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HMS Ranpura AMC World Naval Ships Forums Archive

HMS Ranpura AMC

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There were four P&O "R" class liners, Ranpura, Ranchi,Rajputana & Rawalpindi.mostly launched in 1924. Their tonnage was 16,688 tons. They were twin screwed, driven by reciprocating steam engines. The engines were 4 cylinders, diameters 321/2", 461/2", 67" & 96". Their service speed was 16 knts. They were two funnelled, the after funnel was a dummy providing ventilation for the ER. Ranpura was converted to AMC in Sep. 1939 at Calcutta. She was equiped with 8x6" single guns ( some were stamped with the date 1898), 2x3" high angle guns & 2x0.303 Lewis guns. During conversion the after funnel was removed.Ranpura was an AMC until 1944, the Admiralty then decided to covert her to a heavy repair ship, during this conversion she was equiped with forges , casting equipment, huge plate rolling machinery & all the usual machining tools. It was said that with the equipment she had she was capable of producing the complete bow section of a cruiser. Eventually in 1947 she was laid up at Rosyth & for a time was part of the Caladonia training ships. In 1952 , the Korean war was on, the only repair facilities available for repairs was very limited. It was decided to take Ranpura out of reserve , sail her to Malta to relieve HMS Tyne, Tyne would be sailed to the Far East. Tyne was a more modern Destroyer support ship. My experience of Ranpura began at the end of 1952, I had a draft to Unicorn in the Far East. I and other personnel destined for the far east were sent to Ranpura as a steaming crew to take her to Malta. I like most of the crew had no experience of a vessel like Ranpura, so we had to learn quickly. They had found an old Lt.Cdr engineer from somewhere , he seemed to be the only one who understood how this strange beast worked. Eventually we reached Malta , very slowly. That is the sum total of my experience of Ranpura, I was a LS/M at the time, I spent my time in Ranpura trying to coax fresh water from an ancient evaporator , the likes of which I had never seen or woul see again.:eek::eek::eek::confused::confused::confused::D

Here's the pictures, the first shows Ranpura as she looked for P&O. The 2nd shows her looking warlike, the 3rd shows her looking sad and unkempt.
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Bigships - I have renamed this thread AMC Ranpura - otherwise it would have had to go into the liners thread. There are already some posts there about the R-class Liners.

Astraltrader, please alter spelling to RANPURA. Ta.:eek::eek:

Sorry Keith - typo - has been sorted sir!:)

G'Day All Hi Bigship, like what I've read so far... More please:D

Happy to oblige. Ranpura was built by R & W Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn on Tyne. She was launched 13th Sept. 1924.The other ships of the class were built by, Ranchi -Hawthorn. Leslie, Rawalpindi & Rajputana by Harland & Wolff. In April 1936 Ranpura ran aground near Gibraltar while carrying art treasures on loan from China for a London exhibition. She was re-floated with no damage to ship, passengers or cargo. For the remainder of that trip she was given a destroyer, Veteran, escort. During the build of these ships they were designed to be easily converted to armed merchant cruisers. On conversion at Calcutta, most of her officers were RNR & they stayed with the ship.Many of the peace time crew including Lascars also stayed, they were joined by extra RNVR ratings sent from England.The changes inside the ship were considerable. During the war she was employed on contraband control in the Aegean, then in the S Atlantic escorting convoys up to the western approaches. For 21/2 yrs she was part of the Halifax Escort Force. In Nov. 1940 she escorted a convoy to a rendezvous with another convoy whoes escort was Jervis Bay, Ranpura returned to Canada. Two days later Jervis Bay had her valiant but fatal battle with Admiral Scheer, allowing her convoy to escape.After a refit in Norfolk Virginia she trooped US soldiers from New York to the UK. Ranpura then served on the East Indies station until 1943. In Dec. 43 she was purchased outright by the Admiralty , she was converted to a heavy repair ship at Portsmouth D/Y , the conversion taking two years. That brought Ranpura's war record to an end. There is much more to Ranpura's history, saved to a later date, the rheumatics in my fingers are needing a rest .:):):):confused:

A picture of the facilities provided by Ranpura for her passengers.
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G'Day All [QUOTE=oldsalt;24530]There is much more to Ranpura's history, saved to a later date, the rheumatics in my fingers are needing a rest[/QUOTE] Bigship, take your time. I'm enjoying your posts and I can wait:). It seems AMC RANPURA had a few close calls in its time.

Hawthorn Leslie shipyard was only a couple of miles from where I now live and I have an interest in all ships built there as do a couple of other member I believe. Here's a decent Photo of Ranpura, I will at some stage post the ships badge onto the badges thread when I get round to the depot/stores ships etc. Regards Alan
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[QUOTE=alanbenn;24558]Hawthorn Leslie shipyard was only a couple of miles from where I now live and I have an interest in all ships built there as do a couple of other member I believe. Here's a decent Photo of Ranpura, I will at some stage post the ships badge onto the badges thread when I get round to the depot/stores ships etc. Regards Alan[/QUOTE] I have a fridge magnet of Ranpuras badge, which I can't reproduce here, it looks like a chrysanthenum surrounded by four coloured sections, white, red, yellow & blue , possibly PO colours ? There is a shop in Dartmouth which sells ships badges as fridge magnets, I obtained the ones for the ships I served in & mounted them on a board.:D

More info on Ranpura.In 1946 Ranpura arrived at Malta on her way to join the British Pacific Fleet, however, she remained in Malta as part of the Med. fleet.Ranpura's services were called upon in Oct 46. Saumarez & Volage were damaged by mines off the Albanian coast. Ranpura at Patras in Greece was despatched to Corfu where both damaged destroyers were secured one on each side. Ranpura was able to give valuable assistance to the ships & their crews. In 1947 Ranpura was back in home waters, she augmented the training facilities at HMS Caledonia. When I was drafted to Unicorn,I & many draftees to the Med & Far East were to make up a steaming crew to sail Ranpura to Malta, there Ranpura was to relieve HMS Tyne, we would then sail Tyne to the Far East. Ijoined Ranpura at Rosyth in Jan 1953. We had many difficulties getting the old lady ready for sea. If my memory is correct, her boilers were oil fired with fire tubes i.e the hot gases passing through tubes in the boiler rather than around them. I think the boilers held 74tons of water, it took 36 hrs to raise a full head of steam. The reciprocating engines were certainly the largest afloat at that time. They required a legion of stokers on watch lubricating the enormous engines. On trials we made about 8 knots and damaged many bearings. We eventually commenced the voyage to Malta, we did stop at Portland for a few days. We also stopped at Gib. for fuel, the story was she needed the fuel for ballast. I have some correspondence from people who served in her at Malta, maybe some of them may read this & let us know what happened to her at Malta. Ranpura left Malta in Nov. 1958 being relieved by Ausonia. She spent her last days moored in the reserve ships trot at Devonport. On the 9th May 1961 she left Devonport on her final voyage to the breakers yard at La Spezia, Italy. She earned her one battle honour "Atlantic 1940-43".;)

[QUOTE=oldsalt;24597]I have a fridge magnet of Ranpuras badge, which I can't reproduce here, it looks like a chrysanthenum surrounded by four coloured sections, white, red, yellow & blue , possibly PO colours ? There is a shop in Dartmouth which sells ships badges as fridge magnets, I obtained the ones for the ships I served in & mounted them on a board.:D[/QUOTE] Further to this, just a little off course, a not very good pic. of what use I put the fridge magnets too.:cool::cool::eek:
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I was on board HMS Ranpura for a short time in 1955 as a Telegraphist. At that time she was classed as heavy submarine repair ship. Everyone dreaded being drafted to her because of the on board conditions. I was very glad to be transferred after 10 weeks to FOF Med's staff ashore at Manoel Island (HMS Phoenicia) so praise be to the Lord!! In my 9 1/2 years in the RN she was definitely the worst I served on and if you want the best example of an unhappy ship she was it....... Photo of the ship leaving Grand Harbour Malta in 1958 flying her paying off pennant.
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Hi I love reading the storys i just wondered if anyone remembers the cooks names Thanks:)

Good evening Keith, It looks like we have something else in common, I too served on the Ranpura in 1955. My first ship straight out of Ganges boys training establishment. Twenty of us, but I was not on it long, July to October, in fact it was due to sail not long after we joined for it's annual cruise. There was some dispute as to whether it would move off the bed of coke cans that it sat on. When we got to Ajjaccio in Corsica all of us boys went ashore camping in the mountains, along with the Padre and one or two others. On the last day, after we had packed up and ready to move back to the ship, two of us boys decided that we would help ourselves to some black grapes, the vine was wrapped around this tree, and of course we both stood on this branch, the inevitable happened, the branch broke and we came crashing down clearing the tree of all branches on that particular side. I broke and dislocated my right ankle, the other guy came down with his legs apart, you can gather the rest. I think I came off the best. The chippy on board made me some crutches so I could get about, and I still had those up to a couple of years ago. As to life on board, I know very little I was excused just about everything. My ankle did not mend properly, so I was sent home to the UK. Well thats my tale of woe of the Ranpura? :) :) :D Speak to you soon Baz.

I note that in the thread there was a point where Ranpura was escorted by the old V&W HMS Veteran; on a completely oblique tangent, Veteran was later to escort "Convoy Maniac" bringing several disguised coastal passenger vessels looking like big liner profiles, across the Atlantic. The convoy was a blind for the real one bring troops for the North Africa landings sailing much further South. Sadly two of the merchant ships were torpedoed and went down, Veteran went back and picked up their crews and on her return to the convoy was herself torpedoed with the loss of everyone of her company and the survivors. among those lost was Francis Mason Hayes, her doctor and one of the American volunteers who opted to join the RN before Pearl Harbour. He is remembered in the comemorative plaques to the US volunteers in the floor of the Painted Hall at Greenwich. I think we made a post specifically about this a while back. Interestingly one of the survivors of the convoy went on to become the SS Exodus that played a central role in bringing Holocaust survivors back to Israel (Palestine)

[QUOTE=barry-sheila@tiscali.co.u;34660]Good evening Keith, It looks like we have something else in common, I too served on the Ranpura in 1955. My first ship straight out of Ganges boys training establishment. Twenty of us, but I was not on it long, July to October, in fact it was due to sail not long after we joined for it's annual cruise. There was some dispute as to whether it would move off the bed of coke cans that it sat on. When we got to Ajjaccio in Corsica all of us boys went ashore camping in the mountains, along with the Padre and one or two others. On the last day, after we had packed up and ready to move back to the ship, two of us boys decided that we would help ourselves to some black grapes, the vine was wrapped around this tree, and of course we both stood on this branch, the inevitable happened, the branch broke and we came crashing down clearing the tree of all branches on that particular side. I broke and dislocated my right ankle, the other guy came down with his legs apart, you can gather the rest. I think I came off the best. The chippy on board made me some crutches so I could get about, and I still had those up to a couple of years ago. As to life on board, I know very little I was excused just about everything. My ankle did not mend properly, so I was sent home to the UK. Well thats my tale of woe of the Ranpura? :) :) :D Speak to you soon Baz.[/QUOTE] Hi Baz, you must have been following me. One thing I remember on Ranpura was the Stokers messdeck was sloping from for'd to aft, every morning when the deck was scrubbed all the soapy water ran down for the after mess to mop up.

Ranpura's bell is in the belfry of St Margaret-Mary Church at Plymstock, Plymouth. Anyone know how it got there?
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[QUOTE=Lancastrian;39774]Ranpura's bell is in the belfry of St Margaret-Mary Church at Plymstock, Plymouth. Anyone know how it got there?[/QUOTE] I called into the church today, saw the bell & chatted to the Padre. The Padre had no idea why the church possessed the bell other than the church was built around the time Ranpura was scrapped, we thought it may have been a gesture on the part of Devonport D/Y to give the bell a home in the newly built church. The Padre said he would ask the older members of his congregation if they knew anything. The bell is high in a bell tower, open to the weather. I took a picture but was intrigued to see it carries the date 1946, any guesses to why?
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Thanks for that Old Salt. I was going to get my wife to ask Father Terry as she is a regular at the church and was born not far from Ranpura's berth in Lazaretto Creek. Do let us know what he finds. The reason for the date 1946 would seem to be her recommissioning. 08.12.1944: Sold to the Admiralty and converted to the fleet repair ship HMS Ranpura. 04.1946: Recommissioned. Originally destined for the Pacific Fleet, she was redeployed once she reached Malta and thereafter served largely in the Mediterranean. 10.1946: Stood by the damaged destroyers HMS Saumarez and Volage when they were mined off the Albanian coast 10/12.1956: Took part in the Suez operation. 11.1958: Laid up at Devonport. 04.1961: Sold for £200,000 to Italian shipbreakers. 25.05.1961: Arrived at La Spezia to be broken up.

Ranpura was brought out of reserve in 1952, we sailed her to Malta to replace Tyne who was required in the Far East.

Hi, my father is nearly 83 and suffers from Alzheimer's. My mother passed away a couple of years ago and all of my dad's memories went with her, and I have very little to go on in terms of helping him remember. He did tell me last week that he thought he was on HMS Ranpura. He also told me that he lied about his age to get into the Navy, as he was only 15. I am interested to hear other's stories of life onboard ship, and perhaps look at some photos. My father's name is Pat Lyon. He translated morse code, and didn't want to leave the navy but I he said that he had to because they didn't need him anymore (possibly at the end of the war?) so he went and joined the Army and was sent to Israel (then Palestine) but that's all I know. Kindest Regards, Karen Blackburn

Hello Karen, Ref Ranpura - sounds like Pat was an old time Sparker, makes me feel like a new boy at 71. The Ranps was a Destroyer Repair ship originally built as a passenger/cargo. When I knew her she was berthed permanently up Lazaretto Creek in Malta alongside what was during the war the Torpedo Loading Base for Submarines. She was to all intents a floating machine shop which could cope with most of the needs of Destroyers and provided limited accommodation. There must be others, probably Tiffs, who knew her better than I. Anyway regards from one Ditdah Bosun to another. Dave Hutson

Hello again Karen, Meant to add, joining at 15 your dad was probably a Ganges Boy - that being the case try contacting the HMS Ganges website with what details you have and it could be there is someone who remembers him, the Ganges association is some 3000 strong ranging from 1920 onwards. I have checked the membership for 40,41,42 when there were a lot of Hostilities Only members so it is worth a try. Good luck. Dave

There is a thread about Ranpura here - [url]http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24408#post24408[/url]

Maybe oops, I told someone today that the Ranpura was a Destroyer Repair Ship which I believed was true, but someone else says she was Submarine Repair, which I thought at that time was the Forth in Msida Creek. Maybe I am having one of those senior moments. That aside, I was there in 55 on Chevron and you guys are certainly stirring the memories, thanks and don't stop Dave [Ex Tel]

Karen, welcome to our forum. Lancastrian has pointed you in the direction of one of our forum posts about the Ranpura. There are also several photographs of the ship on the forum so please do a search using the facility above...just type in Ranpura and see what comes up. If you have any questions please ask as you may have already gathered there are plenty of willing helpers here! Enjoy the forum.. Regards Alan

No you are correct. Forth was the Submarine depot ship at Malta from 1947 - 1960. [url]http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11353&postcount=2[/url] Ranpura looked after surface ships though her precise description varies in different sources.

I found this picture of the ranpura in my dad's box of photos. I will be 36 this year and I have never seen this photo before. Also dad in his uniform.
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Well, the RANPURA certainly had quite a useful life, nice pics, too! Thanks! DFO :D

[QUOTE=KBlack;44015]I found this picture of the ranpura in my dad's box of photos. I will be 36 this year and I have never seen this photo before. Also dad in his uniform.[/QUOTE] Thats a good photo, taken when she was a merchant ship, still having two funnels. I think the aft funnel was a dummy and fitted to make the ship look better.

