Shipping - Boats Names

[NZBC]

OVERLAND ROUTE VIA TORRES STRAIT TO SINGAPORE AND HONGKONG. THE EASTERN AND AUSTRALIAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY (LIMITED) GORDON CASTLE despatched from Sydney about the 26th JUNE, 1883. Chinese and European passengers booked through to Hongkong.

Otago Daily Times , Issue 6658, 18 June 1883, Page 1

[NZBC]

VERLAND ROUTE VIA TORRES BTRAIT TO SINGAPORE AND HONGKONG. EASTERN AND AUSTRALIAN MAIL STEAM COMPANY (LIMITED) BRISBANE will be despatched from Sydney for the above Ports on TUESDAY, 30th December, 1879. Chinese passengers booked through to Hongkong

Otago Daily Times , Issue 5552, 4 December 1879, Page 1

[NZBC]

Ships HK - Australia

www.merchant-navy-ships.com/allied-fleets/british-fleets/

Australian Oriental Line
Ship Built Gross Tons In Service
Changte 1925 4324 1925-1961
Taiping 1926 4324 1926-1961

Changte served under wartime requisition.

The E&A Line
Named for the regions of the globe it was intended to serve, E & A was founded in London in 1872. With a strong focus on relationships with the then Queensland (Colonial) Government, it offered a Singapore-Brisbane-Sydney service from later that year.

With four ships in its fleet at the outbreak of the Great War, it provided trooping and cargo service, generally in equatorial regions. Its vessel Eastern carried Australian Expeditionary Force troops to Rabaul in 1914.

Its involvement with the P & O Company dates from 1946 when the latter took a shareholding interest.

The Second World War found the Company owning the ships Nellore (6856 gross tons, in service since 1929), Tanda (6956 gross tons, in service since 1924) and Nankin (6069 gross tons, in service since 1931). All were lost.

Nellore was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean on 30 June 1944 and forty-seven survivors managed to escape in a lifeboat. Twenty-eight days later their boat was washed up on the shores of Madagascar, 2500 miles distant, and by then only twelve survivors remained. Tanda also became a submarine victim, torpedoed off the Indian coast on 6 July 1944.

Nankin on 5 May 1942, was shelled and captured by the German surface raider vessel Thor in the Indian Ocean. She was later lost by sabotage in Yokohama Harbour.

E&A Line was also involved in Atlantic operations and subject to attack from German U-Boats., where, in spite of convoy protection, merchant ship sinkings continued at an alarming rate.