DURENDA

From SN Guides

DURENDA

DURENDA, the only ship which held this name in the British India Steam Navigation Company, was a "one of" vessel, being a cargo-only version of the diesel-driven passenger ships DOMALA and DUMANA [ The name derives from a village of the same name in Seoira District, Madhya Pradesh, India].

ON: 146312; POR: Glasgow ;Signal Letters & Call Sign: GFSL; 7241 grt; 4471 nrt; 11150 dwt 464.3ft loa x 58.3ft breadth x 32.8ft depth; Load draft 27.9 ft Builder: Robert Duncan & Co Ltd, Port Glasgow [the only ship built by this shipbuilder for these owners] Delivered 25.10.1922 Twin screw 2 x 8 cylinder North British diesels; 3750 bhp; Service speed 13.5 knots

The five cargo holds were served by 14 derricks mounted on sampson posts, and a 15 ton "jumbo" derrick mounted on the pole foremast

Apart from a period during WW2, the ship's main employment was on the UK[Middlesbro' and London]/North Continent to Bombay/Karachi service, although for the last few years of her service with BI she augmented the UK/East Africa service

Requisitioned for the Liner Division of the MOWT in June 1940, while on passage from Iskendrun to Bombay, on 10 June 1941, DURENDA was bombed in the Eastern Mediterranean. No records have been found by the writer, as to whether the vessel received a direct hit but she suffered a 25 feet long "internal fracture" and would seem to have been lucky to reach Port Said albeit with 17feet of water in No.1 lower hold! Permanent repairs were eventually carried out at the owners' repair yard, Mazagon Dock Ltd, Bombay. It was said that ever after this incident, the ship had the "habit of twisting in the middle" when rolling in a seaway! The writer, who served on the vessel for two periods was never aware of this, but in a head sea, the poop, when viewed from the bridge, could clearly be seen to "bounce"

DURENDA was, at least in post-war days, reputed to be an excellent freight-earner for the BI. In later years she was not capable of more than 10.5 knots when loaded, but, nevertheless lived up to her reputation :- "10000 tons of cargo at 10 knots on 10 tons of oil per day!"

Having cost £498400 when built, surely a very large sum for a cargo ship at that time, she was sold for further trading, in May 1956 for £212500. Her new owners were Paramount Shipping Corporation of Monrovia, which company renamed her ELENE. She was finally sold for demolition at Odense in February 1958

When a cadet in DURENDA in 1949, the writer was told that when the ship was in Tilbury in June 1940, her original 6 lifeboats were requisitioned for use in the Dunkirk evacuation. These boats were never returned to the ship and were apparently replaced by one double-diagonal teak boat (ex-RAWALPINDI) and three carvel-built boats, said to be ex CULEBRA (Royal Mail?)

From about 1949 to 1952 , one or other of these lifeboats could often be seen sailing in Bombay or Karachi harbours. The then Chief officer, the late (Capt) H R Smith, fitted such boats with a removeable keel some 12" deep. From spare gear on board, he, along with officers and cadets, contrived to produce a schooner (lugger) rig consisting of 2 masts, a bowsprit, 2 headsails, two standing lugsails (that on the foremast free-footed and that on the main secured to a boom) and a staysail set between the masts. Occasionally, in light winds a jackyard topsail (fabricated from a wartime lifeboat raincatcher) was set on the mainmast. Portable ballast (which was frequently moved to improve sailing qualities) consisted of about ten anchor cable shackles! While it took about an hour or more to rig the boat for recreational sailing there was never any shortage of helping hands and in a good sailing breeze, the lee gunnel was often nearly under! [Later, in the mid-1950's, when H R "Lifeboat" Smith was re-appointed as Chief Officer to the Company's cadetship CHANTALA the arrangement was duplicated, but there the steel lifeboat proved not to be such a good sailor to windward...besides the Cadets had the use of a Montague whaler and two Enterprise sailing dinghies.

The writer understands that Mr Darroch, the long-time Second Engineer Officer and later Chief Engineer Officer, a month or two after the sale of DURENDA to Paramount Shipping Corporation, was seconded by BI for a period, to the new owners whose engineers were allegedly having great difficulty in manoevering the, by then, unique early diesels!

DURENDA, by virtue of her trading pattern, and before transfer by air became the norm, carried many officers to and from to appointment in the BI's Eastern Service vessels. Those outward bound always looked to be re-appointed as soon as the vessel arrived on the "Coast" and thus went on to an enhanced and tax free salary scale! Homeward-bounders whose pay was reduced to Home Line Rates balanced this with the prospect of long leave (5 months after 30 months Eastern Service)

Acknowledgements:

"Valiant Voyaging" by Hilary St John Saunders, "BI" by Laxon & Perry, "Sea Safari" by P C Kohler, Merchant Fleets, Vol.11 by Duncan Haws