. She is expected to arrive in local waters towards the end of the year.
The Straits Times.
What progress was made on the vessel and that of Orient Line's Orford, occupying the adjacent slip, ground to a halt that summer when the epic coal strike beginning in May 1926, which led to the General Strike, effectively shut down shipbuilding in Britain owing to a lack of steel, and it was not until that late autumn that meaningful work on both was resumed.
As a consequence, Kedah's completion was delayed seven and a half months and it was estimated that the Coal Strike cost Vickers alone some £40,000 and threw Barrow, like all other shipbuilding towns, into a deep and lingering depression.
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| Kedah pre-launching rendering by Arthur J.W. Burgess. Credit: Brassey's Naval and Shipping Annual, 1926. |
1927
Once construction was finally underway, Barrow shipworkers, eager to be back on the job, made quick work of the little Kedah. On 10 June 1927 it was announced that she would be launched on 16 July by Lady Maxwell, wife of Sir George Maxwell who was, until recently, the Chief Secretary of the Federated Malay States. "Sir George Maxwell was the first Advisor of the State of Kedah, when in 1909 it was taken under British Protection from the Sovereignty of Siam, and therefore Lady Maxwell was appropriately chosen for launching the ship, which bears the name of the State." (Netherlands Indies Review, August 1927).
The launch was in every way a success. The weather was perfect, a summer day of sunshine with practically no wind. The arrangements for the ceremony left nothing to be desired. They were in the hands of Mr. G. W. Barr, the director in charge of Vickers Shipyards, Barrow-in-Furness, and everything went without the slightest hitch.
Punctually, at 12.45 in the afternoon, as Lady Maxwell pulled the lever, the Kedah gracefully took the water without a tremor and, as her whole length cleared the slipway, the beautiful little vessel made an elegant curtsey, amidst the cheers of those present.
British Malaya, April 1927.
Present at the launch, accomplished in fine weather were Sir George Maxwell, K.B.E., C.M.G.; Mr. Oliver Marks, C.M.G. (secretary to the British Malayan Society), Mrs. Marks, Mr. J.R. Hebhouse (director of Alfred Holt and Co.), Mrs. Hobhouse, Mr. D. K.Somerville Gate chairman of the Straits Steamship Company), Mr. C. E. Wurtzburg. MC - (director of the Straits Steamship Company); Commander C.W. Craven (managing director of Vickers, Limited), Mrs. Craven, Mr. G. W. Barr (special director of Vickers, Limited, Barrow-in-Furness), Mrs. Barr, Mr. J. Callander (special director of Vickers, Limited, Barrow-in-Furness), Mrs. Callander, Mr. W. E. Prichard (special director of Vickers, Limited, Barrow-in-Furness), Mr. F. G. Ritchie (consulting engineer in charge of the Kedah), Mrs. Ritchie, Capt. Peter Thomson (commodore captain of the Straits Steamship Company), Mr. J. L. McBurnie (Alfred Holt and Co.), Mrs. McBurnie, Capt. Dawson, Mrs Dawson, Mr. IT. Jackson, Mr. A. M. Kennedy (British Corporation, Ltd.), Mr. J. L.Adam (British Corporation, Ltd.). Mrs. Adam, Capt. J. Fisher, Miss L. M. Craven, Commander H. R. Marrack, D.S.C., R.N., Mrs. Marrack, Commander H.H. Harwood, O.B.E., R N. and Mrs. Harwood.
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| Credit: Eastern Engineering. |
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| Launch party on platform. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Immediately after the launch directors of Vickers, Limited entertained the party to lunch at the works, when Commander Craven took the opportunity of presenting a diamond wristlet watch to Lady Maxwell as a souvenir of the occasion.
The Mail, 16 July 1927.
And it was an occasion, too, Kedah being but one of only two ships launched at Barrow that lean year, the other being Orford.
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| Kedah "takes the water". Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria |
The fulsome round of speeches that followed during the launching luncheon included remarks from Vickers management, Lady Maxwell and representatives of the owners:
Commander C. W. Craven, O.B.E., R.N., apologised for the absence of the chairman, Sir Herbert Lawrence, and Mr. Somerville (owing to an important engagement). They were all very grateful, he said, to Sir George Maxwell for coming there that day. They had taken a long journey to be with them, and he should not think they could have found - any lady who could have done what she had done that day more gracefully and more efficiently. He only wished that all parts of the programme of the building of the ship proceeded so pleasantly and so efficiently. Sir George Maxwell was the first Advisor of the State of Kedah, when in 1909 it was taken under British Protection from the Sovereignty of Siam, and he thought, for the christening of the "Kedah." therefore, Lady Maxwell was appropriately chosen for launching the ship which bears the name of the State. There was an old custom in well-conducted shipbuilding establishments whereby it was the privilege of the directors to ask the lady who came to help them in their building programme to accept a souvenir of the occasion. He therefore asked Lady Maxwell to accept a little present from his chairman and his colleagues, which he hoped would act as some little reminder of the visit to a shipbuilding district.
The Straits Company was founded in 1890, and, as many of them knew, it started. operations with five ships. To-day, he believed, with the Kedah they would have 48 ships. This gave a fairly steady progression, and he could only say to any of the directors of the Straits Company who were present that he sincerely hoped their progress would continue steadily, and that this first ship would not be the last ship they would build for the company.
He was sorry to have to refer to the terrible delay that had taken place in the completion of the ship. As many of them knew, they were seven -and a-half months late, the time corresponding nearly exactly with the period of the coal dispute of last years. That dispute had dispute cost these works in coal alone some 40,000, but he thought it cost less in wages to their own workers than considerably more. They had. They suffered, yet the dispute had nothing to do with the relations between their work people and the management. He thought that showed the terrible aftermath of a dispute of that kind to those who had nothing to do with its cause. Some who had never been to a shipbuilding establishment would have heard of the awful depression they were in, and he was afraid they had not come to probably the best place to convince them how serious a condition the shipbuilding industry was in for both employers and their work people, because they had 11,000 people working. But they had made very great sacrifices. Many of their work people were their own tenants and had spent their working lives with them. While it was very difficult to make people believe that sentiment could enter into business he could assure them that in most of the contracts they had taken there was a good deal of sentiment and certainly no profit, and frequently considerable loss. Before he sat down he should like to say that he did not think they had had any contract that had passed off so pleasantly as the contract for this little ship.
The relations with Mr. Ritchie, who was representing the Straits Company, and with Mr. Freeman, of Alfred Holt's, who was supervising the machinery, had been most happy. Their association with Messrs. Alfred Holt and Co. in connection with the Kedah had introduced two very interesting developments for which they should be given very great credit. The first was the use of high elastic limit steel in the ship's hull construction, and the second was the introduction of the Perlit system of iron castings, on both of which developments Messrs. Holt's had spent considerable sums of money and exercised their high scientific knowledge. In conclusion, Commander Craven asked the company to drink good luck to the Kedah and to Lady Maxwell.
London and China Express, 21 July 1927.
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| Clear of the ways. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
Lady Maxwell said: "It was a great pleasure to me to accept the invitation of the Straits Steamship Company to launch the steamer, and it was a great honour to be called on to perform the ceremony in this famous dockyard. I have a special personal pleasure in launching the Kedah, the name being taken from the Malay State in which my husband was the first Advisor when it passed from the Sovereignty of Siam to British Protection. Kedah is one of the most prosperous and successful States in Malaya.
London and China Express, 21 July 1927.
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| Kedah afloat free and clear. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Mr. C. E. Wurtzburg, M.C., then spoke as the only representative of the Straits Steamship Co. in England at the moment, and proposed. the toast of the health of the builders, Vickers Ltd. He said: "When you looked at that little ship to-day you probably thought she was very minute compared with the vast ship that was alongside, but from our point of view it was a very serious undertaking to decide upon a ship of that class and of 18 knots speed. She is very much bigger and much more elaborate than anything the Straits Company has ever attempted in the past. When we came to go through the details we had to make the momentous decision as to who was going to build her, and I am sure Vickers will agree that there are one or two quite reputable builders in this country. Eventually more expert people than myself decided upon Vickers, and I knew full well that Vickers were world-famous builders, and I also knew that they had the habit of building super-battleships, and handy little ships that do 33 knots. This seems to us an enormous speed, as 18 knots is a serious thing for us, so I wondered if we should not have done better if we had given the job to one of the smaller shipbuilding yards, where the ship would have been the job. However, I am glad to say I was entirely wrong. Talking to Holt's Company's many experts who have been mixed up with this ship and to Mr. Ritchie who very kindly volunteered to come home and stand by 'the job, I find that Vickers could not have done more than they have done. Every man in the place, from the top to the bottom has been out to give us a good job at an extraordinarily good price. I must say I have never met Vickers before, but I know that they are as good as their word.
As I say, it was a big proposition for us, as we have never attempted a job of this class before, but we did feel that we owed something to the people of Malaya. We have tried to serve Malaya for many years. As Commander Craven said, we started in 1890 with five ships and now we have 48 of varying sizes. On the whole they are extraordinarily good ships. I do think that we serve the public of Malaya very well, and I am sure the public of Malaya will appreciate the Kedah as being a fine ship. I must say that the Straits are very much indebted to Vickers for the way they have met us with regard to variations in details. I know that we shipowners expect the shipbuilder to re-arrange the ship every week, and the extraordinary thing is that Vickers have done this in such s a cheerful way. In fact, they have done it as if they enjoyed it, because it relieved the routine. I will not waste any more time, but I just want to say that we are very much indebted to Vickers for the way they have dealt with us. I shall hope to get up to see the ship when it is finished, as I shall get a better impression of it then. I should like the company to join with me in drinking the health of Vickers, coupled with Commander Craven, Mr. Barr and Mr. Callender.
Commander Craven, in acknowledgment, said they had passed through a very difficult time in the last couple of years. However, he thought they had come through it all ready for the future and forgetting the past. He did not think there was any large industrial concern in the country with a board and a staff who are pulling together 'better. Mr. Wurtzburg had referred to the fact that because of her size, when the order was placed, he thought the Kedah might not have had the attention the owners would expect in such a great place. They had at that moment over 1,000 contracts to fulfil. He wanted the Straits Company to know that in their organisation every contract was the contract, and every contract would receive the very fullest attention they could give to it. He felt that this ship was going to be an advertisement not only for her owners, but also for Vickers. They did not spend a great deal of money on advertising, as they liked their products to advertise themselves, and he was sure that when the Kedah got out to the East they should have the very best advertisement. He only hoped again that the contract might be the beginning of relations between the Straits Company and themselves that would last for very many years.
London and China Express, 21 July 1927.
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| Builders model of Kedah. Credit: Eastern Engineering |
A fine model of the Kedah, the vessel which was recently launched at Barrow, is now on view in the main entrance hall of the offices of Messrs. Vickers’ shipbuilding works, Costing some hundreds of pounds, it is complete in every detail and is a wonderful example of craftsmanship.
Barrow News, 6 August 1927.
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| Kedah departing Barrow on trials. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Departing Barrow on 8 October 1927, for Greenock and trials in the Clyde, Kedah passed Malin Head at 12:55 p.m. and arrived off the Tail of the Bank late that same day. Trials were conducted on the 10-11th during which she attained a top speed of 19.9 knots and maintained an average of 19.25.
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| Kedah on trials making 19.25 knots, showing her superb entry in the water at speed. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
News has been received that the Straits Steamship Company's new steamer Kedah accomplished the exceptionally fine speed of 19¼ knots on trials from Saturday to Monday, on fully loaded draft.
The Kedah will probably leave home today and is due out here about November 9. The vessel will be placed on the run between Singapore and Penang under the command of Capt. P.J.C. Thomson.
Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser, 19 October 1927.
Highly successful trials were carried out on the Firth of Clyde, the machinery throughout working with the utmost smoothness. On a series of runs over the Skelmorlie measured mile course, an average speed of 19 knots was attained with the machinery working under very easy conditions. A full power trial of six hours' duration was carried out at the contract speed with a fuel consumption of 0.83 lb. of oil per S.H.P. per hour for all purposes, showing a highly economical result for the whole machinery. The contract also stipulated for a four hours' trial with three boilers only in use, a speed of 17 knots to be maintained. This condition was met with the machinery steaming easily and with a low pressure at the forced draught fans.
The Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder, December 1927.
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| Credit: Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 19 April 1928. |
The Kedah was built at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Ltd., a company generally associated with warships and large passenger liners. Against such vessels she seem somewhat insignificant. Even so, she was intended to be the prestige ship of a large and well-known fleet and, in the event, she more than lived up to all expectations. In addition, in the later stages of the war, she seemed to be possessed of a charmed life. In many ways her design was akin to that of a cross-channel ship. But although she had many of the same characteristics-- high speed, fine lines and light draught-- she was designed to operate in tropical waters, not just on a short route, but one that involved a distance of about 350 miles.
Merchant Ships of the World in Colour.
Distinctive, innovative and appealing in appearance, Kedah truly stood out as a singular vessel of character and qualities among the more than 8,000 ships composing the British Merchant Navy between the wars. In an era of "classes" and standardisation of designs, she was unique in profile, purpose and pretension, designed solely for one route and to compete, rather uniquely, with railway land transport as a "fast packet" extraordinaire unlike any other British passenger vessel before or since.
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| Queen of Straits S.S. Co.'s "White Fleet," the splendid looking T.S.S. Kedah on departure from Barrow. Credit: Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
In appearance, Kedah reflected her specifications: light in displacement, fast and smart and indeed one of the few ships really living up to the trite moniker "yacht-like." Her trademark Holt raked and oversize bows, delicate cutaway counter stern, low freeboard aft but high forward, neat tidy superstructure (all of it covered to ward off the blazing tropical heat and rains of her route), that marvelous lofty funnel and nicely raked masts all contributed to a pleasing, sigh inducing appearance abeted by her smart all white livery and the characteristic Straits funnel colours. There was no better looking ship in Eastern waters and no finer looking one built by Vickers between the war than the new Straits flagship.
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| Proving she was the smartest looking little ship under the Red Ensign between the wars, Kedmah steams out of Barrow to begin her nearly three decade-long career. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Of a type totally new to Vickers, more accustomed to battleships, submarines and "20,000 tonners" for Orient Line, Kedah's design and specification wholly emanated from Singapore rather than Barrow. Designed by Ritchie & Bissett, consulting engineers, who were responsible for most of the Straits Steamship's "white fleet," she was constructed under the supervision of the firm's Frederick George Ritchie who spent all of her construction period at Barrow. Ritchie went on to also design Vyner Brooke (1928/1,679 grt) for the Sarawak Steamship Company.
The smallest ocean-going passenger vessel yet Barrow-built, Kedah measured 330 ft. (o.a.), 310 ft. (b.p.), 50 ft. 3 in. beam (53 ft. 3 in. promenade and boat decks) with a loaded draught of 14 ft. 3 in.. With a gross tonnage of 2,499, her deadweight tonnage was 1,170. She was comparable in dimensions to R.M.S. St. Helena (1963, 321 ft. o.a. x 46 ft., 3,150 grt), but a good three knots faster and a veritable "pocket rocket" of a ship.
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| No less graceful from a quartering stern view, Kedah departing Barrow on her trials/delivery voyage. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
In construction, Kedah was distinctive in method and materials, in Alfred Holt tradition:
The Kedah is built of steel, of British manufacture throughout. Special high-elastic steel, as developed by Mr. F. Grimshaw Martin, of Alfred Holt & Co., is used in the shell, decks, tank top, framing, engine seating and main girder work generally, the high-elastic plates and sections being supplied by D. Colville & Sons Ltd. Scantlings are not reduced because of this special steel being used, the full scantlings as for mild steel being adhered to throughout, a double purpose being achieved thereby, both extra strength and extra resistance to corrosion-this latter is a very important feature in the tropics-being obtained. The vessel is constructed with flat-plate keel, rounded and raked stem (as usual in Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel ships), and elliptical set-in stern, the stern frame, rudder forging and shaft brackets having been supplied by Carters. The mild-steel plates used in the construction of the hull were supplied by the Consett Iron Co. Ltd. A double-bottom is fitted forward and aft of the boiler room with ballast and oil-fuel tanks therein. Four cylindrical settling and overflow tanks for oil fuel are arranged in the boiler room, the total oil-fuel capacity of the ship being about 250 tons. All oil-fuel compartments in the double bottom can be used alternatively for water ballast. Fore peak and after peak tanks are fitted for trimming purposes. Fresh water is carried in the double bottom under the engines to a total of about 100 tons. The tubes for the various pipes connecting these compartments with the engine room are of Stewarts & Lloyd's make.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
Kedah was the fastest passenger liner of her size in the British Merchant Navy at the time, indeed speed was a primary focus of her specification and her raison d'etre, to provide the fastest connection from Singapore to Penang and do so faster than even competing railway services between the two. Programmed for a 21-hour passage time between the two required her to maintain a sustained speed of 18 knots and with sufficient reserve power to maintain her schedule in most weather and sea conditions. Indeed, she excelled in doing so and "setting your watch" by her comings and goings during her dozen years of commercial service was not just a saying but accomplished fact.
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| Starboard turbine open up. Credit: Marine Engineering. |
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| Port turbine with condenser and gearing. Credit: Marine Engineering. |
The first twin-screw ship built for Straits Steamship, Kedah was powered by two sets of Parsons single-reduction geared turbines developing 5,800 s.h.p. and supplied by four Babcock & Wilcox type water-tube boilers working under forced-draught at 220 psi and burning oil.
Full details of her machinery:
The vessel is propelled by twin screws driven by two sets of Parsons turbines through single-reduction gearing, and designed for a working pressure of 200 lb. per square inch at the high-pressure turbine inlet, with steam at 150 deg. Fahr. superheat. The machinery is capable of maintaining a total combined shaft horse-power of not less than 5,800 on ordinary sea service, while the turbines are running under normal conditions, and 6,200 S.H.P. on maximum overload conditions. Each set of turbines comprises one highpressure and one low-pressure turbine arranged to work in series, the high-pressure and low-pressure units being designed with connections so that either turbine may be worked independently.
The high-pressure turbine is of the impulse-reaction type, the first stage consisting of one velocity compounded two-row wheel, 38 in. pitch-circle diameter, while the remainder of this turbine comprises five stages of reaction blading, which vary in height from in. to 2 in., mounted on a solid rotor drum 20 in. diameter. The low-pressure turbine is of the single-flow type, having three stages of reaction blading, ranging from 2 in. to 31 in. in height, mounted on wheels 25 in. diameter, followed by a further eight stages of reaction blading ranging from 2 in. to 61 in. in height, mounted on wheels 36 in. diameter. An astern turbine is incorporated in the L.P. casing, consisting of one velocity-compounded 3-row wheel, 39 in. P.C.D., followed by five expansions of reaction blading, which vary in height from 1 in. to 3 in., mounted on a hollow rotor drum 30 in. diameter. When running astern, the turbines are capable of developing not less than 88 per cent. of the total ahead going revolutions. The turbine blading was supplied by J. Wilkes, Sons, and Mapplebeck. The rotor shafts of all the turbines are packed with both labyrinth and carbon packing. Michell type thrust blocks are fitted at the forward ends of the rotor shafts. All turbines run at 2,400 r.p.m., while the gear ratio is such that with these turbine speeds, the propellers run at 220 r.p.m. under service conditions. The various steel forgings for the turbines, shafting, &c., were supplied by Vickers Ltd. from their River Don steel works, at Sheffield, while the tubes for the main and auxiliary steam pipes were supplied by the Bromford Tube Co. Ltd.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
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| Engine and boiler plan profile. Credit: Marine Engineering. |
The turbines are connected by flexible couplings to nickel steel pinions, which engage with the main wheels on the propeller shafts. The gearing is of the double-helical type, the main wheels consisting of cast-iron centre parts with forged steel rings shrunk on.
The shaft bearings for both turbines and gearing are supplied with forced lubrication, and the thrust blocks, which are of the Michell type, are placed on the shafts close up to the gearing. The tunnel bearings are of the ring lubrication type. The propellers, which were supplied by J. Stone & Co. Ltd., of Deptford, are of manganese bronze, each having three blades cast solid with the boss. A gunmetal cone is fitted over the propeller nut. Electrically-operated turning gear for the turbines and shafting is fitted, the motors being by Lawrence, Scott & Co. Ltd.
