CLEOPATRA
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 6:14 pmIt's about time we featured the first VICTORY ship built, and probably the last one to also visit Hartlepool and the Tees!
CLEOPATRA (5075945): 8193gt, 19.11.1943: keel laid by Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, Oregon, yard no. 1001; 12.1.1944: launched; 29.2.1944: delivered as UNITED VICTORY; 1946: acquired by Renfrew Navigation Co. Ltd., (Furness Withy); 1947 renamed KHEDIVE ISMAIL; 1948: sold to Khedivial Mail Line for new service between Egypt and US East coast; converted to carry 100 passengers; 15.3.1948: inaugural sailing from Alexandria; 1956: renamed CLEOPATRA; 1960: management transferred to United Arab Maritime Company; 6.1960: aground at Gibraltar; ownership subsequently passed to The Egyptian Navigation Co.; 13.11.1975: sailed from Hartlepool but suffered boiler explosion; early 1976: repairs completed while berthed in River Tees; 24.8.1981: arrived Gadani Beach, Pakistan, to be broken up.
(Information mainly from VICTORY SHIPS AND TANKERS by Sawyer and Mitchell; for details and photographs of the 1960 grounding see SHIPS IN FOCUS RECORD 11).
NOTE: In the brief career details included in the WSS publication FURNESS WITHY 1891-1991 by David Burrell there is an unfortunate transposition of data between the KHEDIVE ISMAIL and a sister ship MOHAMED ALI EL KEBIR, which was actually ex Atchison Victory, as correctly depicted photographically elsewhere in the book.)
At Hartlepool on 11 November 1975:
And later under repair on the Tees, Albert Weller slides:
Ron
CLEOPATRA (5075945): 8193gt, 19.11.1943: keel laid by Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, Oregon, yard no. 1001; 12.1.1944: launched; 29.2.1944: delivered as UNITED VICTORY; 1946: acquired by Renfrew Navigation Co. Ltd., (Furness Withy); 1947 renamed KHEDIVE ISMAIL; 1948: sold to Khedivial Mail Line for new service between Egypt and US East coast; converted to carry 100 passengers; 15.3.1948: inaugural sailing from Alexandria; 1956: renamed CLEOPATRA; 1960: management transferred to United Arab Maritime Company; 6.1960: aground at Gibraltar; ownership subsequently passed to The Egyptian Navigation Co.; 13.11.1975: sailed from Hartlepool but suffered boiler explosion; early 1976: repairs completed while berthed in River Tees; 24.8.1981: arrived Gadani Beach, Pakistan, to be broken up.
(Information mainly from VICTORY SHIPS AND TANKERS by Sawyer and Mitchell; for details and photographs of the 1960 grounding see SHIPS IN FOCUS RECORD 11).
NOTE: In the brief career details included in the WSS publication FURNESS WITHY 1891-1991 by David Burrell there is an unfortunate transposition of data between the KHEDIVE ISMAIL and a sister ship MOHAMED ALI EL KEBIR, which was actually ex Atchison Victory, as correctly depicted photographically elsewhere in the book.)
At Hartlepool on 11 November 1975: