Never quite as good as her sister Arcadia which came from another yard. Arcadia just seemed to soldier on but Iberia seemed to thrive on various engine problems. I dont think I can ever recall anything hull wise about Iberia but I think she even had a stabiliser problems when they were fitted. She was withdrawn prematurely but of course before very long the price of oil forced the withdrawal of so many of that era. Cheers..DougBob S said:Built by Harland and Wolff in 1954. Served P&O until 1972 when broken up at kaohsiung.
Hello,Someone recently submitted 3 photos of the damage sustained by the Iberia after her collision 27/03/1956 with the "Stanvac Pretoria" off Colombo, Sri-Lanka.
http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/PO_Iberia_1954.html
(Note that they incorrectly state it occurred off Columbia.)
My dad was electrician on the Pretoria at the time. The impact knocked him clean out of his bunk, as it occurred in the wee hours of the morning.
The collision is logged in the Encyclopaedia Peninsular history for the Iberia ...
http://portal.pohub.com/pls/pogprtl/poghistory.display_do***ent.pdf?p_id=1235 (Adobe Reader .pdf)
http://www.google.com/search?q=cach...rtl/poghistory.display_do***ent.pdf?p_id=1235 (As a web page)
A decent photo of the Pretoria appeared recently on the http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk website.
http://riversea.tugtalk.co.uk/memories/stanvacpretoria1950.htm
My dad made exactly the same comment upon reading that account last year.Hello,
Whoever wrote that the collision occurred in heavy seas has got it all wrong and there was no ramming! The weather was calm, it was a very clear night as the Stanvac Pretoria was first sighted at about 21 miles distance at the change of watch shortly before midnight.
I think the 'Official' version is nothing more than face saving propaganda that was put about by P&O..My dad made exactly the same comment upon reading that account last year.
In his own words, conditions were "Flat-Calm".
Interesting that even after 51 years, quite a few of the people involved at the time are still around to give their own account of the facts, often challenging official one.http://visseraa.topcities.com/others/id565.htm