The condensers are of the "Contraflo" type, fitted in the wings of the engine-room, and with the turbines running continuously at full speed the capacity of the condensers is sufficient to maintain a vacuum of 27 in. of mercury with the barometer at 30 in., and with a sea-water temperature of 85 deg. Fahr. An auxiliary condenser of the Contraflo make is also provided. The tubes for the condensers, as well as the tube plates, were supplied by J. Booth & Co. Ltd.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
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| Main boilers under construction at Vickers. Credit: Marine Engineering. |
The steam generating installation consists of four Babcock & Wilcox type water-tube boilers, arranged in one boiler room, with a common open stokehold, burning oil only under closed ashpit forced-draught conditions. The boilers are designed for a working pressure of 220 lb. per square inch, and are fitted with the latest pattern interdeck superheaters to give a superheat of about 200 deg. Fahr. Steam dryers are fitted to the boiler drums, and the total heating surface of the boilers is 16,256 sq. ft. The steel plates for the boilers were supplied by Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, the rivets by the North West Rivet, Bolt & Nut Factory Limited, and the tubes by the Bromford Tube Co. Ltd., while the soot blowers and other special parts for the boilers were supplied by Babcock & Wilcox Limited. Each boiler is 20 sections wide and fitted with four furnace fronts adapted for oil-burning only on the Wallsend Howden system. The oil-fuel installation, which was supplied by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co. Ltd., comprises two complete pumping and heating units, each of the simplex type, one set being capable of dealing with all the oil required on full-power conditions and one set serving as a stand-by.
As all steam from the boilers passes directly through the superheater tubes an attemperator, by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd., is fitted in the engine room to absorb the superheat, a spray of water from the feed discharge system being mixed into the superheated steam so that dry saturated steam is available for use with the auxiliary machinery where necessary. The plates and sections used in the engine room and stokeholds, in the construction of uptakes, &c., were supplied by Wm. Beardmore & Co. Ltd. and Dorman, Long & Co. Ltd.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
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| Engine and boiler room plan. Credit: Marine Engineer. |
The auxiliary machinery is of the latest and most improved type, and consists of two main-feed pumps by G. & J. Weir Limited, having 114-in. diam. pumps, 151-in. diam. cylinders by 24 in. stroke, one auxiliary feed pump of Weir's make with 4-in. diam. pump; 6-in. diam. cylinder by 12 in. stroke. Two main air pumps of Vickers Kinetic, reciprocating, twin-barrel type, 9-in. diam. steam cylinder, 17-in. diam. pump by 15 in. stroke, and one monotype auxiliary air pump of similar make with 8-in. cylinder, 15-in. pump by 12-in. stroke, are provided.
Forced lubrication is supplied to all turbine bearings, pinion and gear-wheel bearings, by three Weir's vertical direct-acting pumps, having 7-in. diam. cylinder, 63-in. pump by 15 in. stroke, each capable of delivering 5,800 gallons per hour against 100 lb. per square inch pressure. Two lubricating-oil coolers of the Serck type, by Serck Radiators Limited, are provided, and one electrically-driven type 50 "Vickcen" lubricating-oil purifier, complete with self contained oil-supply pump, by British Separators Limited.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
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| Engine and boiler room sections. Credit: Marine Engineer. |
Circulating water is dealt with by two steam-driven centrifugal pumps, by M. Paul & Co. Ltd., having 18-in. suction and discharge, each pump being driven by a compound, enclosed type steam engine. One gravitation and one pressure-type feed-water filter is supplied, and one Vickers surface-type feed-water heater capable of dealing with 80,000 lb. of feed water per hour is fitted in the engine room. Forced draught is supplied by two double-inlet fans, 60 in. diam, each driven by a high-speed forced-lubrication steam engine, and capable of delivering 24,000 cubic ft. of air per minute, against 3-in. air pressure. The fans and fan engines were supplied by M. Paul & Co. Ltd., while three steam separators of the centrifugal type were supplied by Holden & Brooke Ltd. for dealing with the steam for these fan engines and for the circulating pump engine.
The remaining auxiliaries are of the type usually fitted for vessels of this class, and comprise one duplex steam-driven ballast pump, 170 tons per hour, supplied by Thom, Lamont & Co. Ltd., two simplex-driven sanitary pumps, and two simplex steam-driven bilge pumps, each 38 tons per hour; one simplex fresh-water pump 16 tons per hour; two simplex oil transfer pumps each 20 tons per hour, these pumps having been supplied by W. H. Wilcox & Co., and J. Laing & Co., and emergency pumps by J. Dounton & Co, Ltd. A nickers evaporator is provided, this being capable of dealing with 45 tons of water per 24 hours.
Electric current is supplied by two turbo-driven electric generators, each of 40 kW., supplied by Greenwood & Batley Limited. The turbines, which are of the de Laval type, are designed for a steam pressure of 150 lb. per square inch, and can exhaust either into the heating system at a back pressure of 12 to 15 lb. per square inch, or, alternatively, to the main condenser at a vacuum of 28 in. The dynamos are of the four-pole enclosed, ventilated, interpole type, compound wound for 110 volts. In addition, there is one steam-driven reciprocating engine and dynamo of 7 kW., by E. Reader & Sons Ltd., providing direct current at 110 to 115 volts. The main and auxiliary switchboards were supplied by the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
Boatage consisted of four lifeboats are carried on the boat deck arranged outside the screens of the covered deck. Each lifeboat had a 50-person capacity. Two further lifeboats, each capable of carrying 26 persons, and a working gig were carried on the after boat deck. The boats were made of teak and built by Hugh McLean & Sons, Glasgow. The davits were Columbus patent mechanical type.
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| Kedah in home waters showing the large and numerous side ports to her 'tween decks opened. These were used to work cargo but more to ventilate her extensive deck passenger spaces. Credit: ssmaritime.com |
T.S.S. Kedah
General Arrangement Plans & Rigging Plan
Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record 27 October 1927
LEFT-CLICK on image for full size scan
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| Side Profile and Rigging Plan. |
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| Boat Deck. |
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| Navigation Bridge. |
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| Forecastle Deck. |
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| After Boat Deck. |
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| Bridge Deck. |
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| Shade Deck. |
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| Shade Deck passenger accommodation details. |
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| Main Deck. |
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| Hold. |
In all, Kedah had five decks: Boat (with navigating bridge above), Bridge (forecastle forward and after Boat Deck aft), Shade, Main and Hold.
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| The remarkably spacious wheelhouse and bridge. Credit: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. |
Boat Deck, like Bridge Deck, 18 inches wider than Shade Deck, was entirely covered over, reflecting the tropical nature of the ship's route, where open deck space was to be avoided entirely and shaded instead from the sun and occasional torrential rain. Forward was a very large First Class upper lounge with large windows fore and to the sides. This was not furnished on delivery of the ship and was done so on arrival at Singapore, "the intention being to adopt it as a dancing hall, for which purpose it is admirably suited. Four 28-ft. 50-person boats were carried at Columbus luffing davits amidship outboard of the side screens. Amidships between the funnel and engine hatch was a card lounge. Aft were 12 single berth cabins, all outside, in two athwart houses.
Bridge Deck had First Class accommodation (16 twin-bedded outside cabins) with baths, showers and toilets right aft. Forward was the very large lounge with expansive windows facing forward and to the sides with companionways leading directly to the dining saloon below.
The forecastle, also permanently covered with a sun awning, was forward, and right aft the After Boat Deck had a house containing the officers accommodation and mess room and two lifeboats.
Shade Deck had the petty office accommodation forward in the forecastle house and amidships the First Class dining saloon, seating 74, forward with windows on three sides, those forward shaded by a permanent steel awning, and 16 outside twin-bedded cabins with baths, showers and lavatories aft as on Bridge Deck above.
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| First Class lounge. Credit: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. |
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| First Class dining saloon, Credit: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. |
The lounge with its large windows, with seating benches, was panelled in polished walnut with oak parquetry decking and chinz covered furniture was both spacious and cosy and its dark appearance a foil to the often blazing sun and heat outside. Twin balustraded companionways led to the dining saloon directly below. This sat 74 passengers, or the entire compliment, in one sitting and was panelled in oak with oak armchairs and tables, 15 in all for four and six people.
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| First Class cabin. Credit: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. |
In all, Kedah accommodated 76 First Class passengers in 12 single-berth and 32 two-berth cabins, all outside and of spacious dimensions compared with ships of this age and with high overheads and special attention paid to ventilation given the tropical qualities of the route.
The lavatory ventilation is obtained by special fans and large windows, the sanitary outfit being supplied by Shanks & Co. Ltd. Each cabin is fitted with two cot beds, with mattresses by Whitfields Bedsteads Limited, one large-sized lavatory basin, chest of drawers or wardrobe, two cabins each side being arranged en suite with intercommunicating door. A large ceiling ventilating fan is fitted in each cabin and two very large windows, one opening forward and one aft.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 October 1927.
What was called "native" passenger accommodation or deck passengers, were accommodated on Main Deck, with a capacity for as many as 800, with separate washrooms and lavatories for Malays, Chinese and Indians, and this busy deck also housed firemen, stewards and cooks aft, cargo working coolies amidships and seamen forward.
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| Seeing double: Dollar Line's Mayon of 1930, shown on trials, was almost a carbon copy of Kedah, and built by Vickers to her plans. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Kedah certainly impressed one Robert Dollar, the American shipowner whose Dollar Line was the principal U.S.-flag service from the West Coast to the Orient, including the Philippines whose expanse of islands was served by a subsidiary, Philippine Interisland Steamship Line. Rather remarkably for an American shipowner, Dollar was so taken with Kedah and given the similarities between their short coastal requirements, prevailed upon Vickers to, in effect, build him a copy.
This was done although without ever consulting with Straits Steamship Co. which had, afterall, formulated the design and specification. Mayon had a different stem than Kedah, Shade Deck plated in, gravity davits and other minor differences but Vickers rather cheekily copied the existing plans and one surmises the occupants of the Ocean Building, Singapore, were not best pleased, although as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Mayon, delivered in 1930, operated from Manila to Iloilo, Zamboanga and Cebu, leaving on Tuesdays and returning Sunday. Serving successfully, she was sunk by the Japanese in 1942.
Kedah, "the original", was more fortunate and about to embark on a varied career that lasted nearly three decades.
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| Vickers advertisement featuring the two vessels launched at Barrow in 1927: Kedah and Orient Line's Orford. Credit: Syren & Shipping, 10 November 1926. |
The s.s. "Kedah" awaits us at the Penang wharf, doing the trip between the two chief towns of the Straits in about 20 hours only and without one stoppage, she has been of great benefit to business men especially. And so we are soon again in the "Lion City."
Inter-Ocean, 1929.
This sea trip (a night one) was a refreshing alternative to the night mail train and we shall always remember the comfort, cool evening breezes and tropical sunsets enjoyed on the run.
J. Jervois
Western Morning News, 17 August 1946.
Like so much of the Merchant Navy, British-bred and British-built, Kedah was not expected to return "home" in her lifetime, plying her trade "Out East" and her delivery voyage would ordinarily be the longest she would undertake and her last on which her officers would wear wool no. 1s.
Commanded by Capt. W. McClure for her delivery voyage, Kedah sailed from Greenock on 13 October 1927 with a cargo of coal, and as her only passengers, Captain Thomson, Commodore of the Straits Steamship Co. who would command her on arrival, Captain J.G. Richie and Captain Binnie. Calling at Gibraltar on the 17th, called at Malta (21), transited the Suez Canal (25-26), called at Perim (31) and Colombo (9 November):
Among the vessels which arrived in Colombo this morning is the Kedah, belonging to Straits Steamship Company, which is being taken to Singapore for service between Penang and Singapore, She is in charge of Capt. Maclure who will hand her over to her owners and return home with the crew now on board.
Times of Ceylon, 9 November 1927.
Kedah arrived Singapore on the morning of 16 November 1927, anchoring in the inner roads.
The Straits Steamship Company have added another fine passenger and cargo ship to their large fleet of vessels. The latest addition is named the Kedah, and she arrived here yesterday from home.
Malaya Tribune, 17 November 1927.
On 18 November 1927 Kedah shifted to the Victoria graving dock, Tanjong Pagar, to have her hull cleaned and painted. Capt. W. McClure, after turning over command to Capt. Thomson, returned to England aboard Calchus on 20 November, but six of her engineer officers would sign on for her regular service which would commenced in December after the ship was run in on the Penang-Port Swettenham run in relief of Ipoh for two or three voyages before starting her regular Singapore-Penang express service.
The s.s. Kedah, the magnificent turbine steamer of the Straits Steamship Company, came into Penang Harbour for the first time this morning.
Comfortable as were the old ships on the Straits run the Kedah sets a new standard of luxurious travelling as well as completing the journey in a much shorter time. The passengers on her maiden run were unanimous in their praise, not only of the comfort of the cabins and lounges but of the ship's seaworthy qualities.
It is intended to adopt the fore end of the space between the engine and boiler casing as a dancing hall, for which purpose it is admirably suited.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 25 November 1927.
It was said that one could set one's watch by the Kedah's departure and arrival times in Singapore Road and she regularly exceeded her specified design speed of 18 knots. She left her own assigned anchorage off Singapore bound for Penang at exactly 11.30 on Thursday morning and made a fast run northwards. Through the narrow Kra Channel, her stern wave rolling ashore, rising 'higher and higher, to break behind her, until she seemed on the point of surf riding,' to anchor off Fort Cornwallis, Penang at exactly 8.30 precisely. Her passenger list had preceded her by telegraph, appearing in the morning editions of The Straits Times. When Penang enjoyed a Race Week the Kedah carried the well-heeled Singapore punters and many of the participating thoroughbreds.
From Penang the Kedah cross the Strait to Belawan over the weekend and then Singapore. Under the command of Captain R.J. Work she was a popular ship, her passengers enjoying airy accommodation unsurpassed by any other coastal passenger steamer.
Fiddler's Green, The Great Squandering: 1921-2010, Vol. Five of A History of the British Merchant Navy.
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| Route map of Kedah's express service from Singapore to Penang and Belawan. Credit: Google Generative AI |
Clearing Singapore at 4:00 p.m. on 23 November 1927 on her first commercial voyage, Kedah sailed for Port Swettenham and Penang. It would be the last time she would depart Singapore at 4:00 p.m. and on 10 December Straits Steamship released details of Kedah's express service to Penang and Belawan, commencing on the 22nd:
Leave Singapore 11:30 a.m. Thursday, arriving Penang 8:00 a.m. FridayLeave Penang 6:00 p.m. Friday, arrive Belawan 7:00 a.m. SaturdayLeave Belawan 5:00 p.m. Sunday, arrive Penang 6:00 a.m. MondayLeave Penang 5:00 p.m. Monday, arrive Singapore 2:00 p.m. Tuesday
Maintaining this schedule like clockwork, old Singapore hands really did set their watches by her clearing Singapore Roads at 11:30 a.m. Thursday mornings.
On her first voyage on her intended service, from Singapore at 11:00 a.m. on 22 December 1927, Kedah lost no time in showing her paces, and arriving at Penang at 6:30 a.m. on the 23rd, set a new record for the run of just 19 hours 30 mins., averaging close to 19 knots despite having to navigate through Keppel Harbour at slow speed.
1928
When the government yacht Seabelle was disabled by a boiler mishap, H.E. the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford and Lady Clifford, and party, bound for an official visit to Siam, embarked in Kedah on 2 February 1928 for Penang, thence by train to Siam.
Horseracing, a passion in British Malaya, soon played a part in Kedah's routine. This included the carriage of race horses in special boxes on deck, the first of which arrived at Singapore on 17 April 1928 from Penang.
Like the Australian mailboats whose timings were sometimes altered to accommodate the running of the Melbourne Cup, Kedah's busy season with high stakes punters from Singapore were Race Weeks in Penang. On 3 August 1928 the Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle announced "T.S.S. Kedah. For the convenience of passengers attending the Races the departure of the above Express steamer for Singapore has been deferred until 6.30 p.m., on Monday 6th instant from the wharf." Later in the season, the ship's schedule was tweaked to accommodate those attending the Medan Race in Deli, departing Penang the afternoon of 31 August and returning from Belawan and Deli on 2 September, arriving back at Penang on the 3rd.
Undertaking her first drydocking at Penang, Kedah missed her sailing to Belawan and Singapore on 26 and 29 October 1928.
Kedah soon figured in the annual comings and goings of families, school children coming home for Christmas and on 10 December 1928 the Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle reported that "Eight Penang children arrived Penang by the s.s. Kedah this morning from the Highland School at Kaban Drahe, near Brastagi for the Christmas holidays. They all looked exceptionally fit and will return to Sumatra at the end of January.
1929
When Kedah arrived at Singapore on 23 April 1929, she landed no fewer than nine race horses from Belawan and another 45 horses and ponies on the 28th.
It was reported on 10 May 1929 that Capt. Thomson, Kedah's commander, was retiring, after 16 years with Straits Steamship, and would be sailing for home on the 30th in P&O's Morea and had three more trips to do. "Always popular with passengers and amongst the shipping community, Captain Thomson will be greatly missed by his many friends here, and their best wishes will go with him in his retirement." (Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser, 10 May 1929).
In time for the Penang Race Week, Trainers H. Marland and Colvin and jockey T. Gunning along with 22 horses including top favourites Ginger, Tandubas, Cyllaros, Lucky Mistake, Slawa Petacre, Shediac, Edmooranga, Likeness and Belle of Ireland, arrived aboard Kedah at Penang from Belawan on 22 July 1929.
Kedah had a large list of 278 deck passengers among those landing at Singapore on 27 August 1929.
Not all of Kedah's passengers went aboard willingly and 54 Chinese banishees, under deportation orders back to China, went up the gangway in handcuffs at Penang on 7 October 1929, bound for Singapore where they would be put on a China-bound steamer.
Undertaking her annual drydocking at Singapore, Kedah missed her sailings to Penang on 10, 24 and 31 October 1929 with Kuala replacing her on these.
1930
Among Kedah's passengers from Penang to Singapore where she arrived on 30 July 1930 were H.E. the Governor General Cecil Clementi and Lady Clementi returning from an official visit to Penang and Kedah.
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| Credit: Straits Budget, 31 July 1930. |
No less newsworthy was the departure from Penang for Singapore of the race horses for the Singapore Turf Club Autumn Meeting on 25 August 1930, along with their trainers and jockeys. "Trainer Billet took the following with him: Monarch, Portaferry, Titania, Air Defence, Moon Minstrel, Boronia, Mount Annan, Prince Eumalt and Farmer. Trainer Norman: Hot Iron, Junine, Blum Tau, Bloomfield, Round Table, Bridgetown, Split Nut, Ruddy Brook, Bendigo, Lady Remington, Pearl Diver and Kaboonga. Trainer Cassan: Sellam, Don Hosto, Romance, Entella, Last Chance, Gorilla and Rowland's Toy." (Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 26 August 1930).
Among those sailing in Kedah from Penang on 15 September 1930 for Singapore was a party of 50 Chinese banishees, being deported home and transhipping there to a China-bound steamer.
On arrival at Penang on 31 October 1930, Kedah was drydocked at the Sungei Nyok for annual survey, her departure for Belawan taken by Kuala.
1931
As reported by the Straits Echo on 19 August 1931, a Siamese passenger gave birth to twins aboard Kedah en route from Belawan to Penang, and "despite the efforts of the port authorities, who were informed of the matter immediately the vessel docked at the Swettenham Pier, the twins did not survive more than a few hours."
Taking her annual drydocking at Singapore, Kedah missed her sailings to Penang and Belawan on 5 and 12 November 1931, replaced by Selangor for Port Swettenham and Belawan on those dates. Kedah resumed service on the 19th.
1932
Kedah's Second Officer, W.B. Robson, was killed in an auto accident at Belawan on 23 July 1932. Aged 29, Robson had been with Straits Steamship for three years and 18 months in Kedah. The driver of the other car was found guilty of "rash driving" and sentenced to two months in prison.
For running in the Singapore Turf Club Gold Cup meeting that September, Kedah transported the champion house of Java, Garuda, to the city the week of 18 August 1932 followed by 17 horses from Medan, arriving on the 23rd.
Like most steamship companies in the depression, Straits Steamship felt its effects, prompting a company hitherto remarkable for its singular lack of "publicity" or promotion, to plant an article cum advertisement in The Straits Times of 29 September 1932 lauding a voyage aboard Kedah:
And so I went on the Kedah.
Pleasant as Singapore is as a place in which to live and work-- and very healthy too, according to all the statistics-- there comes a time when one feels the need for a change. Local leave is an excellent thing. There should be more of it.
I should have liked one of those remarkably cheap round trips which they advertise-- to Shanghai and back, first class, for $189, for instance-- but time did not permit. Employers, after all, have certain claims, and what was wanted was something in the nature of a long weekend.
And her that very fast and extraordinarily comfortable ship the Kedah exactly fitted the bill. Leave Singapore at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday; in Penang early the following morning; off again at 5 p.m. and at Belawan early on Saturday. Then a run up by car to Brastaggi; that day and night and all the next morning 4,800 feet above sea level. Back to Belawan, Penang again, and in Singapore at lunch time on Tuesday feeling that one had a real holiday and was the better for it. As I say, the Kedah exactly fitted the bill.
All Singapore and Penang know of the Kedah, and take a proper pride in this very smart and up to date vessel. Several thousand people have travelled on her and as many more as possible should take the opportunity of doing so, for it is an experience to be remembered.
For good reason she is the show ship, the pride and joy, of the Straits Steamship Company. Built by Vickers in 1927, her chief purpose was to provide the fastest possible sea connection between Singapore and Penang, and this she has continued to do with a regularity which must have caused uneasiness to our friends of the F.M.S. Railways. Nineteen hours, travelling at a speed of 19 knots, and the trip is done. It is the fastest piece of ocean travel in this part of the world, and an achievement on which the Straits Steamship Company directors have every reason to congratulate themselves.
But the Kedah is considerably more than just a fast ship. She is a ship on which it is very comfortable to travel; indeed, in a fair experience of voyaging in Eastern waters I have found nothing quite as good. There is a gratifying amount of deck space, there is a lounge which would not disgrace some of the new home-going liners, and there is an admirable saloon.
I happen to be a person, however-- and, though shipping companies refuse to face the fact, there are a good many like me-- who can do without a lot of deck space and ornate drawing rooms if the ship is good in one particular. I refer to these apartments which the companies, with fine cynicism, call state rooms but we passengers persist in calling cabins. And in most cases the passengers' description is so much the more suitable. Cribbed, cabined and confined! That continues to be the conditions on so many ships, even the most modern. It would seem the companies provide the marble swimming bath, the silver grille and the ballroom and then add 'the state rooms' as an after-thought.
Passengers appreciate all the luxury of modern travel, of course, but the first burning desire of every traveller is lots of room to himself. He likes a place where he can sit all day if it so pleases him, where he pull his trunks about and where he can go to bed in peace and comfort. If he happens to be travelling with his wife the need for plenty of elbow room is all the more urgent. A woman likes her husband least when she is boxed up with him in a space six feet by six for several weeks on end. Sea travel has probably imperilled the success of more marriages than any other cause. This is why in the East it is such a widely followed custom for the wife to go home several months before the husband takes his leave and come back several months after.
Thoughts like these may have been in the mind of the expert whom the Straits Steamship directors sent home to represent them while Vickers were the building the Kedah. Wisely they decided to have their own representative on the spot the whole time, knowing how important it was that a man who really knew Eastern conditions should have a say in the matter of building a ship designed entirely for tropical waters. At any rate, the expert saw to it that spaciousness was the Kedah motto not only in the public rooms but in the cabins as well.
The result is that all the cabins--yes one may call them state rooms-- really give one room to move. A man and his wife can travel in one and remain on good terms. There are beds-- real beds-- and plenty of space to move about. One can sit down and collect one's thoughts and also one's belongings when the time comes for departure.
So althogether a trip in the Kedah is a very pleasant experience. Capt. Work and his officers see that you are as comfortable as you are ashore and meanwhile you are hurried along at this famous 19 knots so that you are in Penang almost before you had time to unpack.
That trip to Brastagi is well worth doing at least once during your Eastern tour, even though the Straits dollar does not go as far as in the days when Britain was on the gold standard. Cars meet the Kedah at Belawan, and in two hours you are 4,800 feet above sea level booking your room at the Grand Hotel. You meet a man who will probably love in history as the one person who could make a hotel in the East pay in the year of grace 1932. He did this by carefully selecting the site on which to build and then making his guests comfortable.
There is plenty to entertain, and all around-- so they tell me-- are places of interest-- volcanoes, Batik village and other delights of the tourist. Personally I can vouch for the fact that the beer is good but expensive and a plunge into the swimming pool is an electrifying experience. Actually they heat the water, and persuade the visitor from the Straits to feel the pipes to assure himself that this is the case. They dance in the evenings and also on Sunday mornings-- the latter an occasion which is very popular as well it may be in that climate. Don't forget to take your dinner suite or your best dress. The Grand Hotel on a Saturday night, when many visitors come from Medan and the bunglalows around, is quite smart.
Then after lunch on Sunday the speedy trip back to Belawan and sea level, the speedometer registering 60 most of the time. Fortunately for one's peace of mind one remembers that it is in kilometers not miles. Then the Kedah again; all Monday morning and afternoon to explore the beauties of Penang, that fair isle which the Duke of Gloucester praised so highly; back in Singapore at lunch time on Tuesday; and goodbye after a very pleasant five days to Capt. Work.
Work! Ominious word that, but one feels all the more capable of tackling it after such a pleasant week-end.
The Old Timer.
Kedah was taken off the run for two trips effective 10 November 1932 for her annual drydocking, resuming service on the 24th
A roundtrip "Christmas Excursion" was organised that season from Singapore to Belawan and return, outbound in either Kedah on 22 December 1932 or KPM's Tinombo on the 23rd and return in Kedah on the 25th.
1933
His Royal Highness Prince Damrong, son and heir of King Prahadkipok of Siam, arrived at Penang aboard Kedah on 21 July 1933.
A stowaway aboard Kedah, Goh Guan Lim, was charged in Police Court at Penang on 20 October 1933 evading the payment of the $4.50 fare from Singapore and sentenced to a fine of $12.50 or 14 days in prison.
Straits Steamship Co. announced on 4 November 1933 special cheap excursions fare of $40 for Singapore-Penang-Singapore during the Christmas-New Years holidays in connection with the Penang Turf Club race meeting, applicable to any sailing in Kedah, Kland, Iopoh or Kinta from 21 December 1933 to 4 January 1934.
Skipping her sailings to Penang and Belawan from Singapore on 23 and 30 November 1933, Kedah underwent her annual drydocking and refitting, resuming service on 7 December.
The wife of the Governor General, Lady Clementi, and two daughters, arrived at Penang aboard Kedah on 15 December 1933.
1934
Returning from their holiday Lady Clementi and two daughters sailed from Penang on 8 January 1934 for Singapore. It, too, was back to school for pupils of the Highland School, Sumatra, on the 17th and it was announced in The Straits Times that "children will be escorted from Singapore on the S.S. Kedah sailing on January 17, and from Kuala Lumpur and stations en route to Penang via the Day Mail Train, January 18, to connect, by arrangement, with the S.S. Kedah sailing from Penang in the evening of that day."
Yung Yooi Ho, hawker, was fined $5 with 5 days' simple imprisonment in default because, not being an accepted person, he boarded the s.s. Kedah without the permission of the Immigration Officer. Accused made a statement about seeing the flag signal, but Court Inspector Bostock explained that accused had hope not to be noticed by bringing his ducks in a sampan on the side to the wharf.
Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, 17 April 1934.
H.E. Major-General E.O. Lewin, C.B, C.M.G., D.S.O., General Officer Commanding, Malaya Command, arrived at Penang on 5 October 1934, accompanied by his aide-camp, Lt. H.E. de Chasseron, and Staff Officer of Local Forces, Major E.J. Nettleford.
Kedah was increasingly used for official government travellers, including the new Governor General H.E. Sir Shenton Thomas:
For the first time in many years a Governor and High Commissioner will use a local steamship service when starting out on his first official tour of Malaya next month.
While the luxurious Government yacht lies in the roads, H.E. Sir Shenton Thomas will sail on board the s.s. Kedah, the crack vessel of the Straits Steamship Company's fleet, when he leaves on an extended up-country tour on Jan. 3.
His Excellency will be accompanied by Lady Thomas and Miss Thomas and will be attended by the personal staff.
His excellency will arrived in Penang on Jan. 4 and spend six days there.
The Straits Times, 21 December 1934.
1935
Pomp and ceremony amid farewells attended the sailing of Kedah from Singapore for Penang the morning of 7 March 1935 with the departure of the long service Inspector-General of Police after 31 years service:
As the s.s. Kedah left Singapore yesterday morning for Penang, three cheers rang out, and a band softly played 'Auld Lang Syne.'
It was a farewell to the retiring Inspector-General of Police, the Hon. Mr. H. Fairburn, S.M.G., and his wife. Mr. Fairburn left with thoughts of 31 years service.
The wharf opposite godown 14 where the Kedah was berthed-- especially for the occasion-- was dominated by officers and men of the Singapore police force.
Lined up at one end were Malay and Sikh recruit from the Depot, and by them was ranged the guard of honour of men from the Sikh contingent, under of the command of Mr. R.C. Blair Wiltshire, A.S.P., and the police band under Mr. F.G. Minns.
After inspecting the guard of honour, he and Mrs. Fairburn boarded the Kedah, to be garlanded as they stepped on to the ship by Chief Inspector Prithvi Chand and Chief Inspector Balwant Singh, both of the Special Branch.
As the Kedah left the wharf, the Malay and Sikh recruits burst out into three loud cheers and a 'tiger.' The band played 'Auld Lang Syne,' and the police flag which had flown from the masthead was hauled down.
Mr. and Mrs. Fairburn leave by the Siamese Prince at Penang for England.
The Straits Times, 8 March 1935.
H.E. Sir Shenton Thomas, Governor-General, embarked on Kedah on 20 June 1935 for Penang to begin a tour including, in addition to the port city, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Seremban. On arrival the morning of the 21st, the Governor was met aboard by the Hon. Resident Councillor, Mr. J.S.W. Arthur, the Hon. Mr. Palgrave Simpson and Mr. B.W. Allen, to begin his third visit to the Penang since assuming office in November and arrived there aboard Ranpura from England.
A Chinese coolie was involved in an accident this morning in the hatch of the s.s. Kedah.
It appears that the ship was discharging its cargo and the coolie had put the hook into the sling around the cargo he was helping to unload. But when it was hauled up, the hook slipped from the sling, and caught the coolie on the right side of his jaw. His fellow workers prevented him from being hauled up and he was conveyed on a stretched to the shore by launch and later taken in an ambulance to the General Hospital.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 12 July 1935.
Sports mad Malaya resulted in special arrangements to accommodate a heavy intake of bookings to Penang to attend the All-Malayan Chinese Athletic Meeting there from 31 July-6 August:
The Kedah will leave Singapore at 11.30 a.m. on July 31 from the Roads, her sailing time being advance, and she will return later than usual, her departure from Penang being 9:00 p.m. on Aug. 5 so that her arrival at Singapore will be 5 p.m. on Aug. 6.
The vessel will call at Malacca on each trip, and the company are introducing a special excursion return fare of $40 for the occasion, which means a reduction of $10.
Bookings for the voyage, which have already opened at Messrs. Mansfield and Co., Ltd, are reported to be extensive.
Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser, 18 July 1935.
When Kedah arrived at Penang on 2 August 1935, amid "enthusiastic scenes," she had aboard 649 passengers, including a record 611 deck passengers, the majority of whom were athletes for the games, and among the 1,000 arriving that day. "It was an impressive scene to see the various contingents marching two by two, headed by their respective flags, to the private cars, hired cars and hired buses waiting to convey them to the various places where they are to be accommodated." (Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 1 August).
Such was her reputation for time keeping that a late arrival for Kedah was for good reason and newsworthy. Arriving at Penang at 9:15 a.m. on 31 October 1935, an hour late, she and Epoh (more than two hours late reaching Port Swettingham) were among the many vessels retarded by bad weather in the Straits of Malacca, "and many small steamers had to run for shelter." (Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, 1 November).
Announced on 26 September 1935, Kedah made a special Christmas cruise from Singapore, departing 24 December to Penang and Belawan but also calling at Pulau Langkawi, off the Malayan coast near the Siamese border) en route to Belawan, and returning to Singapore on the 31st.
Taking her annual refit, Kedah was off the run on 12 and 19 December 1935 and resumed service in time for her Christmas cruise departing the 24th, and then on her regular schedule starting 2 January 1936.
1936
Among the passengers on Kedah's first voyage of the New Year was Mr. Roy Howard, head of the Scripps-Howard newspaper group and United States Press Agency, who arrived at Penang, en route to Bangkok, on 3 January 1936.
Kedah carried no more valuable cargo than her racing stock and those aboard in June 1936, en route from Singapore to Penang for the Alor Star gymkhana were in for a rough ride in stormy conditions in the Malacca Straits:
A number of horses and ponies brought from Singapore for the Alor Star gymkhana received a severe buffeting in the deck boxes on the s.s. Kedah on Thursday night. Passengers on the vessel say the seas were heavier than they had ever experienced in the Straits of Malacca and many of them were sea-sick. The Kedah arrived in Penang three hours behind schedule.
Some of the animals were so knocked about that their chances for today have been affected. Some may have be scratched.
Thursday night's storm was apparently much more severe in the Straits than was apparent in Penang. Fishing boats and cargo junks limped back into harbour yesterday with their sails in shreds and tatters and their crews reported strenuous hours in keeping their vessels from being swamped during the night and the early hours of the morning.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 27 June 1936.
Kedah made a good account of herself in more poor weather approaching Penang early on 24 July 1936:
The s.s. Kedah which arrived in Penang yesterday morning from Singapore ran into a squall in the early hour of the morning when approaching Penang. For several hours there was blinding rain, accompanied by strong winds.
In spite of that the Kedah made a good passage and anchored in the roads at five minutes to nine.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 25 July 1936,
Few harbours were as busy as those in Southeast Asia and remarkably in the first such incident for the ship, Kedah collided with and sank a tongkang shortly before she cleared Penang for Singapore on 31 August 1936:
A tongkang carrying a cargo of steel plates sank yesterday evening when it came into collision with the s.s. Kedah which was leaving Penang Harbour for Singapore. There was a crew of four on board the tongkang but no one was injured, As far as could be ascertained the Kedah was not damaged.
The Kedah was some 30 yards from Swettenham Pier when the collision occurred and the tongkang, split in two, went down almost immediately. The crew were rescued and after a short delay the s.s. Kedah proceeded on its way.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 1 September 1936.
An initial investigation was conducted and the results presented to the Penang Harbour Master on 9 September:
The master of the Kedah said on Aug. 31 at 5:03 p.m. the boat left the wharf. A strong ebb tide was running at the time. One minute later the collision occurred and the tongkang sank.
The Kedah was about about two knots then so it could not go astern. All that could be done was to stop the engine.
The tongkang had its mainsail up and with the ebb tide running at about three knots it came round across the bows of the Kedah with a rush.
In his (the master's) opinion the man in charge of the tongkang should have waited for the Kedah to get clear before he cast his lines off.
The chief officer said that when the whistle was blown everything ahead was clear.
Haja Mydin, the tindal of the tongkang, said the Kedah was about 500 feet away from his tongkang at first. He did not hear the whistle.
The crew was unleading tinplates from a cargo boat and after 47 tons had been taken on the lines were cast off and the mainsail hoisted.
Questioned by Capt. Owens, he said that when he saw that an accident was inevitable he did not give orders to have the sail lowered, and the boat went down with the sail up. When the collision happened the mast leaned against the side of the Kedah. The tongkang sank immediately.
The other members of the tongkang's crew gave evidence in support of Haja Mydin.
The Straits Times, 10 September 1936.
As announced on 15 December 1936 by Straits Steamship, Kinta and Ipoh would be withdrawn from the Penang service in the New Year leaving Kedah to offer, as usual, a sailing every Monday at 5:00 p.m. for Singapore direct and Klang every Saturday for Port Swettenham and Singapore.
1937
On 6 April 1937 a passenger aboard Kedah, Mr. Samuel van Haselan, aged 30, Traffic Manager for KLM, in the Hague, died that afternoon whilst en route from Penang to Singapore, of cholera, and suspected of contracting the disease in Bangkok which was experiencing an outbreak. Twenty-two First Class passengers were inoculated before landing and 300 deck passengers were quarantined on St. John's Island for a few days under observation.
Five days later a cabin boy from Kedah was taken ashore at Belawan on 10 April 1937 with a mild case of the disease. "All necessary precautions are being taken by the company and the port health officials and the Kedah will leave again for Belawan on Thursday." (Malaya Tribune, 14 April 1937).
The following day it was reported that "as a precautionary measure and due to the fact that their cooks and boys are in quarantine on St. John's Island for several days following the existence of cholera on board, the s.s. Kedah will not be carrying any first-class passengers on its next round trip from Singapore to Penang, Belawan and back again. The officers of the ship, who are all inoculated, have had to come ashore morning and evening for their luncheon and dinner. The saloon crew of 23 cooks and boys will remain in quarantine until Saturday. Several first-class passengers have had to cancel their bookings. The Kedah leaves today with a skeleton saloon crew, and a number of deck passengers. She is expected back on Tuesday." (Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser, 15 April 1937).
The Coronation of King George VI in May 1937 was celebrated at Penang and "attracted a large influx of visitors from many parts of North Malaya and also Sumatra and Siam. The s.s. Kedah, which arrived in Penang from Belawan-Deli this morning brought over 400 passengers for Penang, while over 40 passengers are in transit to Singapore. The deck passengers number 336, so every inch of space on the deck must have been occupied." (Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 11 May 1937)/
A lawsuit was filed on 16 July 1937 by the owners of the tongkang sunk in collision with Kedah on 31 August 1936 for $7,477 for value of lost cargo
Such was the regularity of Kedah's schedule that the smallest change was reported well in advance and for unstated reasons, her departure from Penang for Singapore was set for Tuesday 27 July 1937 at 5:30 p.m. instead of the customary Monday.
What was called the largest party of athletes ever to sail from Penang, left aboard Kedah on 27 July 1937 for the Malayan Chinese Olympiad at Singapore:
As the thousands which thronged the Swettenham Pier, Penang, waved and cheered, the s.s. Kedah sailed slowly from her berth en route to Singapore yesterday evening. On board about 130 of picked Chinese athletes in Penang, representing the biggest contingent of athletes ever to leave this island, crowded the decks and waved back to the crowds on the pier, while the Olympic flag, presented on Sunday to the contingent, fluttered bravely in the breeze from the stern. The Li Tek Seah brass band, which accompanied the athletes, played selections as the ship steamed away, bearing with her the good wishes of Penang sporting circles.
The contingent will take part in the fourth all-Malayan Chinese Olympiad to be held at Singapore from July 30 to August 2.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 28 July 1937.
Kedah was the scene of a tragic melee just after she departed Penang for Singapore on 27 September 1937:
Shortly after the s.s. Kedah left Penang yesterday at 5 o'clock in the evening for Singapore, one of the deck passengers is report to have run amok and stabbed a fellow passenger.
The injured man was treated on board, and the Kedah put back to Penang, but was held up in the channel owing to heavy rain. She eventually anchored in the roads at 10 p.m.
The Marine Police were informed and the injured man was removed to the hospital at 11 p.m. He died soon after admission.
One of the Chinese deck passengers has been arrested on suspicion. The Kedah sailed for Singapore at 6 a.m. this morning.
Malaya Tribune, 28 September 1937.
On 29 September 1937 it was reported that Song Chiam Keat had appeared in Penang Middle Court the previous day charged with murder.
After an extended hearing, the lawsuit arising over the collision between Kedah and the tongkang was finally decided on 22 November 1937, finding against Straits Steamship Co. for $7,477.
Returning from a three-day visit stay at Alor Star, H.E. the Governor General, Sir Shenton Thomas and Lady Thomas, sailed from Penang for Singapore in Kedah, on 13 December 1937.
1938
On arrival at Singapore on 10 January 1938, it was reported that a deck passenger, Pon Maria Susai, had died aboard of heart failure and had been buried at sea.
Sports and an attempted suicide both combined to make Kedah late arriving at Penang on 12 September 1938:
The Cheng Wali Athletic Association soccer tourists to Sumatra caused the s.s. Kedah to arrive late in Penang this morning.
The Malayan team played their last match at Medan yesterday evening, and had to make a hurried departure for the boat immediately after the game.
Another cause of the Kedah's late arrival was the alleged attempted suicide by a Chinese passenger during the voyage. The man was picked up in time by the crew.
A report has been made to the Police. It is understood that the man was examined in port, and was certified to be sane.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 12 September 1938.
The Governor-General, Sir Shenton Thomas, again sailed in Kedah from Singapore to Penang for an official visit, departing on 22 September 1938, but returned by air on the 24th.
Owing to her annual drydocking, this time at Penang, Kedah skipped her Penang-Belawan sailings of 2 and 9 December 1938 and and those to Singapore on the 5th and 12, resuming service on the 16th to Belawan, thence Singapore on the 19th. Krian filled on with two runs to Belawan only on the 3rd and 10th.
1939
Shortly before Kedah docked at the Swettenham Pier, Penang on the morning of 24 January 1939, a young Chinese deck passenger, Tan Koh, from Belawan died aboard, having been ill for some time and coming to the city for medical treatment.
That he was engaged in conversation with a friend and did not hear the ship's blast warning visitors to leave the ship or the vibration of the engines, was the excuse made by a Malay, Mohamed Taid, who was charged before Mr. Lim Koon Teck in the Middle Court, Penang, yesterday with being a stowaway on the s.s. Kedah from Belawan to Penang on January 29.
The captain of the s.s. Kedah said that at 6 p.m. on Sunday last after the ship had left Belawan for Penang, the chief clerk came up to the bridge and reported to him that he had found a stowaway hiding behind some vegetable baskets. He then gave instructions for the man to be detained and, on arrival of the ship at Penang, he notified the Immigration Officers and the accused was later charged.
Lee Tiang Swee, the chief clerk, gave corroborative evidence.
The accused in his defence stated that he went on board to see a friend off and was talking to him outside the lascar's quarters.
Usually there were three blasts blown before the ship left, and when he found that the ship was moving he went to see the chief clerk, who abused him. He added that he was a family man and was employed as a clerk in Belawan.
His Honour sentence the accused to five days' rigorous imprisonment and further ordered him to be sent back by the same ship on Friday next.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 31 January 1939.
Stirring scenes were seen on the Swettenham Pier yesterday afternoon the first mechanical unit from Malaya, composed of members of the Penang Engineering Association, left for Singapore by the s.s. Kedah en route to China to enlist themselves. A huge crowd gave the unit a tremendous send-off.
Members of the unit made a brave show in their smart uniform and flags. Prominent amongst them was Miss Lee Guat Bee, the 20-year-old Taiping girl, who is the only girl in the unit.
The unit will take a steamer from Singapore to Hong Kong where they will be communicate with the Chinese officials. They expect to be able to reach Chungking safely.
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle, 21 February 1939.
On 29 March 1939 H.E. Major-General William Dobbie The General Officer Commanding sailed from Singapore in Kedah for Penang to inspect the military defences there. Dobbie was one of the few who warned of Singapore's vulnerability of attack from the mainland rather by sea. He was relieved in August by Major-General Lionel Bond.
H.E. the Governor General and Lady Thomas embarked aboard Kedah on 28 September 1939 at Singapore for Penang (where he would unveil the recently erected statue at Fort Cornwallis of Capt. Francis Light, founder of the city), then on 4 October for Kuala Kangsar and back to Singapore by train.
This was the last public reference to Kedah, and a suitably imperial and ceremonial one at that, redolent of a British Malaya at the apex of its existence and like so much of the British Empire, on the eve of its unalterable change and eventual dismemberment in the wake of a second world war.
Chased all the way to the Netherlands West Indies by the Japanese air force, Kedah managed to elude serious damage by her speed and maneuverability.
The Mail, 10 June 1946.
1939-1945
Kedah was "called up" in December 1939 for use as an "Armed Auxiliary Patrol Vessel." Converted at Singapore's new and sprawling Naval Dockyard, which cost she was commissioned The conversion cost her one third of her epic funnel, but taller masts and gained her two four-inch/40 mm Mark 19 guns, one 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and she was equipped with depth charge racks.
H.M.S. Kedah (pennant no. FY035)) was finally commissioned on 25 May 1940 under the command of Commander. J.L. Sinclair. Her initial duties was to patrol Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan and British North Borneo, making regular calls to Kuching, Miri, Labuan, Jesselton and Sandakan and she pretty much constituted the Royal Navy presence in these waters at that time. Owing to more immediate requirements of the European war and evolving Battle of the Atlantic, Royal Navy strength in southeast Asia was negligible. British defense policy between the wars produced the single greatest investment of money (£60 mn or £2.5 billion in today's value) in a single project: Singapore Naval Base at Sembawang, but without a fleet to use or protect it.
In September-November 1941, Kedah participated in the so-called Miri Oilfield Denial Scheme by British forces, aided by Sawawak Oilfields Ltd to deny the Japanese, then all but poised to invade, the oil fields and infrastructure in Miri, Lutong and Seria, Serawak.
After an inspection in August 1941, it was decided to shut down most of the fields and to transfer most of the pumping equipment, machinery and spare parts to Singapore and thence to the Middle East for use there. The fields themselves were cemented in and production gradually reduced.
It fell to Kedah, with her fast speed and ideal cargo space, to transport the parts and machinery to Singapore and she made her first such voyage from Serawak to Singapore on 4 September 1941 and continued on this run through November. After evacuating the last civilians from Miri that month, Kedah was in drydock at the Singapore naval base when the Japanese invaded Malaya the following month so it was left to H.M.S. Lipis to carry out the final demolition of the oil installations at Miri.
The ensuing Japanese invasion of British Malaya which began on 8 December 1941 quickly turned into a rout and the single greatest defeat of British arms in history. Even more profound, it proved to be catalyst for the beginning of the end of The British Empire, summed up in the evacuation of white civilians from Penang in secret on 16-17th whilst the "native" population was left to fend for itself, betraying the long promised notion of "The Navy" protecting "the imperial family." The evacuations and retreats continued down the peninsula until only "Fortress" Singapore remained and that, too, did not last a fortnight. The final frantic evacuations provided Kedah, however, and the brave units of the Royal Navy, Malaysian Navy and the Merchant with their finest hours.
She was one of the last of the bigger type vessels to leave this beleaguered island. She had a most eventful journey. She was chased all the way to Batavia by the Japanese air force and her gunners shot one plane and damaged another.
The Straits Times, 18 October 1945.
Kedah participated in the last convoy to departed the besieged Lion City on 12-13 February, which came to be known as the "Empire Star convoy" after the gallant Blue Star reefer ship that carried Australian war nurses to safety despite some of the most intense air attacks on shipping yet recorded.
Kedah's master from mid 1942 through to the end of the war, Lt. Commander A.J. Allen, R.N.V.R., who was First Officer from her commissioning, contributed a wonderful account of Kedah's wartime service in The Straits Times, 18 September 1946, which included a full account of the ship's remarkable escape from Singapore:
From then [November 1941] until February 12 or 13 my memory is vague. We had our share of bombings and we did our share of operations.
After Admiral Geoffrey Layton had moved his flag to Java we were based on Batavia, and carried out many routine escort operations to and from Singapore and through the Banka and Sunda Straits.
Our last trip from Batavia to Singapore was in company with H.M.S. Durban, H.M.S. Jupiter and H.M.S. Stronghold. Before leaving Batavia Commander Sinclair called me to his cabin and said 'Well, Number One, we've got to put our head in the lion's jaws once more. We shall be expected by the yellow bellies, and they'll give us hell getting there, while we're there, AND getting back. We've to bring out the rest of the R.A.F. and between the four ships we can also bring up to 3,000 civilians."
We reached Singapore at about 10 p.m. on Feb. 11, and steamed in through the western entrance, past the burned out shell of Empress of Asia and the burning oil tanks on Pulau Bukom. We berthed alongside at Keppel Harbour, with Blakan Mati's sheels screaming over our heads, firing at the Japanese somewhere near Bukit Timah.
The R.A.F. were waiting for us, but not the 3,000 civilians. When we sailed the following morning at daybreak, we could barely muster 1,000 between the four ships. I was told by someone afterwards that the civilians had been warned to be at the docks by 5:00 p.m. and that after an hour or two a rumour passed through the crowd to the effect we had all been sunk.
The result was that most of them left to try their luck with the small craft and coasters in the roads, with, I regret to say, disastrous results in many cases.
The terrible irony of it all was that at no time were the ships officially expects before 10:00 p.m. That was our E.T.A., signalled to Singapore, before leaving Batavia, and were there on the dot.
At daybreak we left the harbour, using the Eastern Entrance and nearly ground on Peak Island through the lack of visibility due to the dense pall of oil smoke.
Soon afterwards, in the Durian Straits, we heard the sound of aircraft and bombs. Looking astern, we saw two merchantmen, the Gorgon and the Empire Star, getting pasted by Jap dive-bombers. Commander Sinclair immediately gave the order to put the wheel hard over, and we circled back to give what fire we could from out somewhat inadequate A.A. guns. One dive-bomber diverted his attention to us, but only made two runs, as we gave him everything we'd got-- including, I might add, rifle fire from the R.A.F. boys who were crowded on deck.
But that wasn't the end. In no time the high-level chaps arrived, well beyond the reach of any guns that any of us had, and for approximately four hours they came over in formation of seven and plastered us at 10-minute intervals.
I think I am right in saying that, apart from the dive-bomber attack, which unfortunately scored a hit on the Empire Star, all other attacks were concentrated on Kedah: and there was no shadow of a doubt that by drawing the 'fire' of the enemy, Commander Sinclair saved the two merchantmen at least from serious damage.
By his superb seamanship and handling of Kedah (she could almost turn in her own length) he certainly saved his ship and the lives of the many aboard her. No wonder that when we reached Batavia and the troops had been landed on the wharf, they refused to move off until Commander Sinclair had reluctantly appeared on the gangway to be cheered.
By then we knew Singapore had fallen.
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
For Kedah, officers and crew, there was no respite from her escape from Singapore and soon she was participating in yet another retreat during that darkest period of Britain's war, as again recounted by Lt. Commander A.J. Allen:
Then followed more escort work through the Sundra Straits, and another 'withdrawal' of troops and R.A.F. from Oosthaven in south Sumatra. Finally we were ordered to Tjhilijap, where we waited for a week, under immediate orders for steaming. All very secret at the time., but Commander Sinclair confided in me that we were to withdraw General Wavell's staff to Ceylon.
Looking back now, I can see the humorous side. We were very hard up for oil fuel as Kedah was not designed for ocean passages with long runs between refuelling. While we we were waiting at Tjhilijap a British tanker came in and berthed ahead of us. She had fuel oil.
I went over to ask the captain whether he would oil us-- about 300 tons. 'No,' said the dutiful captain, 'I have to discharge all my oil to the shore installation.' And I knew that Wavell was pulling out. And that the Dutch were going to capitulate, but couldn't say so! I went back and reported to my commanding officer. 'That's all right, Number One.' And soon we were alongside taking in on oil.
I don't, to this day, know what it was that Commander Sinclair said to the tanker captain, but one think I am sure of is that he didn't tell the real story.
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
Again the Japs pursued her and many vessels in the convoy were sunk during the voyage, her speed, the zig-zag course her captain adopted and her final breaking down away on her own enabled her to reach Ceylon.
The Straits Times, 18 October 1945.
Her adventures just beginning, Kedah sailed from Tjhilijap for Colombo, on 26 February 1942 having aboard General Pownell, General Wavell's Chief of Staff and the rest of his staff among the total of 400 passengers. Among those aboard were survivors of the Malayan crew members of H.M.S. Shu Kuang, sunk by the Japanese on 14 February and who landed at Padang, Sumatra, and later taken by the a light cruiser to Tjhilijap.
Again quoting from Lt. Commander A.J. Allen's later newspaper account:
Early in March, 1942 (I kept no diary for obvious reasons) we sailed from Tjhilijap with General Pownell, Chief of Staff to General Wavell and the rest of his staff-- about 400 strong, if my memory is not at fault.
During that passage, which lasted nine or ten days, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. That is, everything but a direct enemy attack. Water ran out, the boilers gave out (all the tubes sprang unstoppable leaks), and, mechanically Kedah ceased to function. No steam. No steam for propulsion, for bilge and sanitation pumps, and worst of all, no steam for generating electricity.
And while we were wallowing in the swell of the Indian Ocean, the Battle of the Java Sea was being fought astern of us. 'Enemy Reports' were coming in every minute. Ships were making sighting reports and then just fading out; and there was Kedah, not only helpless to take an active part, but a liability to herself and the valuable cargo she had aboard.
Eventually, H.M.S. Hobart was diverted to rendezvous with H.M.S. Dragon to take off her survivors, thus allowing the latter to come to us and take us in tow. And that is how Kedah, with Wavell's staff, arrived in Colombo.
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
Kedah arrived off Ceylon on 5 March 1946 and towed into Colombo harbour on the 7th. There, her crew was paid off and transferred to other ships with Commander Sinclair going to the Royal Australian Navy. Kedah finally taken to Cochin for the replacement of her boiler tubes and a badly needed major refit for several months undergoing extensive repairs.
There followed a long and tedious period while Kedah's boilers were repaired. The all-important tubes had to be made in South Africa, and the first lot were lost in transit by enemy action. Eventually Kedah sailed again, under her own steam, but with me in command. Commander Sinclair had, at his own request, been loaned to the Australian Navy, and lost his life in action in the Solomon Sea Battle.
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
From then until I left her, on being relieved in July 1945, Kedah played a more passive, but none-the-less important role in the Eastern Theatre. She became Base Ship for Coastal Forces.
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
Finally resuming service in October 1943, Kedah entered the most extended phase of her wartime career in the role of an armed boarding vessel, and later headquarters ships, for the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet and Indian Ocean operations for the retaking of Burma from the Japanese led by Admiral Mountbatten at sea and Lt. General William Slim on the ground in the second Arakan Campaign. As such, Kedah was the "mother ships" for the M.L. (motor launches) that played such a role in the Arakan Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy and the Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (BRNVR) or "Churchill's Pocket Navy" that operated in the shallow coastal waters and into the mangrove-lined rivers deep into the Arakan and the Bay of Bengal. As such, Kedah participated in the stepping stones of the Arakan campaign, being among the first Allied ships to enter the harbours of Cox Bazaar, Akyab and Ramree.
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| Original caption: Some of the fleet of Royal Navy motor launches 'mothered' by the Kedah during the Burma campaign. This picture was taken from the dock of the Kedah at Ramtree Island in March of last year. Credit: The Strait Times, 18 September 1946. |
Lt. Commander A.J. Allen brings Kedah's wartime career (and his time aboard as her commander) to a conclusion:
For operations in 1943, Kedah was based on Colombo, and that 'season' did little more than cater to the comfort of the off-duty M.L.s.
In 1944 she moved to Chittagong and 'mothered' her brood from there. At the end of the north-east monsoon, when the M.L.'s could no longer operate on the Burma, Kedah sailed for Tricomalee, where she took the 16th and 17th M.T.B. flotillas under her wing.
November, 1944, found her back at Chittagong in a new role-- 'Headquarters (Operational) Ship to the Arakan Coastal Forces."
After spending Christmas at Chittagong, Kedah moved south with the landing forces to Akyab and then to Ramree Island-- Ramree, that desolate Island guarding the entrances to countless 'chuangs'-- mangrove fjords which harboured the desperate Japanese determined to die only after giving the British the maximum amount of trouble.
This time Kedah was sent to Calcutta to refit for 'Big Day'-- the return to Malaya. Her role in this, the last act of the drama, was to be that of W/T communication ship to one of the invasion forces.
It was while she was being fitted with additional electric generators and W/T sets that I received my orders to return to United Kingdom for demobilisation. Consequently, I was not aboard when she sailed into Singapore with the triumphant forces under 'Supremo.'
The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
Now commanded by Lt. S.G.R. Morgan, R.N.V.R., aged just 25 who rose from the lower deck, with Chief Engineer Lt. Cmdr. P.T.E. Capwell, R.N.R., Kedah departed Calcutta on 5 August 1945 for Trincolmalee, where she embarked Rear-Admiral J.A.V. Morse, Flag Officer, Malaya, and staff and other senior officers and administrative officials. With the ensuing surrender of Japan, Kedah sailed from Trincomalee on the 28th for her old homeport of Singapore. Arriving at dawn on 5 September, Kedah had the honour of being the first of H.M. ships to come alongside the liberated city, berthing at 3:30 p.m..
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| Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, C in C SEAC, addressing the ship's company of H.M.S Kedah, Singapore, 28th September 1945. Credit: Imperial War Museum. |
On 28 September 1945 Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Commander-in-Chief of SEAC, inspected H.M.S. Kedah and addressed her ship's company.
"Her paying-off pennant on the was the voyage home was 103 feet long-- all the bunting that could be scrounged, but not as much as she deserved for the time she'd been in commission," (The Straits Times, 19 October 1946), Kedah departed Singapore on 7 November 1945 "to be surveyed and refitted before returning to duty under the Red Ensign." She had aboard a large number of British servicemen for repatriation and called en route at Malta, she got spent a considerable amount time there as an accommodation ship before proceeding to her birthplace.
When she was built, it was not anticipated that Kedah would ever return to Barrow, but in a world turned upside down by six years, Kedah's return to her birthplace in early 1946 was the least of matters. By the time she arrived, too, her future was clearly in doubt at least as far as being restored to service with Straits. Indeed, by the time Kedah arrived in Malta later in November 1945 there seemed no haste in getting her home and she was kept there as an accommodation ship until early March 1946 when she finally proceeded to England and arrived at Barrow.
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| Kedah at Malta. Credit: The Strait Times |
Kedah finally arrived "home" or rather her birthplace in March 1946:
People crossing the High Level Bridge, Barrow, will have noticed a grey-painted ship lying in front of the aircraft carrier [Majestic].
This vessel was built at Barrow, and has returned for the first time since she here-- vastly changed.
She is the armed auxiliary Kedah, a former Straits Steamship Company passenger vessel.
Now all the smartness is gone, the vessel's painted grey form lies in the Buccleuch dock undergoing repairs.
The Mail, 4 March 1946.
By the time Kedah reached Barrow, the decision had been made not to restore her to Straits Steamship Co. service and she was placed on the sales list.
Awaiting a decision as to her future, the grey-painted H.M.S. Kedah (3,500 tons) berthed in Ramsden Dock Basin, has had a more adventurous career than might first be imagined. She arrived at Barrow some time ago.
"Now, grey and silent, she back at her birthplace after an adventurous career. Rather different from the ship which left Barrow in 1928, but still the Kedah.
The Mail, 10 June 1946.
Kedah will always remain in my memory, and if she said a final goodbye to the Straits of Malacca, I hope the Straits Steamship Company will name a successor after her to rise and steam phoenix-like in her wake.
Lt. Commander A.J. Allen, R.N.V.R., The Straits Times, 18 September 1946.
There would be no return to the Malacca Straits for Kedah nor a new generation of express luxury coastal liners for Straits Steamship Co. after the war which had forever changed Malaya's economic and political climate. She remains, forever, the finest passenger ship ever built for service in Southeast Asia and now would go on to an improbable but important role as flagship of a new and fledgling nation.
On 25 July 1946 Kedah was moved into the Buccleuch Dock, just vacated by the 'carrier H.M.S. Majestic. Back at Ramsden Dock, by the end of the month, on 1 August it was reported that Kedah had been purchased by "a British shipping company" and that "she will shortly leave Barrow for Antwerp, Belgium, where she will be repaired."
Kedah almost never survived her first week under her new owners or her delivery Departing Barrow on August 1946 for Antwerp under tow by the Falmouth tug Empire Silas, the tow line parted in heavy weather with 20-30 ft. seas, the night of 12 August 1946. Her skeleton crew of ten under Captain N.E. Wickham was successfully taken off by the Padstow lifeboat after the heavy seas caused that based at St. Ives to turn back. Kedah was last sighted that evening, dragging her anchors and a half mile off St. Agnes. An S.O.S. from the tug towing her, Empire Silas, was answered by the Overseas Salvage and Towing Co. Salvonia "which battered through the gale around the Lizard and Land's End to a rescue dash. " (The Citizen, 12 August).
A good old fashioned West Country lifeboat rescue and salvage story brought out the best in the Western Morning News of Plymouth:
What started as a thrill for holiday-makers at St. Ives yesterday resolved itself into a grim fight for life off the dangerous North Cornish coast, where a steamer was being driven relentlessly ashore in a 50-miles-an-house gale
Radio messages received at The Land's End convey the drama that was being enacted in the storm.
1.46 p.m. (from tug Empire Silas): British steamer Kedah (Barrow for Antwerp) in my tow has parted tow off St. Agnes Head. Please advise St.Ives lifeboat.
3.8 p.m. (from Kedah): Ship dragging rapidly on beach. Both anchors down. Want to get crew off.
6.28 p.m. (from Kedah) : Still dragging, about half-mile off shore. rockets.
6.30 p.m. (from the Land's End): Padstow Lifeboat proceeding.
about 7.30 p.m. Life-saving apparatus standing by. Tug Salvonia left Falmouth to assist.
7.23 p.m. (from Kedah): Lifeboat arrived.
All crew about to leave ship, but at present anchors appear to be holding. 9.0 p.m.-Final phase in the drama of the ordeal of the crew was the yellow and green signal from the lifeboat to denote that she had taken off the men and that she was putting back to port.
Yesterday afternoon, as the wind and sea rose, Kedah parted as the her wind two ropes while she was on a lee shore off St. Agnes. Alarm was immediately raised, and St. Ives lifeboat was launched in the presence of hundreds of holiday-makers, who lined the harbour and cheered her as she went.
Outside a tremendous sea was running, and the foaming crests were visible for miles. Huge spouts of spray could been seen breaking over Godrevy Reef and smashing against the rocks on which the lighthouse stands.
Powerful as she is, St. Ives lifeboat was unable to fight against such conditions, and was forced to return to, her station, which she reached 5.30 p.m. after a three- hours struggle.
Meantime the men on board the Kedah had dropped two anchors, but these are not sufficient to hold her, and she is slowly and surely creeping towards the cliffs.
On the information that St. Ives lifeboat would' have to return to her station, Padstow lifeboat was launched.
St. Agnes L.S.A, team has been summoned, and they are standing by on the cliff opposite the drifting vessel.
Someone at St Agnes Head told a Western Morning News reporter that Kedah was rolling and pitching in a heavy sea and a gale of wind about a mile off shore. Watchers who had been on the Head all through the afternoon and evening said she had drifted about four miles since she had begun to drag her anchors.
Throughout the afternoon St. Agnes lifesaving crew stood by under Coastguard W. Sparrock. With them their rocket apparatus was ready for the first opportunity to fire a rocket line across the vessel and run out a breeches buoy. They contemplated attempting to fire a line to the Kedah while it was still light, but decided that in such a gale and at such long range it was a sheer impossibility.
Up to 7.30 p.m. the tug from which the Kedah had broken loose could be dimly seen through the driving rain standing off the bigger vessel, apparently waiting for a chance to get in sufficiently close to take off the crew. In such seas, however, such a task was plainly impossible.
After 7.30 the tug was not again seen, and it was assumed she had returned to Falmouth and handed over her to the Padstow lifeboat.
By this time the Kedah had drifted slowly eastwards, still dragging her two anchors, and the lifesaving crew transferred their apparatus to Cligger Point, a headland just west of Perranporth, towards which the vessel was being slowly driven by the gale. The local N.F.S. were also standing by in case their fire rescue apparatus could be of use if the vessel were driven ashore.
In the meantime, Padstow lifeboat had beaten her way down from Trevose Head, and through powerful glasses from the shore it was possible to follow her attempts to put alongside the Kedah and take off the crew. As darkness began to fall she was seen to pull in from the stern to the leeward of the Kedah and vanish behind the bulk bigger vessel from the sight of the anxious watchers on the shore, Then at 9 p.m. a yellow and green signal told them that lifeboat had safely taken off the crew. In the last fleeting minutes of daylight the lifeboat could be dimly seen to pull away from the Kedah and head for Padstow.
Western Morning News, 13 August 1946.
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| Credit: Western Morning News, 15 August 1946. |
On the evening of 14 August 1946, Salvonia brought the Kedah into Falmouth. She lay in Carrick Roads awaiting orders to either dock there or proceed to Antwerp and without both anchors, remained in the charge of Slavonia amid claims of £70,000 salvage for the vessel said to be worth £200,000.
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| Credit: The Daily Telegraph, 15 August 1946. |
Her bosun, James Smith of Liverpool, denied the ship was a derelict when they abandoned her in the gale and was anchored. 'We put out from St. Ives in a fishing boat and when we got near Saint Agnes Head we found the Kedah under tow. Captain Wickham shouted to the tug's skipper to ease us from the towing but the tugman shouted back telling us to shear off and get to St. Ive. He would not allow on board. When we left the Kedah on Monday she was held securely by two anchors and was certainly not adrift.' (Indian Daily Mail, 16 August 1946).
It was additionally reported that Kedah was now owned by Harris and Dickson, London, and an representative of the firm told reporters: "There will be, of course, a salvage claim in this matter. More than that at this stage we cannot say."
Once again, the Western Morning excelled themselves with a comprehensive account of the salvage operation:
How the prize crew from the tug Salvonia risked death to board s.s. Kedah off St. Agnes on Tuesday was told to a Western Morning News reporter yesterday at Falmouth by First Officer Joseph Bacon, a Falmouth man and a Normandy Beach O.B.E., who was the first man to make the jump as the tug was lifted 15ft. above steamer's main deck.
Bacon, standing on the port side lamp bracket of the tug, jumped with a line in his hand when his reared high above the Kedah the crest of a gigantic wave.
It was the second attempt the Salvonia had made to put a prize crew aboard the steamer. On the occasion, a few minutes before, Bacon had narrowly missed disaster as, when he was poised to jump, the bows of the tug crashed down on to the main deck of the Kedah, smashing in her rails and tearing away part of the iron and wood protective belting of the tug.
These incidents took place after the Salvonia had had what the chief officer described as 66 a murderous trip around The Lizard and The Land's End and had stood by the steamer off St Agnes for 12 hours.
The arrival of the Salvonia (Capt. R. G. Jones) and her charge in Falmouth Roads yesterday morning carried to another stage a story which already had several exciting incidents.
Kedah's tow rope broke in a 70 m.p.h. gale on a lee shore off North Cornwall on Monday. Her crew of ten dropped two anchors, but they failed to hold and the Padstow lifeboat took the men off. At the last moment her anchors held. and she was within 800 yards of the rocks when the Falmouth tug put a prize crew aboard.
Two hours after they had taken her in tow Capt N. E. Wickham and the crew of the Kedah, in a St. Ives fishing boat. intercepted her and tried to reboard her, but they were frustrated by the prize crew who hauled up everything that could be used to board the vessel.
The Kedah's captain returned to St. Ives and travelled overland to Falmouth yesterday morning. He was in Lloyd's office shortly after his steamer had been towed into the bay.
'It's a very abnormal position altogether,' he told a Western Morning News reporter. 'I do not know whether he will get away with it legally, because in my opinion the ship was in no danger at the time. I had to wait until the weather moderated before I put out from St. Ives. and when I got to the scene the Salvonia was already under way, with Kedah in tow. I asked the tug skipper to stop and he refused.
I made up my mind to jump aboard the Kedah while she was moving as the scrambling nets and ladders we had used when we were taken off by the lifeboat were still hanging over the sides. But as we closed in the men on board guessed my intention and hauled them on to the deck. I had no alternative but to let them proceed.
I still consider the Kedah is my responsibility-1 have got the ship's papers in my pocket.
If she comes in I shall board her." It' is a very abnormal position altogether," he told a Western Morning News reporter.
The attitude of the Salvonia, according to Chief Off. Bacon. is that it was a straightforward salvage job and that they were perfectly justified in preventing Capt. Wickham and his boarding the Kedah.
Chief Off. Bacon said he had seldom been out in worse weather than the Salvonia experienced in beating around The Lizard and The Land's End.
With the chief officer in the boarding party were Second Steward M. Richards, of St. Austell: Boatswain D. Harcus, and Ord., Smn. J. Grant, both Scotsmen; and M. Portman, of New Forest, the ship's cook.
With the line I had taken aboard we hauled in the thick towing hawser, buoyed the Kedah's anchor cablesand slipped them over the side." the Chief Officer said. was a tremendous job, as the Kedah's winches had no steam everything had to be done by hand, and there were only five of us. It took us 34 hours to make the hawser fast.
II should think the Kedah is worth about £200,000. That means the better part of £70,000 in salvage." Conferences are taking place between Kedah's owners and the tug company to decide whether Salvonia shall take the steamer direct to Antwerp, her original destination.
Meanwhile, as she is without anchors of her own, she is being held by the Salvonia in Falmouth Roads.
Western Morning News, 15 August 1946.
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| Salvonia towing Kedah into Falmouth Harbour. Credit: mauritius images. |
Berthing at Falmouth on 15 August 1946, Kedah resumed her tow to Antwerp by the tug Silas on the 19th.
On 18 September 1946 the Royal National Lifeboat Society awarded medals and citations to the crew of Padsow lifeboat who save the Kedah's crew.
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| ZIM poster advertising Kedmah, printed in 1947, designed by Shamir Bros. Credit: Kadem Auctions. |
One summer day in 1947, a ship about to sail from the London docks made history when it raised a new flag: the blue-and-white pennant of the Jewish national movement. There was a commotion on the riverside. “Thousands crowded onto the shores of the Thames," an observer recorded:
This was the first time in history that seamen’s orders were given in Hebrew at the Thames dock. The appearance of the lovely Jewish ship with the Jewish crew on the Thames made a strong impression not only on the Jewish groups but also on the British trade and shipping classes.
The ship, SS Kedmah, was the very first vessel belonging to the Zionist movement’s new shipping company, ZIM. It was sailing for the Land of Israel, still under British control, where its arrival was occasion for a national celebration in the Jewish home. Crowds came to the Tel Aviv beach to see the ship steam in, and five Piper Cubs flew an honor guard overhead (one carried Golda Meir). Children waved flags, and Zionist leaders delivered speeches praising what was then called the “conquest of the sea.”
Matti Friedman, Jewish Review of Books, Winter 2020.
Kedmah is a Jewish ship all right, pervaded by a Jewish atmosphere, and a 'home from home' to the travelling citizens of Israel. She has all Jewish crew from the captain to cabin boy, and there nothing but praise for the efficiency, resourcefulness and politeness of her sailors and stewards. For the newcomers, to observe these hundred, mostly very young Jewish seamen, is a first and very impressive object lesson on life in Israel.
The Palestine Post, 12 November 1948.
Few ships or lines had as their inspiration, indeed, necessity as did the former Kedah and the nascent Jewish Zim shipping company. What had been a goal and a dream of the Zionist Movement beginning in the mid 'thirties aroused by the systematic persecution and expulsion of Jews from Nazi Germany-- a Jewish homeland in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine-- became a necessity and inevitability in the wake of the Holocaust and immediate post-war pogroms in Poland, Eastern Europe and the USSR. So that in addition to the 50,000-60,000 survivors of the death camps and postwar displacements, some 250,000 Jews in total were languishing in various "D.P." (Displaced Persons) camps in Allied or Western zones.
Against this tide of people and passion to recreate a Jewish homeland in Palestine was British policy attempting to govern an impossible region already wracked by Arab-Jewish violence. Legal Jewish immigration remained limited by the Chamberlain era "White Paper" of 1939, capping the Jewish population to one third of the total or 75,000 by 1944. This became impossible after the war given the sheer numbers of Jewish D.P.s so the British authorised a quota of 1,500 "certificates" a month.
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| The voyage of the Haganah chartered Exodus from France to Palestine in July 1947 carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees captured the world's attention but at the same time the first Israeli flag immigrant ship for "legal" immigration, the former Kedah, was on her maiden voyage. |
All this elicited the first real action of sustained Jewish nationalism, the Aliyah Bet or clandestine immigration via a network (Haganah) throughout Europe which attempted to smuggle immigrants into Palestine, made all the more difficult as it was almost entirely by sea. Of the 80,000 who attempted the passage in a rag-tag flotilla, over 50,000 were detained at sea and interned in D.P. camps in British controlled Cyprus, there being by 1946, some 30,000 there in wretched conditions, creating na enormous public relations disaster for Britain. In February 1947, Britain conceded the issue for resolution to the new United Nations which eventually decided in November 1947 for the partition of Palestine to create a Jewish state.
So it was from the very beginning that ships and free navigation of the sea routes to Palestine and a new Jewish State became a primary goal of Zionist ambitions and plans during the 1945-47 period. If s.s. Exodus was the supreme maritime symbol of Jewish determination to the world, what was already being developed was far more permanent to populate a new homeland.
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| A section of the Caraolo Jewish immigrant camp near Famagusta, Cyprus, 29 November 1946. Credit: AP |
1946
As soon as the final shots of the Second World War were fired in Europe, the embattled Jewish community of British-ruled Palestine decided to set up a shipping line to serve the prospective Jewish immigrants to the Promised Land. Eventually, most immigrants had to come aboard “Exodus" —type illegal blockade-runners. But those who came legally, were carried by the old “Kedmah”, Zim’s first passenger vessel. Owned by the Israeli Government, Jewish Agency, labor organizations and maritime unions, Zim proved of decisive importance in the 1948 War of Independence.
The New Palestine, 1 March 1961.
The immediate inspiration for and decision to purchase the first Jewish-owned and operated passenger liner came from one principal individual in the Zionist movement who had long advocated for the development of merchant marine and port facilities for the modern Jewish State in Palestine: Bar-Kochba Meirovitz.
Born Rishon LeZion in 1897, the eldest son of Menashe Meirovitz, a well-known pioneer of the early Bilu Zionist immigrant movement, his roots in agriculture initially led to an improbable role in forming the foundations for the eventual new Jewish State's maritime and later, air, transportation. In the early 1930s, he served on a sub-committee that formally proposed building a dedicated pier and port facility in Tel Aviv, creating a port independent from Jaffa. By 1946, he served as the director of the Maritime Department of the Jewish Agency during the critical pre-statehood period of the late 1940s. In this role, Meirovitz was the leading exponent of the essential of having its own merchant marine to carry the immigrants to populate a new nation as well as carrying the produce of local agriculture to foreign markets that defined an independent, self-resource country and people, and also link it to the world.
All of the factors, combined with Zionist zeal coalesced in 1946 when Jewish immigration to Palestine was still controlled by the British Mandate there yet more essential to carry the ravaged survivors of Nazi death camps and forced displacement packing "D.P." (Displaced Persons) camps and formed the human necessity and aroused the spirit to populate and found a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Essential in this, Israel's founding, were ships… and a people not hitherto known for maritime experience or the need to immediately cultivate it. The beginning of the Jewish state as exemplified in the s.s. Exodus, remarkably and suddenly elevated Meirovitz's theories to essential necessity. The Zionist ideal could only be achieved by ships, Jewish ships, to carry the human foundations for it. All this when Hebrew then had no word for "crew" and no ships for them.
A first step, already taken, was the founding of what was then known as ZIM Palestine Navigation Co. Ltd. on 7 June 1945 by the Jewish Agency, the Hisradrut (General Federation of Labourers in Israel) and the Israel Maritime League (dating from 1937) and from the beginnings, ZIM formed the nucleus of Israeli overseas shipping. It and the future state of Israel's very first ship was an improbable choice indeed, the idle Kedah.
In 1946, ships were few with the majority of passenger vessels still actively engaged in government service as transports and the most immediate global transportation need was the repatriation of the vast Allied armies that were fairly scattered across the world rather than resettle the civilian flotsam and jetsam of a war ravaged globe. Most of these, too, would eventually be returned to their peacetime owners and commercial duties.
Years after the ship had been purchased, the events and personalities leading up to it were widely debated and indeed criticised in Israel with, of course, the considerable wisdom over the passage of time:
A brief news item appeared in the papers announcing the resignation of Mr. Bar Kochba Meyerovitch, Director General of the Ministry of Communications. For the new immigrants, this is just another minor news item: one civil servant leaves, another arrives, and the bureaucracy remains...
But for us, the veterans, that name evokes so many memories. When, in 1935, the Jewish Agency decided to create a maritime division, to whom did it turn to find its director? The maritime branch? Never. That would have been in blatant contradiction with its traditional policy. No.
It approached the Ministry of Agriculture. Quite simply. And so it was that Bar Kochba Meyerovitch, son of a farming family from Rishon LeZion, became, by the magic wand of the Histadrut, the Prince Charming of our maritime activities, which had been neglected for twenty centuries. Upon assuming power, Mr. Meyerovitch discovered an irresistible hobby: collecting unusable ships. Thanks to him, we soon became a museum of all the vessels that could no longer operate elsewhere. Our ports became a junkyard for all the detritus of the international navy. The finest specimen in this entire collection was undoubtedly the Kedmah, a pleasure yacht intended for the tranquil river navigation of Asia. Incapable of seaworthiness, the once-fortunate vessel had to undergo numerous surgical interventions. Its upper deck was cut off, and then the stern and bow were reattached. His ribs were broken, his digestive tract was butchered, his respiratory system was shortened, he was mutilated from every angle—in short, he got his money's worth: a million pounds, good Palestinian pounds. Under pressure from public outrage, the Jewish Agency had to resign itself to appointing a commission of inquiry, which established some very curious things. For example, the Kedmah had been bought without first undergoing a technical inspection. The price had been somewhat inflated. The crew tasked with taking possession of the ship after its repairs arrived in Antwerp a few months too early and led a merry life there.
At the expense of the princess, in this case, the Jewish Agency. Mr. Meyerovitch did not deny these facts. No expert appraisal? But who could doubt the good faith of the seller, a British gentleman if ever there was one? Exaggerated price? This was at a time when boats were highly sought after and virtually impossible to find. Premature departure of the crew? But the technical aspects were not his responsibility. This entire investigation, which resulted in an unfavorable report, did not, of course, harm Mr. Meyerovitch's career in the slightest. On the contrary, it earned him a promotion, as was generally the attitude of the Jewish Agency in such cases. Mr. Meyerovitch was thus able to continue indulging in his favorite pastime. We soon became the proud owners of a flotilla whose vessels were constantly undergoing repairs, either at home or abroad.
And when someone once drew the attention of one of Mapai's leading figures to the significant financial losses this hobby was imposing on Zionism, the only response he received was: “These are the costs of learning.”
Le Journal de Jerusalem, 28 February 1952
With demand high, ships few and lacking the contacts and expertise required to navigate the "used ship" trade, Zim decided to engage the cooperation with old hands in the shipping agency and marine insurance in what was still the epicenter of the world shipping trade: London and the 180-year-old firm, dating from 1797, of Harris and Dixon, Ltd., whose principal shareholders were Lords Wimborne and Kilmarnock, and whose connections and reputation were equally valued at a time of great delicacy between the British Mandate officials of Palestine and Zionist ambitions to establish a Jewish state there, to be populated by immigrats brought there by a new fleet of Jewish owned and operated ships.
So it was that an Anglo-Jewish combine set in stage the birth of the future Israel Merchant Marine. A jointly held subsidiary, capitalised for £P250,000, Kedem Palestine Line, was founded in June 1946, and first announced 22nd World Zionist Congress in June 1946. Its principal directors were appointed by Zim (two) and one by Harris and Dixon, the latter being primarily concerned with the technical and marine aspects of the new firm which would be based in Haifa, the new firm being registered in Palestine, ships to fly the Israeli flag and all employees ashore and afloat, where possible, be Jewish. Indeed the contract between Harris and Dixon and ZIM included this essential all Jewish element and to service the interest of the eventual state of Israel.
The final agreement to form the company was London was made a few days ago [sic]. Viscount Wimborne and Mr. Charles Edmonds, chairman and managing director respectively of Harris and Dixon, signed on behalf of that company, Mr. Bar-Cochba Merovitch and Mr. Hilel Dan signing, as directors, for Zim Palestine Navigation. understand that the agreement provides for Harris and Dixon acting as managers of the new company for an initial period of 15 years.
