SS Uganda
Initially Uganda operated as a liner of the British-India Steam Navigation Company, between London and East Africa, calling at Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga, between 1952 and 1967. The round trip took about 60 days. When the Suez Canal was closed in 1956/1957 and from 1967, the route of the ships was Gibraltar, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cape Town, Durban and East Africa. Uganda (apparently known as UgTug in the crew bar) was converted to an educational cruise ship at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Hamburg. Her passenger capacity leapt from 300 to 1,200 and tonnage increased to 16,607 tons and she sailed her first voyage in her new role on 27 February 1968, delighting school children (including me!), their teachers, passengers and crew for 14 years cruising mainly to Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.
In 1982 the ship served as a hospital ship in the Falklands War with the callsign "Mother Hen". She was called up for military duty while on cruise 276 and discharged her 315 cabin passengers and 940 school children, who were on an educational cruise, in Naples. Uganda had a three-day refit in Gibraltar where she had helicopter platform, fittings for replenishment at sea, satellite communications and her wards and operating theatres kitted out. Two additional water distillers were fitted on the sports deck. She was painted white and eight large red crosses were also added. A team of 135 medical staff, including 12 doctors, operating theatre staff and 40 members of the QARNNS, left Portsmouth to join the ship taking large quantities of medical supplies with them. Working closely with Uganda were the converted survey ships HMSs Hecla, Hydra and Herald. Uganda sailed to and fro between "Red Cross Box 2" and Middle Bay, taking on casualties, both British and Argentine, transferring those who were well enough to the converted survey ships for passage to Montevideo.
On 28 May the land battles started and Uganda anchored in Grantham Sound, 11 miles NW of Goose Green, where casualties from both sides arrived by helicopter and were treated. By 31 May she had 132 casualties on board. Uganda co-ordinated the movements of the four British and three Argentine hospital ships Bahia Paraiso, Almirante Irizar and Puerto Deseado and treated 730 casualties, 150 of them Argentine, making four rendezvous with the Argentine ships. By 10 July her role as a hospital ship was over and the crew held a party for 92 Falkland children more in keeping with her peacetime role. On 14 July, Uganda was deregistered as a hospital ship and the red crosses were painted out. Two days later she went back to Grantham Sound, to embark a Gurkha battalion before sailing for the UK on 18 July. She arrived at Southampton on 9 August 1982, 113 days after she had sailed to join the Task Force. During this time, she had sailed 26,150 miles, consuming 4,700 ton of fuel with over 1,000 helicopter landings on her temporary flight-deck and 3,111 personnel had been transferred to or from the ship.
After a refit in North Shields the ship returned to educational cruising but only for a few months as in January 1983 she returned to duty as a troopship serving between Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands. Two years later, she was laid up in the River Fal and was eventually sold for scrap. Sailed by a skeleton crew to Taiwan, she was driven ashore by Typhoon Wayne on 22 August 1986 near Kaohsiung, Taiwan and lay there until broken up in 1992.
The ship's original tonnage was 14,430 grt and she was fitted with two steam turbines developing 12,300 hp, developing a top speed slightly over 19 kts.
Scanned from an undated postcard I obtained aboard her in 1973.
SS Uganda
Initially Uganda operated as a liner of the British-India Steam Navigation Company, between London and East Africa, calling at Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga, between 1952 and 1967. The round trip took about 60 days. When the Suez Canal was closed in 1956/1957 and from 1967, the route of the ships was Gibraltar, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cape Town, Durban and East Africa. Uganda (apparently known as UgTug in the crew bar) was converted to an educational cruise ship at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Hamburg. Her passenger capacity leapt from 300 to 1,200 and tonnage increased to 16,607 tons and she sailed her first voyage in her new role on 27 February 1968, delighting school children (including me!), their teachers, passengers and crew for 14 years cruising mainly to Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.
In 1982 the ship served as a hospital ship in the Falklands War with the callsign "Mother Hen". She was called up for military duty while on cruise 276 and discharged her 315 cabin passengers and 940 school children, who were on an educational cruise, in Naples. Uganda had a three-day refit in Gibraltar where she had helicopter platform, fittings for replenishment at sea, satellite communications and her wards and operating theatres kitted out. Two additional water distillers were fitted on the sports deck. She was painted white and eight large red crosses were also added. A team of 135 medical staff, including 12 doctors, operating theatre staff and 40 members of the QARNNS, left Portsmouth to join the ship taking large quantities of medical supplies with them. Working closely with Uganda were the converted survey ships HMSs Hecla, Hydra and Herald. Uganda sailed to and fro between "Red Cross Box 2" and Middle Bay, taking on casualties, both British and Argentine, transferring those who were well enough to the converted survey ships for passage to Montevideo.
On 28 May the land battles started and Uganda anchored in Grantham Sound, 11 miles NW of Goose Green, where casualties from both sides arrived by helicopter and were treated. By 31 May she had 132 casualties on board. Uganda co-ordinated the movements of the four British and three Argentine hospital ships Bahia Paraiso, Almirante Irizar and Puerto Deseado and treated 730 casualties, 150 of them Argentine, making four rendezvous with the Argentine ships. By 10 July her role as a hospital ship was over and the crew held a party for 92 Falkland children more in keeping with her peacetime role. On 14 July, Uganda was deregistered as a hospital ship and the red crosses were painted out. Two days later she went back to Grantham Sound, to embark a Gurkha battalion before sailing for the UK on 18 July. She arrived at Southampton on 9 August 1982, 113 days after she had sailed to join the Task Force. During this time, she had sailed 26,150 miles, consuming 4,700 ton of fuel with over 1,000 helicopter landings on her temporary flight-deck and 3,111 personnel had been transferred to or from the ship.
After a refit in North Shields the ship returned to educational cruising but only for a few months as in January 1983 she returned to duty as a troopship serving between Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands. Two years later, she was laid up in the River Fal and was eventually sold for scrap. Sailed by a skeleton crew to Taiwan, she was driven ashore by Typhoon Wayne on 22 August 1986 near Kaohsiung, Taiwan and lay there until broken up in 1992.
The ship's original tonnage was 14,430 grt and she was fitted with two steam turbines developing 12,300 hp, developing a top speed slightly over 19 kts.
Scanned from an undated postcard I obtained aboard her in 1973.