SS Columbia (1913)

SS Columbia was a coal (later, oil) powered steam ship which began service under the name Katoomba in 1913 as an Australian interstate passenger liner serving a Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australia route.[3][4] In 1918 the British government requisitioned the ship as troop transport for World War I service in the Atlantic. After further passenger service the ship was briefly requisitioned again for World War II transport of troops in southwestern Pacific waters. The ship ended service as a passenger transport in 1959 in Nagasaki, Japan. She was refitted in 1949 to use oil rather than coal as a power source, and was at that time renamed SS Columbia. Between her refitting in 1949 and her end of service she plied routes between a number of cities, including Piraeus, Lisbon, New York, Montreal, Cherbourg, Southampton, and Bremen (among others). She was damaged in foggy weather in Quebec in 1957 and was scrapped two years later after sailing to Japan.[5]

This article is about the Australian interstate passenger liner and troop transport ship. For other uses, see List of ships named SS Columbia.

TSS Katoomba leaving Fremantle - 1926
History
 Australia
Name: SS Katoomba
Operator: McIlwraith & McEacharn
Route: Sydney-Fremantle
Builder: Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Launched: 10 April 1913
Completed: July 1913[1]
Maiden voyage: 10 July 1913[1]
Homeport: Melbourne
Fate: Sold to Cia Maritima del Este
History
 Greece
Owner: Cia Maritima del Este
Route: Piraeus to Genoa, Lisbon, New York, South America, Montreal
Renamed: SS Columbia, 1949
Refit: 1949
Homeport: Piraeus
Fate: Scrappped, Nagasaki, 1959
General characteristics
Tonnage: 8,473 gross tons
Length: 466 feet (142 m)
Beam: 60.3 feet (18.4 m)
Draught: 34 ft 2 in (10.4 m)[2]
Installed power: Coal until 1949, then oil
Propulsion: Triple screw; two triple expansion engines plus LP turbine
Speed: 15 knots
Capacity: 52 first class and 754 tourist class passengers
Troops: c. 2000 troops
Notes: One funnel, two masts

Passenger Service

Katoomba was launched 10 April 1913 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast departing under the owner's senior ship master, Captain Lionel Moodie Heddle, who had overseen construction and would remain in command of the ship for the next twenty-three years that included wartime service, on 10 July 1913. Coaling took place and 237 passengers for Australia boarded at Glasgow, Scotland for departure on 19 July with a brief anchorage off Plymouth, England before sailing for Australia with an 11 August coaling stop at Durban before a nonstop voyage to Fremantle during which, with all six boilers fired, Katoomba reached speeds of better than 17 knots. On the night of 24 August the ship took on coal at Fremantle and sailed the next afternoon for Melbourne where she entered Port Phillip Bay on 29 August for anchorage overnight before docking next morning. On 13 September Katoomba sailed for Sydney where an event was held 18 September in which invited guests and journalist could inspect the ship while being entertained by a new attraction for the interstate trade, the Katoomba Ladies Orchestra. On 20 September the ship sailed for Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle beginning regular service which would continue until interruption by requisition for military service in World War I.[1]

World War I service

The British government requisitioned Katoomba in May 1918 to transport United States troops to Britain and made two trans Atlantic crossings before transfer to the Mediterranean. She was in Salonika on 11 November at the armistice and three days later left Constantinople transporting more than 2,000 troops of the Essex and Middlesex Regiments, and twenty-six of the surviving prisoners that had been taken at the siege of Kut. In six Black Sea trips, as the first British troopship to pass through the Dardanelles since the war's start, Katoomba landed 14,000 troops and returned with repatriated Turks. She went to Bombay in April 1919 and returned to Britain before returning to Australia in August. There she was refitted and returned to her owners.[6]

The Katoomba transported over 430 Methodists and the Queen of Tonga from Sydney to Fiji in October 1935.[7]

World War II service

In 1941 Katoomba was briefly requisitioned for troop deployments transporting 1,496 troops leaving Brisbane for Rabaul on 15 March and then again with 687 troops from Sydney to Darwin before returning to commercial service.[8]

Katoomba was transporting troops to Rabaul escorted by HMAS Adelaide when news of the attack on Pearl Harbor (8 December Australian date) and other Japanese attacks in the Pacific caused her to be held in Port Moresby.[9] Plans to reinforce the garrison at Rabaul were abandoned, with the existing garrison sacrificed to delay Japanese advances, and Katoomba instead joined other ships in evacuating women and children from New Guinea, Papua, and Darwin.[10] She was again requisitioned as a troopship in February 1942.