First ship has already been purchased. It is the Kedmah, is expected make its maiden voyage towards the end of next month. Directors of the company hope shortly to increase the capital and place orders for further vessels with British shipyards.
Man largely responsible for the successful outcome of the negotiations, which have been going on for six months, is Dr. Joseph Sagall. Dr. Sagall is a strong believer in the theory that Anglo Palestine co-operation in financial and industrial matters may eventually result in better political understanding.
Evening Standard, 24 January 1947.
In view of ensuing events concerning the ship's suitability and initial reliability or rather lack thereof, it is worth stressing that Harris and Dixon and their consultants and experts engaged for the purpose, were responsible for selecting, appraising and purchasing Kedah. On paper and indeed in reality a ship built for an overnight, high speed-run in mostly coastal waters with light draught and very powerful and sophisticated machinery, and with water and fuel capacity befitting her original 350-mile route, was not ideal for Zim's proposed main route between Haifa and Marseilles, some 1,875 miles.
What Kedah was was cheap and available. Sold in July 1946 "as she lies" and under sealed bid, Harris and Dixon got her for all of £P75,000 (Palestine Pounds which was equal to Pound Sterling). Under the terms of the sale, there was no below decks examination of her machinery and tank tops etc., only a cursory external appraisal, but Harris and Dixon and their consultants including a naval architect and former passenger manager of White Star, were satisfied they had the makings of a suitable ship for what was, especially at the onset, an immigrant vessel, but one with the speed and potential appeal to be a competitive inter Mediterranean express liner, indeed the fastest in those waters, as she in the Straits of Malacca.
At the suggestion of Dr. D. Remez, Chairman of the General Council of Palestine Jews and a member of the Executive of the Palestine Maritime League, Kedah would renamed Kedmah, Hebrew for "Eastward" and an apt name for a liner who main purpose was to fulfill the Zionist ideal of ending 2,000 of exile and return to the homeland to the east on ships just like her under the Jewish flag and with all an Jewish crew.
If buying a suitable passenger ship in mid 1946 was difficult, finding a ship repair facility to restore it to service was even more challenging amid crowded yards, material and labour shortages. Harris and Dixon set on Antwerp's Guthrie and Mordoch Shipyard to execute a total repair and refit and expansion of accommodation estimated to cost £P65,000 but not factoring any major engine repairs and to take four to six months. Given the war ravaged conditions of Antwerp and a yard whose capacity was not equal to the project, Kedmah was destined to languish there for the best part of 11 months not four let alone six and "Eastwards" seemed more symbolic than achievable halfway through.
Unfortunately details on the extent of her conversion, detailed in British shipping journals of the era, are not available on-line owing to "copyright" (grr!) constraints. Essentially Kedmah's original First Class accommodation was retained, with 120 berths, and a new Tourist Class, for 140, built on the Main Deck, her stern deckhouse restored for officers and crew, her Boat Deck was uncovered and side screens removed, new gravity davits fitted to provide for three boats on either side and the permanent awning over the forecastle also removed. Kedmah's passenger figures, too, were "fluid" and in the early important days of taking as many Jews out of the D.P. camps in Cyprus as quickly as possible right after Israeli independence, she carried some 600 per trip with deck passengers sleeping in every nook and cranny.
Wasting no time, Kedmah was at Antwerp by the end of July 1946 but that was that last expeditious aspect of her Scheldt sojourn. By September, progress lagged, unbudgeted bills for replacement parts came in neverending quantity and ZIM management far away in Haifa complained about being keep in the dark as to real progress or a practical timetable towards completion.
1947
If Kedmah's conversion dragged into the New Year, the project itself finally figured "in the news" both in Britain and Palestine for first time to any degree. The Palestine Post, 26 February 1947, hopefully reporting that the ship "is expected to make her maiden voyage towards the end of February."
It was reported on 4 April 1947 that Kedmah would made her maiden voyage "next month" and on 2 May the Palestine Post reported that "the eagerly awaited M/S [sic] Kedmah is about to start on her maiden voyage here."
By April 1947, ZIM's patience with the project approached breaking point and a report that month by their visiting representative related that the Harris and Dixon foreman had been absent for more than two weeks, "the work is in a discouraging state. They build and demolish, build and demolish… there is still no light, there is still no water, there is still no paint.. There are two hundred workers or more, with no supervision, with no organization… but Mr. Austin [Harris and Dixon head engineer] stresses' but a lot of work has been done." (report by ZIM's Gusta Strumpf-Rechav, quoted in The Test of Maritime Sovereignty: The Establishment of the Zim National Shipping Company and the Purchase of the 'Kedmah', 1945–1952". Harris and Dixon countered that the 1946's severe winter had impacted progress as did a supply of replacement parts from Vickers, lack of general materials and strikes (one of which cost the project two months on its own). There was also the realisation that the former Kedah's delicate machinery had really been damaged in those near misses some five years ago in Singapore. In the end, what had cost £P75,000 to own, cost another £P280,000 to make good or nearly.
In late May 1947 it was announced that Kedmah's new service would have her depart from Haifa on alternate Wednesday, calling at Limassol, Genoa, Marseilles and Tel Aviv, carrying 120 First Class, 140 Tourist Class passengers, 450 tons of cargo and 40 tons of mail. The passage time from Marseilles to Haifa was set at five days.
Meanwhile building a nascent Jewish merchant marine, the Palestine Maritime League maintained the Haifa Nautical School, also fostered maritime training by annual grants of money and equipment to nautical sports organisations, providing boats for school children in coastal settlements and establishing camps for nautical instructors. In 1947 a nautical camp was held at Athlit, attracting 60 participants (57 boys and three girls) among them members of the Sea Scouts of Tel Aviv and Haifa as well as crew of the training ship Valdrora (100-grt) of the Haifa Nautical School.
With the ship finally "almost done" and with another strike looming, it was agreed in late May 1947 to get Kedmah out of Antwerp and complete finishing touches in Haifa. As it turned out, the complete ship's company arrived at Antwerp a good two weeks early and kicked their heels on full salary. Per the agreement with Harris and Dixon, the crew was indeed all Jewish save positions that could not be filled owing to lack of experience: Captain, chief engineer and assistant engineers and it was already conceded that the former Kedah's sophisticated high performance turbines were not an ideal "schooling" experience for future Jewish marine engineers.
The 3,000-ton Palestinian steamer, Kedmah, is expected to make her maiden voyage from London to Palestine in July, carrying an all-Jewish crew of 90 and 250 passengers. After her first she will voyage ply between Haifa and Marseilles. The Kedmah, which is being equipped for combined passenger and freight traffic, is the first of a series of Jewish manned ships which will carry goods manufactured in Palestine to every part of the world.
The Palestine Post, 27 May 1947.
There was no doubting, despite delays and huge expenses, that a lot was still riding on Kedmah, not only her practical role at the critical stage of Jewish immigration from overcrowded D.P. camps to Palestine, but her role as Ship of State for the new Zionist Nation, literally showing the light blue and white colours of Israel for the first time on the high seas and carrying them into very heart of what was the centre of the greatest shipping industry and fleet in the world: London.
Departing Antwerp on 13 July 1947, gleaming in fresh white paint, bearing the ZIM funnel colours that evoked and predated the Israeli national flag, Kedmah arrived in the Thames the following afternoon to a reception and press coverage that made all forget for a moment what had taken to get her there and what still needed to be done.
The Jewish ship Kedmah arrived in the Thames Estuary yesterday afternoon [14 July] from Antwerp. The Jewish flag was hoisted while the ship waited at Tower Bridge for the tide to subside.
Later in the afternoon the Kedmah, watched by a huge, crowd, passed under the opened bridge and anchored off London Bridge. She was floodlit at night, with the Shield of David prominently displayed. This was the first time the Jewish flag has been displayed on the Thames.
Owing to the ship's delayed arrival, the consecration ceremony of its synagogue was postponed. It is expected that she will be leave for Palestine within the next few days.
Palestinian Post, 15 July 1947.
The Kedmah, which will leave London for Haifa under the Palestinian flag to-morrow, is the first Jewish passenger ship. She is to run once a fortnight from Marseilles to Haifa and carry about 140 emigrants on each trip. All but two of crew of 94 are Palestinian Jews, the food served will be kosher, and the ship contains a synagogue which has been given by the Anglo-Jewish community The Kedmah is taking to the Great Synagogue at Tel Aviv the scroll of the law, which accompanied Jewish troops the Eighth Army through the North African and Italian campaigns.
The Guardian, 17 July 1947.
It was not, however, until the evening of 16 July 1947 that Kedmah (under Captain J.J. Morrison) sailed from London on her maiden voyage to Palestine. She left with 70 emigrants and would embark another 200 displaced persons at Marseilles. "Her passengers [embarking at London] included twenty-five Hebrew school teacher, going to a conference in Jerusalem, members of the "Hebrew for All" group attached to the Council of Jewish Emigration, and immigrants." (Liverpool Daily Post, 17 July). Ironically Kedmah's maiden voyage coincided almost exactly with the far more publicised voyage of the Haganah refugee ship Exodus that same month.
What had already been evidenced on the short run from Antwerp to London-- friction between the English and Jewish crew-- came to fore during the long delivery voyage to Palestine, exacerbated by mechanical issues that would plague the ship for her first year. Fresh water ran low with none for bathing and little for cooking, and two days before arriving at Palestine, salt water somehow got into the boilers, causing the lighting to fail along with refrigeration and kitchen equipment, with both factions of the crew blaming each other for introducing salt water into the boiler feed system.
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| Kedmah arrives off Tel Aviv for the first time. Credit: facebook |
On 28 July, the Kedmah finally docked at Tel Aviv port. Its arrival was heralded by great excitement and pride on a national scale. Yishuv dignitaries were invited, and Tel Aviv port was decorated with flags. The Hebrew date of arrival was also symbolic-- the ninth of Av, the date of the destruction of the first and second Temples; thus a symbol of consolation and renewal. The first Jewish ship to be owned by Yishuv institutions at the shores of Tel Aviv, the first modern Jewish city, reflected great hope for the Yishuv in maritime independence.
The Test of Maritime Sovereignty: The Establishment of the Zim National Shipping Company and the Purchase of the Kedmah, 1945–1952
Arriving off Tel Aviv on 28 July 1947, with a total of 195 Jewish immigrants, among them survivors of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Kedmah again fulfilled her Ship of State role and more importantly brought the first of the many thousands of Jews home she would carry in her ensuing career. After disembarking 104 passengers and sailed at night with 84 passengers for Haifa.
With her decks festooned from prow to stern and a flight of five Palestine Aviron's Company plane's droning overhead, Palestine's first post-war passenger liner, the Kedmah, steamed into the roadstead this morning on her trial run from Antwerp.
The ship disembarked 104 passengers and sailed at night with 84 passengers for Haifa. On Wednesday she is due to commence a regular fortnightly service between Haifa and Marseilles.
The Kedmah sailed from Antwerp, where she was refitted, and picked up a party of visitors in London, many of them delegates to the Education Conference in Jerusalem. In Marseilles refugees, including survivors from the Bergen Belsen death camps, came on board.
The port here was decorated with flags and crowded with prominent citizens when the trim vessel, freshly painted white and trimmed in blue, came in, three hours late.
A delegation had earlier flown up to meet the ship in the Palestine Aviron's Company De Havilland, but the plane was unable to locate the Kedmah. The party included Mr. D. Remez, Chairman of the General Council of Palestine Jews (Vaad Leumi), Mrs. Goldie Myerson [Goldie Meir, future Prime Minister of Israel] and Mr. I. Gruenbaum, of the Jewish Agency Executive and Mr. U. Michael of the Aviron Company. The party returned to the port and were among the 300 visitors to board the vessel. Others included the Mayor, Mr. I Rokach, the Vice Mr. E . Perl Mayor, son, Mr. E . Kaplan, Treasurer of the Jewish Agency Executive and Mr. J. Sprinzak of the General Federation of Labour.
The visitors were shown over the vessel by Jewish naval officers, looking smart in their fresh white British-type uniforms. The Captain as well as the Chief and 2nd Engineers are Scotsmen, the other 90-odd members of the crew being Jewish.
In the afternoon, Mr. D. Remez called American Jewry to try to help to develop Jewish air and steamship services between New York and Palestine. The American Zionist leader, Dr. Israel Goldstein, and Mr. I. Hamlin, the American Jewish Labour leader, promised their help when they return home.
The owners of the 3,504-ton ship are the Kedem Palestine Line Ltd., in which Messrs. Harris and Dixon, a noted British shipping company and the Zim Navigation Company are equal partners. They hope to add a larger ship within the next six months if the Kedmah service is successful, and to operate a weekly service.
The Kedmah was built by Vickers in 1927 and before the war plied the Far East route, passenger accommodation is for 120 First class and 140 Tourist Class.
Among those who came to watch the arrival of the Kedmah was Mr. Bernard Marks, the Captain of the Exodus 1947, who was detained in Haifa but released on bail. He told a Palestine Post reporter She is one of the best little jobs sailing the Mediterranean these days, and he could understand the excitement of all the people present. I have been on ships with all Jewish crews before, he said but it must be a great thrill for them to serve on a Jewish vessel.
Palestine Post, 28 July 1947.
Kedmah's maiden departure from Haifa, scheduled for 31 July 1947 was delayed to the evening of 1 August, with over 200 booked and "last minute booking still being made." A reception was held aboard the afternoon of the the 30th with 200 guests present, including senior government officials.
At a time when Jewish immigration to Palestine was still under British control on a quota system, it was reported on 11 August 1947 that 750 Jewish immigrants were in Cyprus and "will be transported in a ship chartered by the Jewish agency-- possibly the modern Jewish-owned passenger liner Kedmah."
A group of 410 Jews with immigration certificates arrived at Marseilles on 7 August 1947 from Bergen Belsen, of whom 150 embarked on Kedmah along with 100 others the following day for Israel. On the 10th, she made "an unscheduled call for fuel" at Valletta, Malta, en route from Marseilles to Haifa, occasioned by the refusal of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. to refuel the ship at Marseilles despite signing a new contract and the ship refuelled there in July.
Instead, Kedmah had to divert 100 miles to Valletta, Malta, where she arrived late on 9 August 1947 and as it was dark, could enter the harbour until the following morning and await her turn refuelling so that she could get away until 1:00 a.m. on the 11th. Thirty-three hours late, she arrived at Haifa on the 13th. A claim for damages was filed in London by the Kadem Palestine Line against the Anglo-Iranian Co.. Due to sail from Haifa for Marseilles on the 15th with 180 passengers aboard. Kedmah, instead, was laid up there for repairs for one week and her passengers rebooked "on a French vessel calling on Monday [18th] or an Italian boat due to leave on Tuesday." Finally docking at Haifa on late on the 14th, she landed her 172 passengers the next morning, among them 154 who had been at Bergen-Belsen, including 20 orphans aged between 7 and 10 who had been brought to Israel under the Youth Aliyah Scheme.
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| Not an altogether happy place at least early in her career under the Israeli flag: Kedmah's engine room. Credit: The National Library of Israel Photography Collection. |
It became clear that ship was in trouble; it was consuming far too much water and fuel; the boilers and machinery constantly had sediment, posing a threat to the turbines; the fresh water containers were insufficient for the boilers and passengers; and pumps and auxiliary machinery on the ship were not working correctly. An engineer who examined the ship in Haifa determined that the repairs in Antwerp had evidently not been completed and that the crew had also not tended to the ship properly while sailing.
The Test of Maritime Sovereignty: The Establishment of the Zim National Shipping Company and the Purchase of the Kedmah, 1945–1952.
Kedmah then underwent repairs by Solel Boneh and the Haifa Engineering Works. It was also stated the reason that she could not be refuelled at Marseilles was due to a shortage of fuel there. This began a long string of mechanical problems, schedule delays, missed sailings, unexpected calls ports off route for fuel or water, all indicating not all was well "below decks" or with in office or shipyard management to deal with a litany of problems.
Kedmah resumed service upon her departure from Haifa on 29 August 1947 for Limassol, Genoa and Marseilles with 230 passengers aboard.
Sailing from Haifa on 12 September 1947, Kedmah was held up that week on arrival at Marselles as a result of a fresh survey carried out by Lloyds there. This and because of Yom Kippur, she did not sail for Haifa until the 25th, "the surveyor having expressed his satisfaction with her condition," (Palestine Post, 26 September). A revised sailing schedule had next departure for Limossol, Genoa and Marseilles on 8 October but this was frustrated by more issues getting bunkers and on the 7th it was reported the ship had been delayed at Rhodes trying to get fuel and "expected in Haifa later this week."
When Kedmah finally arrived at Haifa on 8 October 1947, two weeks late, with 190 immigrants and 60 returning residents, it was clear something was wrong with her machinery.
The vessel will be docked until the cause of the trouble, thought to be in the auxiliary engine, is definitely determined and will not sail until her seaworthiness is certified by experts. A consultation is to be held tomorrow between the management of Kadem Ltd. and marine engineers.
The Kedmah has been having engine troubles since was overhauled in Antwerp last year, and even when she began her service on the Mediterranean route in August, she was delayed for several days.
This time she broke down in Marseilles after obtaining sufficient fuel for her return trip to Haifa. A British surveyor was consulted and temporary repairs were made, as well as two trial runs, and at the cabled request of the company here, the surveyor sailed on the vessel.
Adjustments had to be made again at Genoa and at Naples and then the ship was forced to stop at Rhodes off the route, having run out of water and oil.
Palestine Post, 9 October 1947.
On 2 November 1947 Lord Kilmarnock, vice chairman of Harris and Dixon, arrived at Haifa "in connection with the s.s. Kedmah." Matters came to head when on the 26th, the 60-man crew of the ship went on strike at 8:00 a.m. and "demanded the discharge of the Marine Superintendent of Harris and Dixon Company who supervised repairs of the ship in Antwerp last year and who arrived here from England yesterday. In the opinion of the men, the Superintendent was not doing all that was necessary for the proper repair and functioning of the ship, and they claim that public funds were being wasted." (Palestine Post, 27 November). The strike was called off by noon when the Haifa Labour Council stepped in for negotiations and asked for the superintendent's dismissal. The Jewish Seaman's Union had already requested a public investigation into the overhaul of Kedmah which they claimed was still "unseaworthy."
On 3 December 1947 it was reported that the strike by Kedmah's crew was called off after the arbitrator ruled that the request to dismiss Mr. Allen, the Marine Superintendent, was justified but that he could not be summarily fired owing to certain contractual obligations with the partners in England. But it was decreed "that a Jewish expert should also be hired to supervise the repairing of the vessel, and that Mr. Allen should refrain from vain criticism of the crew." (Palestine Post, 3 December). A commission was also appointed to investigate the affairs of the Kadem Palestine Line, something the company said it welcomed but its report and findings were a very long time in coming.
1948
Kedmah did not resume sailings until three weeks in the New Year, arriving at Limassol on 26 January 1948. She sailed for Haifa the next evening with 480 immigrants, although there were a total of 536 awaiting passage under that month's quota. On 3 February Kedmah left Limassol with 625 immigrants including the first of a new quota set for 3,000 children and parents owing to fear of epidemics breaking out in the overcrowded D.P. camps in Cyprus. A second group of 791 parents and infants landed at Haifa on the 11th. Among the 529 sailing from Limassol to Haifa on the 19th was one of the world's foremost brain surgeons, Dr. Haiden Askenazi.
An important milestone in Zim's desire not to relinquish the Kedmah came on 14 May 1948, the day the State of Israel's independence was declared. The ship was anchored in the Marseilles port was apparently the first ship to lower the Mandate flag and raise the Zim flag, the flag of Israel's merchant fleet. From that day on, the idea of a Jewish ship, owned by the shipping company of the nascent state received enormous national significance.
The Test of Maritime Sovereignty: The Establishment of the Zim National Shipping Company and the Purchase of the Kedmah, 1945–1952
When Kedmah sailed from Haifa on 7 May 1948, she went out with 700 bags of mail, the last out under sent out under the British mandate which ended seven days later and the State of Israel was proclaimed on the 14th. The "Little Queen of the Malacca Straits," flaws and failings notwithstanding found herself the veritable Ship of State of the new State of Israel. On Independence Day, 14 May, Kedmah was at Marseilles and the first ship to fly the new national flag overseas.
A new flag and a new captain and in May 1948 Capt. Morrison was relieved by ZIM's Robert Miller, and the remaining British members of Kedmah's crew were replaced by Jewish seamen and engineers.
The flag of Israel was first raised, in Haifa port, by Kedmah and the freighter Alixa on 7 June 1948.
But beyond Ship of State symbolism, Kedmah had work to do, the most immediate of which was to transport her fair share of the some 28,000 Jews still in D.P. camps in Cyprus to Israel, now without hinderance or quotas. The ensuing Arab war against the new state of Israel resulted in a U.N. truce enforced by U.N. observers in mid June 1948. When Kedah anchored off Tel Aviv from Marseilles the evening of 13 June, the first ship to arrive since the truce, U.N. forces searched the vessel and her 420 Jewish immigrants for arm and those of military age (126) were taken to a camp under U.N. control under the terms of the truce forbidding mobilization or training of new arrivals aged 18-45 during the four-week cease fire period. Thirty-seven other women and children who did not want to be separated, accompanied the men to the camp.
There are 170,000 more of them in Europe today, who 'burn to leave' for a life of free fulfillment in the land of the Prophets. The Kedmah, a refugee transport liner flying the blue and white flag of Judea, brings them 500 at a time.
Portland Press Herald, 4 July 1948.
On 5 July 1948 4,000 emigrants arrived at Tel Aviv from Cyprus aboard Pan York and Pan Crescent and another 400 arrived the following day aboard Kedmah, most of them from French D.P. camps.
Forty-eight ships of the Underground Rescue Fleet of the Haganah were part of a great maritime display at Haifa on 8 July 1948 when the Israel formally took possession of the great port of Haifa with the raising of the national colours.
The underground fleet, moored hull to hull along the main breakwater, ranges from tiny fishing smacks and schooners, some with auxiliary engines, to the American built freighters Pan York and Pan Crescent. These vessels, together with the Israeli passenger liner Kedmah, may form the nucleus of Israel's merchant fleet.
The flag-raising ceremony was preceded by a parade of Israeli naval ratings carrying the country's new blue and white maritime pennant. They were followed by a contingent of Israeli Marines and port police. All harbor craft were bedecked with flags as the blue and white flag of Israel was raised over port buildings.
Buffalo Jewish Review, 9 July 1948.
By 16 July 1948, some 18,000 emigrants had arrived in Israel since the Mandate ended on 15 May. On 14 July, 490 landed at Haifa from Marseilles aboard Kedmah and keeping to the ceasefire arrangements, all men of military age were screened by U.N. observers and transferred to a camp near Hadera. By then, the reception of immigrants to the new state of Israel, which aimed to triple its population in five years, assumed a finely oiled efficiency:
How smoothly the system works was demonstrated in the early days of this state's existence when the Jewish ship Kedmah arrived from Marseille with 490 immigrants. Government representatives met the ship at the dock with complete Government records concerning each of the 490 passengers, and their qualifications.
Some had relatives who had in buses and on their, way to them within an hour after the ship had offered to care for them; these were docked.
Others had been enrolled, in Germany or Poland or any one of a dozen other countries, in the ranks of one or another of the various organizations operating agricultural settlements. These went that night to a hostel, and left the following morning by bus for their new homes.
Still others, not enrolled in advance, and without funds, went to a redistribution centre where their qualifications would studied. be After a few days here, they were assigned to various settlements, or to an industry that had need of them, or to the army.
Under the direction of the Department of Immigration, all these activities are being expanded even in the midst of war.
The Toronto Telegram, 17 July 1948.
It was reported that David Remez, Israeli Minister of Communication, stated the country was planning the creation of a national airline as well as steamship line, "Israel's largest passenger ship is now being operated jointly by an Israeli and British shipping company." (Buffalo Jewish Review, 6 August 1948). Meanwhile, the tide of immigration to the country continued unabated and it was planned to empty all of the D.P. camps in Europe within a year and Israel accepting the responsibility of absorbing 125,000 immigrants a year. That month, Kedmah embarked 590 D.P.s at Genoa from Italy and another 180 from Austria, including 50 children.
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| Kedmah alongside at an unidentified port in late 1948. Credit: Willem van de Poll photograph, National Archives of the Netherlands, |
With independence, Minister of Transport, David Remez proceed with plans to create one large national shipping line, and with his support, Ships & Vessels (under which the former fleet of vessels engaged in "illegal" immigration were grouped) and Zim officially merged on August 15, 1948. The ships of both companies were thereafter operated by the Shoham Maritime Services Ltd, a wholly owned Zim subsidiary and the company itself restyled as Zim Israel Navigation Co. Ltd.
It was announced on 17 August 1948 that in her first year Kedmah had carried 11,000 passengers, including 9,230 new immigrants, in the course of 20 round trips, and made I.P. 195,000 of which 60 per cent was returned to the national economy in the form of wages, locally purchased supplies and equipment, servicing and repairs. During the celebrations at Tel Aviv marking the occasion on the Kedham's arrival, Communication Minister Remez called for the creation of an Israeli merchant marine. However, there remained growing concerns with the ship's reliability and continued expenses and miss ed voyage to correct issues that were never really specified, at least to the public.
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| Kedmah at Genoa in late 1948 with the Italia liner Amerigo Vespucci to the left. Credit: Willem van de Poll photograph, National Archives of the Netherlands, |
The issues with Kedmah's condition continued under the Israeli flag. On 8 November 1948 the Kedem Palestine Line published an advert in the Jerusalem Post:
In connection with the information published in some local newspaper regarding the S.S. KEDMAH, we wish to state that the ship KEDMAH is now in Genoa for an annual survey, required by international regulations for passenger ships. This survey should actually have been made on July 15, but the Company were allowed an extension of time until the beginning of November.
The vessel, however, was delayed in Piraeus for a few days owing to technical difficulties, the making of the necessary adjustments was deferred until the annual survey; but it then became necessary to adjust these minor difficulties during the voyage.
It was high time for some favourable publicity or at least honest perspective for the vessel and her record since entering service and this was amply provided by an extensive article in the Palestine Post of 12 November 1948
When the Kedmah, the only passenger ship at present flying the Israeli flag, recently entered Haifa port, her cabins and decks crowded to overflowing with about 650 passengers, most of whom were immigrants, she had completed her 26th voyage since she was into service by the ZIM Shipping Company at the of July 1947. During that period she has carried more 11,000 people to Palestine and Israel.
What's more, the last trip of the Kedmah in the old Jewish year was one of a series of crossings which as smooth, uneventful and strictly according to schedule as previous voyages have been rough, adventurous and erratic.
It seemed to prove that the operators of the ship have at last succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of technical and administrative management which for a considerable time had given the Kedmah the reputation of being a kind of 'Flying Dutchman' of the Eastern Mediterranean, mysteriously disappearing time and time again from her regular route, unexpectedly emerging in places she had no business to be, and running in all kind of difficulties which taxed the patience and endurance of her passengers and caused heavy loses to her owner and to the public bodies which helped finance the line.
Things came to a pass when it became necessary to appoint a committee of inquiry into the Kedmah's affairs in order to calm public indignity. Incidentally the public is still waiting for the report on the outcome of the investigation. The fact that the Kedmah seems to be on an even keel now is reason why the report should not be published. Experience so dearly bought should be publicised as possible if only to help other to avoid to make the same mistakes.
The public, having from the very beginning enthusiastically supported every attempt at giving Jews the opportunity of travelling under the Jewish flag-- formerly the Zionist flag and now the flag of Israel-- are only too glad to forget and give Kedmah's former peccadilloes and to take her to their hearts as they did with her predecessors, the Tel Aviv, the Har Zion, and Har Hacarmel. A smoothly running, well-behaving Kedmah has quickly become the favourite of the travelling citizens of Israel-- the few who are at present leaving our shores for the outside world, and the far greater number of people returning from Europe and America to the young State.
At present, and probably for a considerable time to come, passage on Jewish boats will of necessity lack some of the comforts, let along the luxuries, which generally expected of a sea voyage. Especially on the home journey these boats will be crowded to the utmost with immigrant, cutting down to a minimum the amount of deck space and accommodation which in normal times are at the disposition of the regular, full-rate paying passenger. If a ship like the Kedmah, certified for about 208 passengers, carries three times that number, comparison with a box of sardines does not seem to be out of place.
Yet passengers who a year ago heartily cursed the Kedmah for her unreliability, through she then offered ample elbow room, are now full of praise for her and count a trip home under the customary cramped conditions among the most exhilarating experiences. They gladly renounce some of the accustomed comforts knowing that by this small sacrifice they help speed up the return to the homeland of a few hundred immigrants.
Kedmah is a Jewish ship all right, pervaded by a Jewish atmosphere, and a 'home from home' to the travelling citizens of Israel. She has all Jewish crew from the captain to cabin boy, and there nothing but praise for the efficiency, resourcefulness and politeness of her sailors and stewards. For the newcomers, to observe these hundred, mostly very young Jewish seamen, is a first and very impressive object lesson on life in Israel. Incidentally, the food aboard the Kedmah is prepared strictly according to the ritual dietary laws-- 'kosher'-- under rabbinical supervision. There are a doctor and a trained nurse aboard.
After her last trip during September the Kedmah was retired from service for a few weeks in order to under a general survey to meet the Classified Society's standards.
The Palestine Post, 12 November 1948.
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| Kedmah alongside at unidentified port, late 1948. Credit: Willem van de Poll photograph, National Archives of the Netherlands. |
1949
The year began with the release, finally, of the report by the committee investigating the acquisition and operation of Kedmah. It was perhaps unfortunate timing since, if anything, the new year would see the ship finally settle down to a reliable and useful service, and now commanded by Captain Eliezer Aczel.
Criticism of the method of the purchase of the s.s. Kedmah, of its technical operation, of the repairs to its engines by unsuitable firm, and of the financial calculations relating to its running is expressed in the report of the committee of inquiry appointed by the Jewish Agency last March following a series of breakdowns in the ship.
The Kedmah, built in 1929, was acquired by the Kedeem Palestine Line Ltd., a company owned jointly by the "Zim" Palestine Navigation Co. Ltd, and Messrs. Harris and Dixon, an old established British firm of ship of owners. "Zim" is a maritime enterprise set up jointly by the Jewish Agency and the Histadrut, with the participation also of the Palestine Maritime League.
The inquiry was completed last October, and the delay in publication of the report has been the subject of unfavourable comment.
The report begins by pointing outit that the terms of reference did not permit the committee to examine complaints that Zim gave preference in its operations to the various seafaring affiliates of the Histadrut. It does not uphold the charge that Zim entered into partnership with English interests for the establishment of lines passenger between and Palestine—Europe. In our opinion this country did not have at that time sufficient experience in this branch of shipping.
The report further finds that the information in the hands of Zim concerning Harris and Dixon justified the decision to enter into partnership with them and entrust to them the management of the Kadem Company, especially since the contract with them satisfactorily safeguarded Jewish national interests.
On the other hand, the reports finds no justification for the appointment by 'Zim' of inexperienced personas to negotiate on such complicated matters as the purchase of ships and the establishment of passenger lines. 'Zim' erred in not utilising the services of people who were available and offered themselves even without payment.
The purchase of the Kedmah was made without the required caution and without the customary examination by experts. Marine engineers were not invited to give their opinion on the condition of the engines, and it that it appears that the Company relied too much on the experts of Harris and Dixon, the report continues. Further the ship was bought without, examination of the engines, although it was bought after it had been damaged by fire. No attention was paid to the following factors: that the ship was fitted with complicated and delicate turbines which are difficult to repair in this country; that the boilers of the Kedmah are sensitive to the quality off the water used and require special attention and that the complicated working of the engines requires training and experience on the part of the personnel which were not available here .
The enlargement of the tonnage of the ship and of its carrying capacity from 254 to 500 was carried out without simultaneous adjustment of the water and fuel storage that became necessary and without suitable extra berths and other amenities for passengers on the Mediterranean route.
The choice of the Ogen Company at Haifa for repairs Company to the ship was not justified from a technical point of view.
The committee also found that in its business affairs the Company did not employ regularly the services of experts.
We are unable to accept the opinion of one of the managers that 'Zim' in its shipping activities should follow the early path of agriculture in this country, that is, that everything should begin from scratch and that knowledge should be gained by trial.
The exaggerated propaganda indulged in by the Kedem management added to the public s disappointment with the affairs of the in the Company, opinion of the committee.
The report mentioned that up to the end of March, 1948, according to the figures submitted, over IL . 50,000 had been spent on the Kedmah, taking into account the losses caused by the repairs, and the time the ship was laid up during its eight months of running. This investment exceeds by far the original estimates.
Finally, the report stated, the business calculations of the management of the Kedem Company were based on continuation of the monopolistic situation in the immigrant carrying trade and on the exaggerated charge of IL. 25-30 per immigrant for the voyage between Marseilles and Haifa. Private companies have exploited the immigration needs of the Jews in order to earn inflated profits, and a public undertaking is not able to follow such an example. The members of the inquiry committee were Mr . Erich Moller, director of the Ata Textile Company; Mr. Margolin, director of the Atid Navigation and a Haifa Municipal Councillor; and Mr . S . Kaplansky, engineer of the Haifa Technical Institute.
Palestine Post, 2 February 1949.
n.b. I.L. is Israeli Lira or Israeli Pound or on par with Pound Sterling in value
An editorial in the Palestine Post, published on 2 February 1949, at the release of the report pulled no punches:
One utterance of a witness at the inquiry into the affairs of the ship Kedmah would alone have made the inquiry worth while. A manager of 'Zim' the semi public company that owns the ship, gave it as his opinion that Jewish shipping, like Jewish agriculture, should be learned the hard way. That way, as the inquiry report shows, has involved the waste of many thousands of pounds of public money and the management of a potentially important branch of this country's economy by persons not sufficiently experienced for their jobs. Israel cannot afford either incompetence or waste, and the mismanagement of the Kedmah should serve as an object lesson. It has been dearly paid for.
The facts, as set out in the report of the inquiry committee are clear. A ship, acclaimed as the first of a great Jewish passenger line, was bought for the apparently small sum of I.L. 75,000. It is admitted that the engines were not examined. In fact, under the contract which the purchasers signed, they were allowed to examine the engines. Repairs were carried out in Antwerp and Haifa, in spite of which-- and it is fair comment to add, because of which-- repeated breakdowns occurred, and to this day, over two year after its acquisition, it is not known what is exactly wrong with the engines. The expenditure and losses have grown from the original I.L. 75,000 to over I.L 500,000 so far, of which half is Jewish public money with more still needed.
Palestine Post, 2 February 1949.
In a letter to the editor, R. Stevenson Miller, Extra Master Mariner M.I.N, stated
The method of the sale was normal, the vendors advertised the vessel. Tenders closed at a fixed time on a certain date. Amongst those who gave advice on the purchase were a well known naval architect, the manage of a large marine engine shop and the works manager of the same yard, as well as former Passenger Manager of the White Star Line, who is also a Director of the Silverline and the former Chief Steward of the Queen Mary. In addition there was a Marine Superindent, a Consulting Engineer who had the advice of a well known boiler firm.
Messrs. Harris & Dixon, whose claim as partners the Commissioners justify, and who have the largest single share in the investment, appear to have been satisfied with the advice and technical skill of those advised them on the spending of their money-- in this case, I might add, not public, but their own, Of all the charges laid against the buyer of the Kedmah, neglect of adequate precaution in purchase has been, I feel, the most unfair.
During the months of May, June and July, Kedmah provided the only regular service for Israel to Europe, What this was worth in terms of national prestige and moral is hard to assess. Yet the press was largely silent
Palestine Post, 8 February 1949.
Another letter, by A. Roth, Master Mariner, Haifa, published on 16 February 1949 concluded:
If a ship is built for shallow water, coasting or river trade, like the s.s. Kedmah, she cannot be successfully used for a high sea trade because she had not the stability owing to her small draught, small bunker and fresh water capacity, also lack of equipment.
By March 1949, Kedmah had been joined by Negbah and Galilah on the Haifa-Marseilles run. But Kedmah's string of bad luck had not run its course and on the 15th, whilst under a pilot leaving Haifa she hit a naval vessel and delayed there for two days, not sailing in the evening of the 17th. A letter to the editor in the Palestine Post of the 29th suggested a different use for the hapless vessel:
I would like to suggest a way to recover some of the tens of thousands of pounds reported to have been invested in s.s. Kedmah. Some time ago an expert point out that the boat is not fit to sail on the high seas.
I propose that the Kedmah be placed about a mile off shore from Tel Aviv or Haifa and become a floating hotel or recreation place, with good food and reasonable prices. Provide three square meals and a deck chair, and the cabins would be booked in a short time.
B. Aschenbach, Jesusalem.
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| Kedmah's wonderful wheelhouse, largely unchanged from her days as Kedah, and still Shipshape and Bristol Fashion with right smart Israeli officers on duty. By 1949, Kedmah was on course to happier and more reliable days. Credit: The National Library of Israel Photography Collection. |
As if to prove the naysayers wrong, Kedmah carried on. On 1 May 1949 she landed 450 immigrants at Haifa and of no fewer than 5,000 arriving (including the among the last Jews to leave Bulgaria) on the 15th, Kedmah's share was some 500. Outbound for Marseilles on the 17th, among those aboard was Aloof Yigael Yadin, Israeli Army Chief of Operations, bound for Lausanne for medical treatment, and Mr. Hillel Rogoff, Editor and Chief of the New York Yiddish newspaper Forward who was departing after a three-week visit, having arriving aboard Kedmah as well. When she returned to Haifa from Marseilles on the 29th, Kedmah had 415 immigrants and 85 residents and tourists disembarking. Mayor of Haifa and Mrs. Shabetai Levy were among those sailing for Europe on the 31st. Another 400 immigrants came down Kedmah's gangway at Haifa on 26 June.
That summer saw the ship finally settle to a reliable and regular routine, figuring in the bi weekly comings and goings into and out of the new nation. Arriving at Haifa on 2 August 1949, 183 visiting students were given an official welcome on the quayside by Dr. E.D. Bermann, Scientific Director of the Weizmann Institute who arranged for the for the group to visit various new settlements and a party of students from the Hebrew Technical Institute also welcomed the party which departed that afternoon for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and settlements. Kedmah also disembarked 200 immigrants. Another 190 immigrants and 130 tourists arrived by the liner on the 15th. Clearing Haifa on 14 September, she went out with 280 passengers and 264 bags of mail.
There were 252 immigrants and tourists landing at Haifa on 10 October 1949, one one wrote the Palestine Post, "full of praise for the good and abundant food served on the boat" and supplied one of the last Rosh Hashana's menus, which were printed aboard in French and Hebrew:
Consomme Royal
Marak Bassar (meat soup)
Filet de Poisson Frite, Sauce Tartar "Dag Metugan"
Poulet Pouche Supreme "Oph Mevushal" (boiled chicken)
To which the Palestine Post (13 October 1949) noted: "Is Hebrew really as allergic as that to culinary delights? Here is a task for the combined efforts of W.I.Z.O. and the Hebrew Language Committee."
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| Special Postmark issued by Kedmah's on board post office during her hosting of the first International Congress of the Israel Maritime League. Credit: Palestine Post, 21 October 1949. |
Kedmah was the unique setting, berthed in Haifa, for the first International Congress of the Israel Maritime League aboard 24-26 October 1949, with delegates coming from the U.S., South Africa, Britain, France and Australia. A special post office was set up aboard and all letters and cards sent from the ship would have their own special postmark. Israeli Minister of Communicatons, David Remez, Director of Ports B.K. Meyerowitz and S. Shind, Chairman of Zim Navigation were among those addressing the congress the opening night, aboard "the illuminated and flag bedecked" ship. Kedmah later made a four-hour cruise into the Bay for her guests.
Resuming her more mundane but more important duties, Kedmah landed 121 new Israelis and 138 tourists at Haifa on 8 November 1949 and there 282 passengers aboard when she left for Marseilles the next day. Coming into Haifa on the 22nd, Kedmah bore the coffin of Capt. Alexander Aaronsohn, D.S.O., one of the founders of the "Nili" organisation which operated between the Turkish lines in the First World War, for burial the next day at Zichron Yaacov. She also landed 267 immigrants. On her final Haifa arrival that year, Kedmah landed 215 passengers on 19 December and sailing the next day, she took out the first consignment of 100,000 eggs for Switzerland.
