Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 2, Australia, Western Australia, "Monarch of Bermuda", 1939

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1940

Subcollections

His Majesty's Australian Transports (HMAT) 1899 - 1946

Overview

Postcard of ship "Monarch of Bermuda", later a troopship

Historical information

The Monarch of Bermuda was built by Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilders for the Furness Bermuda Line, entering service in November 1931 and operating between New York City and Bermuda during the 1930s. Her nearly identical sister ship was the SS Queen of Bermuda. In 1939, she was transferred to military service as a troopship during and after World War II
In March 1947, while she was being refitted for resuming commercial service, she caught fire and Furness Bermuda sold her to the British government, which renamed her New Australia and repaired her for service transporting British immigrants to Australia. Operated for the government by Shaw Savill Line, she served on the Australia run from 1950 until 1957.
She was sold early 1958 to the Greek Line, which refitted her for commercial service and renamed her Arkadia. In this configuration, she operated both transatlantic line service to Canada and cruises for most of the 1960s before being scrapped in Spain in 1966.
The New Australia measured 20,256 gross register tons, and was 176 metres long, with a beam of 23 metres. She was powered by steam turbines, which drove four screws, giving her a service speed of 19.5 knots. She had a capacity of 1,600 passengers while in immigrant service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_New_Australia
http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/Monarch_of_Bermuda.html
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65987.html
http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/M-Ships/monarchofbermuda1931.html

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-P1979.487.1a

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict

World War 2

Year

1940

Geotag

33.141235317594, -65.660491959746

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