Katoomba was one of two Australian transports, the other being Duntroon, that were substituted for the SS Mariposa to transport a U.S. Army fighter group's ground troops and equipment to India. The troops and crated P-40 pursuit aircraft had arrived in a convoy from San Francisco escorted by USS Phoenix with Mariposa and the United States Army Transport Willard A. Holbrook that were intended to continue on to India; however, Mariposa was withdrawn and the Australian transports substituted. The Phoenix with Duntroon, Katoomba and Holbrook departed Melbourne 12 February as convoy MS.5 for Colombo, Ceylon by way of Fremantle. There the USS Langley and Sea Witch with aircraft for Java joined and the convoy departed Fremantle on 22 February. The ill-fated Langley and the Sea Witch left the convoy to proceed independently to Java while the remaining ships continued under escort by Phoenix until that cruiser was relieved by HMS Enterprise on 28 February about 300 miles west of Cocos Island. The convoy arrived at Colombo on 5 March.[11]

Troops of the 2nd AIF en route from the Middle East to Australia, waiting to embark on the transport Katoomba at Bombay 25 March 1942.

On the return voyage from India the ship transported Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) troops being returned to Australia from the Middle east for operations in the south west Pacific.

In 1945, commendations were announced for men that volunteered to fight a fire in August 1943 when a falling sling of ammunition caused an explosion aboard in Port Moresby. First mate J. S. Burns, Able Seamen J. P. Shearer, J. W. Thrussell, and J. F. Robertson went below to fight the resulting fire despite the hold being filled with ammunition.[12]

Later in March, the transport loaded 2nd AIF troops at Bombay being returned from the Middle East for the defense of Australia.[13]

The ship was caught up in Australian labor union actions when engine room firemen caused a three-week delay in the ship's sailing from Brisbane to return troops from Bougainville. There were reports that angry troops threatened to toss the firemen overboard when the ship did arrive.[14]

As SS Columbia

After being returned to her owners in 1946, Katoomba was sold to Goulandris Bros in Greece in July and renamed SS Columbia in 1949. She was retired from service in June 1950, laid up at Piraeus in March 1958 and scrapped at Nagasaki in 1959.

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References
  1. Plowman, Peter (2007). The Great Australian Coastal Liners. Rosenberg Publishing. pp. 53–54. ISBN 9781877058608. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  2. Lloyd's Register: Katoomba.
  3. The Argus (1913). "New Coastal Liner Katoomba to be Launched Today" (10 April 1913). The Argus, Melbourne, Vic. Retrieved 4 August 2018. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. The Telegraph (1913). "New Interstate Liner Katoomba" (20 September 1913). The Telegraph, Brisbane, Qld. Retrieved 4 August 2018. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "1 Air Division - SS Columbia". 14 June 2004.
  6. Nichols, Robert (2008). "Briefing (page 6): First through". Wartime 44. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  7. "The Trip to Fiji". Australian Christian Commonwealth (SA: 1901–1940). SA: National Library of Australia. 22 November 1935. p. 17. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  8. Gill 1957, p. 436.
  9. Gill 1957, p. 486.
  10. Gill 1957, p. 496.
  11. Gill 1957, pp. 601–602.
  12. The West Australian & Commendation. Fire on S.S. Katoomba.
  13. "Caption, Australian War Memorial photo 028180". 25 March 1942. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  14. The Mercury & Threat By Soldiers Worries Katoomba Firemen.

Further reading
  • Emmons, Frederick (1973). Pacific Liners 1927–72. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 9780715360750.
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