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| Jewish immigrants embark aboard Kedmah at Marseilles. Credit: University of Denver |
This is D-Day-day of departure, day of deliverance.
On this Israeli ship, the Kedmah, lands are about to leave for Israel, carrying in their hearts and Jews from the slums of carrying their few possessions minds the firm faith in "this royal primitive North African on their backs, but dream,"' the return.
And as the Kedmah steams into the harbor of Haifa, the song "Hatikvah" shall be on the lips of the newcomers - a hymn of freedom and equality, of men triumphing over subjugation and suffering and serfdom. Let the song be on our lips, too, as we stand on the threshhold of the new year- -Israel's third year as a nation--and let us dedicate ourselves to the building of this sanctuary- -for the sake of the present and the future, and in memory of the past.
Advertisement from The Jewish Press, 8 September 1950.
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| Kedmah official photo postcard. Credit: eBay auction photograph. |
1950
Beginning with 15 February 1950 sailing from Haifa, Kedmah's route was shown as being Genoa, Marseilles and Naples.
Addressing the Maritime Club in Haifa on 18 February 1950, Mr. David Hacohen, Chairman of the Zim Israel Navigation Co. (as well as being a member of the Knesset and Deputy Mayor of Haifa) urged State control and ownership of Israeli shipping, saying that private capital had failed to build ship national shipping, because of lack of vision and enterprise. He noted that "The Kedmah was bought at a time of great risk and uncertainty through the initiative of farsighted public leaders despite the negative advice of uninspired business men," he said.
"Seeing off his son who was to sail on the s.s. Kedmah yesterday, Yaakov Cohen, 70, Kiryat Haim, collapsed and died at the port gale, when he learned that his son was late and that the ship had already sailed." (Palestine Post, 3 March 1950).
The remains of Hannah Senesh, the great Israeli heroine, who was a member of Britain's Special Operations Executive in 1944, and captured in Hungary on mission, tortured and executed by the Nazis, age 23, were returned to Israel for burial, aboard Kedmah which arrived at Haifa on 26 March 1950. The liner was met off the port by two Israeli warships and escorted in. Fellow parachutists took the coffin ashore for a ceremony in the Town Hall before burial on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
As the s.s. Kedmah neared the coast, two frigates of the Israeli Navy met her and escorted her into territorial waters. When the three ships reached Haifa Bay, they dropped anchor, and a naval launch transferred the wooden casket from the Kedmah to one of the frigates.
The Navy flags dropped to half-mast and a Guard of Honour in parade uniform presented arms when the casket was raised to the deck and placed near the gun turret. It was covered with the Israel flag and two wreaths from her comrades and friends were laid on it. Two Navy ensigns will keep watch there until tomorrow.
The frigate then slowly steamed into Haifa Port and dropped anchor at a right angle to the s.s. Exodus, a symbolic tribute to Hanna Senesh's services for the Jewish people.
Palestine Post, 27 March 1950.
The Palestine Post, 27 March 1950, featured an article, one of a series, on the Zim Israel Navigation Co., which highlighted their passenger services and the qualities of an Israeli liner
What is it like to travel on an Israel ship? The Negbah (5,500 tons, 13 knots) and the Kedmah (3,500 tons, 18 knots) are not the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth and two specific factors must be borne in mind in any appraisal of the facilities they offer the specialized work they have been called upon to do and the standards now obtaining in the Mediterranean. Primarily, the Israel Merchant Marine, in its initial period, had to move tens of thousands of immigrant a consideration which necessarily outweighed all others during that period . It was a case oi getting them here under conditions as any, many possible as soon as possible, and to do this the vessels had to sacrifice certain facilities temporarily.
Nevertheless, the Israel vessels on the Mediterranean run offer services far superior to those found on other lines doing the same trip. This is amply illustrated by Shoham's [the Zim passenger agency] experience in Cyprus. Passengers-- even for third-class passengers sailing out of Limassol for Genoa and Marseilles have their choice of of Turkish, Greek,. Italian, and other ships. The Kedmah, out of Haifa, calls frequently at Limassol on her to Europe. And many travellers there prefer to wait for her fortnightly visit rather than sail on any of the other ships, so excellent a reputation has she won there.
The writ of austerity does not run beyond Israel's ports . who have lunched in Haifa on austerity fare-- pleased and perhaps surprised — well and comfortably , and for the remainder of the voyage are served voyage excellent food, well prepared, and in wide variety. Quarters are comfortable, especially in the first class.
There are three classes on, board Israel passenger ships, a practice made necessary by the extremely low fare at which immigrants are carried. Travellers in the first and intermediate classes enjoy the amenities and comforts, of a first-class hotel ashore on a non-austerity basis. Tourist Third class passengers are served simpler meals , but the food is wholesome and adequate. All food, for passengers and crew, is kosher.
One of the charges levelled against the Kedmah during her early days on the immigrant run was a lack of cleanliness. This was beyond any doubt a justifiable charge, but one which she has now lived down. The reason was simple. In the summer of 1948, for instance, in the first flush of Israel's independence, the Kedmah was the only ship doing a regular run between Marseilles and Haifa. In those days, she ferried as many as 600 immigrants to Israel on each trip. It was not a question of adequate accommodation. Passengers were lodged on decks as well in the cabins. It was simply technically impossible to clear the mattress-crowded decks to swab them properly. Now the Kedmah carries a maximum of 300 passengers, of all classes. These include 92 first-class, 44 intermediate (first class cabin and third class dining room), and the rest third class.
Palestine Post, 27 March 1950.
Another installment in the series, published on 29 March 1950 highlighted improvements made to Kedmah since her initial troubled entrance into service:
They [Negbah and Kedmah) have both added new feature, a sun-and-dance deck on the Kedmah, a new lounge and bar on the Negbah.
The Kedmah was once charged with once having a constant water shortage. The ship's engines normally consumed a unusually large quantity of fresh water in proportion to the size of the ship, cutting into the passengers' supply. The engines, however, have been completely overhauled, new tanks have been added, and the supply for passengers is now adequate.
As on other ships, improvements on the Kedmah has been steady. After her earlier unfortunate incidents, including engine trouble and frequent delays, she recovered from the ills which dogged her and now maintains a regular and reliable schedule-- a fortnightly round trip between Haifa and Marseilles. Her maximum delay in these months has been only two hours. The engines are not in perfect working order, and require a minimum of maintenance.
On the whole, the Kedmah is a much superior ship to the vessel she was two years ago, and had she at the time been in the shape she's in today, she would have without a doubt avoided the criticism directed at her. As Italian-trained skipper put it, 'The Kedmah's owners have done two years what is took Italian shipowners generations to do.'
Palestine Post, 29 March 1950.
A reception was held aboard Kedmah in Haifa the evening of 27 March 1950 for the five-man Swedish delegation of the European Relief Committee who were visiting Israel as the guests of the Jewish Agency.
Kedmah had improved to the extent and leisure travel developed sufficiently in the infant country, that a roundtrip excursion was offered to Italy and France in her, 29 March-10 April 1950, by Shoham Ltd. and conducted by Mr. Noah Doron.
Animal passengers figured occasionally in Kedmah's compliment and on 11 May 1950 she was reported to have arrived at Haifa with a horse and 10 circus dogs for the new circus in Ramat Gan, accompanied by their Swedish trainers.
Israel President Chaim Weizmann and wife, accompanied by his private secretary, aide-de-camp and physician sailed in Kedmah from Haifa on 5 July 1950 for Marseilles, bound for Switzerland. He was greeted on arrival at the pier by Ministers Remez, Rosen, Shazar and Shapire and a military detachment rendered honours and a 21-gun salute fired as Kedmah pulled away from the pier.
In an unwelcome return to her former days, Kedmah's 5 October 1950 sailing from Marseilles to Haifa was cancelled at short notice to go into dry dock for urgent repairs.
Israel's First Ship of State
s.s. Kedmah departing Haifa 5 July 1950 with Israel's President Chaim Weizman
Credit: Photographs by Brauner Teddy, The National Library of Israel Photography Collection.
1951
On 8 February 1951 it was reported that Kedmah had been "seriously damaged" after striking the sunken hulk of the Patria (which had been infamously sunk by the Haganah on 25 November 1940 with 1,800 Jewish refugees being deported by the British to Mauritius) in the harbour. Kedmah was towed into the roadstead where Haifa firemen pumped out her flooded hold until temporary repairs could be made. On the 10th, Kedmah sailed for Genoa and repairs with a full crew as after the 10-day drydocking was complete, she would resume service from there.
In June 1951 artist Marc Chagall arrived at Haifa aboard Kedmah to attend an exhibition of his work in Jerusalem, being met on landing by government representatives and some of Israel's major artists.
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| Kedmah alongside an unidentified port. Credit: wikipedia commons. |
1952
Early in 1952, the well-known artist William Earl Singer sailed from Naples for Haifa in Kedmah en route to paint portraits of the President of Israel and a series of portraits of Israeli people and landscapes. That May, Sholem Asch, the noted American Jewish novelist arrived at Haifa aboard Kedmah, and greeted by reporters, said "I have come as a Jew who always loved and longed for Israel." (American Jewish World, 2 May).
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| Credit: Intermountain Jewish News, 17 January 1952. |
The S.S. Kedmah set out last month for her 100th journey under the Israel flag. In the four years under the blue and white colors, the vessel has covered 300,000 nautical miles, carrying over 17,500 tourists and immigrants.
The New Palestine, 1 April 1952.
With the stirrings of a new passenger fleet, partially funded by German reparations and built in Germany, and a falling off in immigrant traffic to manageable figures, ZIM began negotiating its way out of the partnership with Harris and Dixon in mid 1952 and part with its very first ship. In effect, it was arranged that Harris and Dixon buy-out ZIM's share in Kedmah which would be thereafter owned outright by them, ostensibly for further trading. The funds realised also went into ZIM's newbuilding programme, hence the pioneering Kedmah ensured the continuation and improvement on what she, faults and failings nothwithstanding, had pioneered.
Oddly, there seems to have no formal announcement of Kedmah's withdrawal and best can be determined, her final leg of her last voyage had her departing Naples on 9 October 1952 and arriving Haifa on the 12th.
Farewell to a departing friend. It seems that just at the moment of departure, only the good memories return. Memories of happy, joyful days, suddenly evoked with tender tears. And, despite all its vicissitudes, it is not without regret that I learn that the State of Israel is parting with the "Kedmah." You know, that magnificent ship which was one of our first liners, which witnessed our declaration of independence, and which took so many wonderful voyages, so many charming cruises, to so many of our Shi'him! A friend of Israel is leaving. A very dear friend... 1 million pounds sterling in repairs; only...) Yes, with the blackest ingratitude we have sold our dear old "Kedmah."
God knows, though, how tough she was on his mountain hike with us! Sick in Cyprus, operated on in Genoa, suffering in Antwerp, in a coma in Haifa, recovered, she relapsed in Marseilles. Another operation, another miracle... and so on for years... But as delicate, as suffering as he was, how proudly he carried our national flag! How proudly she crisscrossed the ocean waters, a living symbol of Israel's presence!... All those signatures se made into the Treasury, all those transfusions of foreign currency that we have administered it. Let's admit it. She deserved it
Today, the Kemah sails to an known destiny with the English. There she must have come. Simply, without noise, without fanfare, without ceremony. Deep down, we were perhaps too happy to find a taker Alas! Farewell, farewell, Kedmah, dear comrade, witness of our glorious years... who knows what pot we'll replace you with— May your future passengers be light upon you!
Youla, Le journal de Jérusalem, 30 October 1952.
Zim recently sold the 27-year-old steamer Kedmah which had been its flag-ship since 1945 and which, though one of the fastest ships on the Mediterranean, had earned the reputation of being extremely uncomfortable with any kind of a sea running.
The Kedmah, brought a good price. Zim invested immediately in a replacement which, if not the most ideal ship, will be a satisfactory interim liner until the truly modern vessel, which the company plans to build in British or Dutch yards, is ready for service.
The New Palestine, 5 May 1953.
Despite the mishaps we have met with the inception of our enterprise we laid the groundwork for serious progress in the shipping sector. Our ship, Kedmah, was the basis for the purchase of the ships Negbah and Galila, all three of which together, constituting a tonnage of 12,800 tons, have created an important asset and jobs and training for three hundred Jewish seamen.
Statement by ZIM to Secretary General, Jewish Agency Executive, 21 October 1948 (quoted from The Test of Maritime Sovereignty).
In September 1955, the latest ZIM cargo vessel, 3,145 grt 325 ft. x 47 ft., was launched at Lubeck bearing the name Kedmah, launched by Dr, Getrud Luckner, a well known German Catholic advocate for Jewish rights.
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| One of Kedmah's ship's bells owned by Jeffrey Essex in England, with Capt. Enrico Levi (right), who served in the ship in 1949, with the bell. Credit: ZIM magazine, 2 April 2012. |
In the end, the little Kedmah proved, despite all the faults, failings and miscues from her initial purchase, refit and early years of operation, the perfect imperfect Ship of State for an equally fledgling nation. She was there during the critical initial months of Independence and if those immigrant packed voyages from Cyprus were her least comfortable and appealing, they were doubtless her most important. With this one single ship, arose the creation of an entire merchant marine and most importantly the nurturing of the men and women to man it, as well the foundations of an important national shipping enterprise for whom the impressive Shalom of 1964 was the ultimate successor.
Kedmah was in many ways the practical successor to the symbolic Exodus in the founding and populating of the modern Jewish homeland and nation of Israel-- few vessels of her size, age and past proved as important or ultimately cherished by those whom she carried to new lives in a new nation.
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| Ship of State: s.s. Kedmah departing Haifa 5 July 1950 with Israel's President Chaim Weizman aboard. Credit: Photograph by Brauner Teddy, The National Library of Israel Photography Collection. |
Like the aged opera singer, there were yet more farewell performances for the little old former Kedah. Indeed, her post Israeli-flag career even featured a repeat performance on charter to ZIM, her duties in carrying immigrants to Israel not yet done and Harris and Dixon having not wrung out the full measure of what proved ultimately as tough and enduring a ship as she was fine and fleet.
1952-1956
Harris and Dixon were not done with Kedmah. Leaving Haifa at the end of October 1952, she was given a modest refit in Genoa with accommodation for 257 passengers in First and Tourist Class, she emerged as the T.S.S. Golden Isles (back under British registry) of "The Sterling Line" (offices at 81 Gracechurch St., London, E.C.3 which corresponded with Harris and Dixon's headquarters) and placed a 12-day run from Marseilles to Valletta, Malta, Limassol and Beirut, effective 21 December, sailing on alternate Sundays.
In an era of stringent export controls on the Pound, the point of the enterprise was to offer a holiday to ports like Malta and Cyprus within the Sterling Zone. Additionally, the former Kedah's speed was undiminished and it was stated Golden Isles could reach Malta 41 hours from Marseilles, Limassol in 4¾ days and Beirut in 5¾ days "and the short passage time will no doubt to those for whom time is of importance." Fares for First Class began at £72. She was listed to have 120 First Class passengers in single, double and four-berth cabins and two suites with private bath and toilet. Tourist Class had 130 berths and its own lounge and dining room.
The voyage pattern was as follows:
Marseilles dep 1400 hrs Sunday
Malta arr 0700 hrs dep 1700 hrs. Tuesday
Limassol arr 0500 hrs dep 2300 hrs Friday
Beirut arr 0700 hrs dep 2359 hrs
Limassol arr 0800 hrs dep 1900 hrs Sunday
Malta arr 0700 hrs dep 2200 hrs Wednesday
Marseilles arr 1400 hrs Friday
Destined to ply her new trade in obscurity, Golden Isles' one claim to fame and press coverage occurred on the return leg of her maiden voyage when she embarked the 186 survivors at Beirut of the wrecked Messageries Maritime liner Champollion went aground in a gale off the coast of Lebanon. They were landed, amid a great reception, at Marseilles the evening of 31 December 1952.
Efforts are now being made to offer special facilities to British tourists. A ship of the British Sterling Line, the Golden Isles, has just started operating a fast service between Cyprus and Southern Europe via Malta. If the new line prove a success, the company intends to introduce bigger ship on the same run.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 13 February 1953.
The Sterling Line was last advertised on 30 September 1953, after which Golden Isles was laid up in Genoa.
Remarkably, the former Kedmah renewed her and Harris and Dixon's association with ZIM which chartered her in late summer 1954 for sailings on her old route from Marseilles to Haifa. First advertised on 5 September, she made two voyages from Haifa on the 10th and the 21st.
To cater to the next wave of Jewish immigrants to Israel, this time from North Africa especially Morocco occasioned by its independence from France and growing persecution of Jews there, 62 per cent of the 36,227 immigrants to Israel in 1955 originated from there. To cater to this, Golden Isles was again chartered by Zim to accommodate this traffic. In May 1955, she arrived at Haifa from North Africa with 530 new arrivals and another "several hundred" the following month. The last week in September, more than 400 came to Israel aboard her and the first week in October, Golden Isles and Artza landed 400 more immigrants at Haifa.
That was the last recorded movement for Golden Isles which returned to Genoa in mid October 1955 where she was laid up. Destined never to turn a screw, displaced from the Mediterranean routes now plied by a new generation of Adriatica, Turkish Maritime and ZIM ships, and even overtaken on the occasional immigrant trade, the former Kedah had used up more than her share of proverbial nine lives.
On 28 September 1956 The Mail (Barrow) reported that Golden Isles "has just completed her last voyage and has been handed over to Newport (Monmouthshire) shipbreakers for scrap… Buyers of the ship are the British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage) Ltd., London, and they allocated her to John Cashmore Ltd. Of Newport, for breaking up. She made her last voyage in tow of the famous tug Turmoil from Genoa where she had been laid up for some time."
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| Gleaming white, fine and fleet: T.S.S. Kedah stands out to the sea for the first time in 1927 at the onset of a truly fortunate and fulsome career. Credit: Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives. |
Built by Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness, no. 628
Gross tonnage 2,499
3,504 (as Kedmah post 1947)
Length: (o.a.) 330 ft.
(b.p.) 310 ft.
Beam: 50.3 ft.
Machinery: Twin-screw single-reduction Parsons steam turbines, 5,800 shp
four Babcock & Wilcox watertube boilers 220 psi, oil burning
Speed: 19.25 knots trials
18.5 knots service
Passengers 76 First Class, 800 deck (960 maximum)
120 First 140 Third (as Kedmah, post 1947) up to 350 deck (exceptionally)
92 First 44 Intermediate 194 Third (as Kedmah, post 1950)
120 First 130 Tourist (as Golden Isles, post 1952)
Officers & Crew 87
The Blue Funnel Legend, A History of the Ocean Steam Ship Company, 1865-1973. Malcolm Falkus, 1990.
Fiddler's Green, The Great Squandering, 1921-2010, A History of the British Merchant Navy, Volume Five. Richard Woodman, 2010.
Merchant Ships of the World in Color, 1910-1929. Laurence Dunn, 1973.
The Test of Maritime Sovereignty: The Establishment of the Zim National Shipping Company and the Purchase of the Kedmah, 1945–1952, .Kobi Cohen-Hattab, published in the journal Israel Studies (Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 2015,
Barrow News
Buffalo Jewish Review
Evening Standard
The Guardian
The Jewish Press
Le Journal de Jerusalem
Liverpool Daily Post
Liverpool Journal of Commerce
London and China Express
The Mail
Malaya Tribune
The New Palestine
The Palestine Post
Pinang Gazette And Straits Chronicle
Portland Press Herald
Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser
Straits Budget
The Straits Times
The Straits Times Annual
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette
Times of Ceylon
The Toronto Telegram
Western Morning News
Brassey's Naval and Shipping Annual, 1926.
British Malaya
Eastern Engineering
Inter-Ocean
Marine Engineering
The Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder
Netherlands Indies Review
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record
Syren & Shipping
ZIM magazine
Bonhams
Imperial War Museum
Jewish Review of Books
The National Library of Israel Photography Collection.
Sankey Family Photographic Archives, Cumbria Archives
Singapore National Archives
ssmaritime.com
© Peter C. Kohler
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