Highlight of £40m Clydeside spending by P&O

THE war had been over for less than seven years when this photograph was taken, and the Clydeside yards were extremely busy.

Since VE Day in 1945 the yards had launched no fewer than 50 ships for the P&O group of companies. “The value expended, including vessels not yet launched, is £40,250,000,” reported the Glasgow Herald on January 16, 1952.

The figures were issued by Sir William Currie, chairman of the British India Steam Navigation Company, at a dinner after the launch of the twin-screw passenger liner Uganda – the 65th ship to have been built by Barclay, Curle at its Whiteinch yard.

The 14,300-tonne Uganda, sister ship to the Kenya, which had been launched in December 1950, was 517ft long, 71ft broad and 35ft deep. Both vessels were designed to maintain the Britain-East Africa service via Suez.

It could carry 167 first-class passengers and 133 tourist-class passengers. Each class had a nursery, a swimming pool and a dance floor. It entered the Suez Canal for the first time on August 10 that year, en route for Mombasa, Kenya. The Uganda enjoyed a long and distinguished record of service. According to the SS Uganda Trust website, she completed her final voyage in January 1967 then sailed to Hamburg for conversion to an educational cruise liner.

Thirty years after its launch, however, it found itself with a new and unexpected role: it was one of many British-built vessels that were deployed during the Falklands War.