Since the "RANCHI" was mentioned in an earlier post I have copied a post war picture of her. Alffox
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I'll not post any pics, as you have aready done so; but here is a wonderful and fascinating detailed account of the life and machinery on board, from an engineers point of view. © Crown Copyright/MoD (1980). [COLOR="Red"][SIZE="4"]'A SONG OF STEAM'[/SIZE][/COLOR] By COMMANDER. G. C. BURNAN, O.B.E., M.Sc., C.ENG., M.I.MEcH.E., M.I.MAR.E., R.N. AND LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER J.R. CORLESS C.ENG., M.I. MECH.E., F.I.MAR.E., R.N. (RET) In the years shortly after the Second World War, the machinery of British warships was to undergo the first major change in design philosophy for about thirty years. The long era of the Parsons impulse-reaction turbine, powered from Admiralty three-drum boilers, was to come to an end and be replaced by controlled-superheat boilers and various new designs of turbines for the DARING Class destroyers and WHITBY Class frigates. The professional training at the R.N.E. College, Manadon, after consolidating our knowledge of the conventional marine machinery was concluded by a study of the machinery of these latest designs that were to enter the Fleet. It was with considerable apprehension therefore when, at the end of their course in 1952, the authors discovered that they were not taking up their appointments to ships in the Far East until after a passage as steaming crew in H.M.S. Ranpura from Rosyth to Malta. H.M.S. Ranpura must have been one of the older ships still wearing the white ensign. She was fitted with steam reciprocating machinery that first went on trial in April 1925. It had long since been superseded in current warships and had therefore not been considered worthy of inclusion in our course syllabus. This article is written to record our experiences in preparing ourselves for this unusual assignment in what was to be one of the last sorties ever made by that ship. H.M.S. Ranpura was a converted P. & 0. passenger liner. She was one of a class of four ships : S.S. Ranpura, S.S. Rawalpindi, S.S. Ranchi, and S.S. Rajputana, built for the Bombay Mail Service. Of these ships, only Ranchi remained entirely in the P. & 0. Service. S.S. Rawalpindi achieved fame as an armed merchant cruiser when she was sunk by gunfire in battle with the Scharnhorst in the North Atlantic on 23rd November 1939. S.S. Rajputana was also requisitioned in Vancouver in 1939 and undertook a similar conversion before being torpedoed off Iceland in April 1940, and S.S. Ranpura was converted to an armed merchant cruiser in Calcutta in September 1939 and began her war service as such in the eastern Mediterranean. In 1944 she was purchased outright by the Admiralty and converted into a fleet repair ship and depot ship and it was back to the Mediterranean that we were to take her in 1953 to relieve H.M.S. Tyne in Malta so that the latter could take up her new task as headquarters ship in Sasebo, Japan, from the aging Yangste River gunboat H.M.S. Ladybird. Since the machinery in Ranpura was totally different from any on which we had been trained, advantage was taken of the fact that her one remaining sister ship Ranchi was about to make her last voyage, from Tilbury to Newport, Monmouthshire, where she was to be broken up; two of us, future watchkeepers in Ranpura, were signed on in Ranchi as supernumeries (R.N.) at one shilling a week! We were to learn on that voyage as much as we could about the operation of the largest reciprocating engines at sea at that time. These were two quadruple expansion engines which between them developed 15 000 shaft horse power using saturated steam from six double-ended Scotch boilers at 215 pounds per square inch. This horse-power was transmitted to two 19 ft 6 in diameter propellers which, at about 90 rev/min, drove the 16 000-ton ship at 18 knots on her builders trials. The performance, however, had fallen off in both the Ranpura and the Ranchi in their later years but Ranchi, on her last voyage to Tilbury from Australia, still managed a steady 80 rev/min developing 14 knots. The machinery layout in Ranchi was very simple. There were three main machinery compartments-the forward and after stokeholds with three boilers in each and an engine room which, in addition to the main engines, contained most of the auxiliaries. At the after end of the engine room, there were two shaft tunnels that emerged in the tiller flat where the space was dominated by the Browns steam steering gear. This was a steam reciprocating engine mounted directly on to the tiller arm and driving a toothed pinion engaging a racked quadrant fixed athwartships to the ships structure. Steam and exhaust was connected to the engine through glanded banjo-pieces on an extension of the rudder post. There was direct access from one compartment to the next through sluice-type watertight doors at the engine-room deck-plate level making it possible to walk straight through from the forward stokehold to the tiller flat without climbing a single ladder. A lift conveyed the engineer officers from the watchkeepers' mess on the boat deck to the grating immediately above the starting platform-a boon after a tiring watch, but not without hazard as at least one officer had been trapped 'between floors' when the lift broke down. Neither was too much trust placed in the hydraulic system that kept the doors open, so this was backed up by wooden props under the doors which could be kicked away in an emergency. The six boilers were double-ended Scotch marine type that had been converted to burn oil fuel. Each boiler had eight furnaces (four at either end with one sprayer per furnace) which were corrugated to allow for differences in expansion between themselves and the boiler shell. The overall length was 20 feet. The flue gas left the furnace at the centre and passed back through fire tubes to smoke boxes at the furnace front whence it was re-directed to a central uptake. Soot blowing on these boilers was a fearsome process as the smoke box doors were opened and a steam lance was passed down each fire tube in turn. Soot, steam, and funnel gas invaded the stokehold creating an impression of 'Hell's Kitchen'. It was noted that in Ranchi the Fourth Engineer, who had charge of the stokehold, usually retreated to the engine room while this operation was in progress. The two main engines each had four cylinders whose diameters were 324 inches, 464 inches, 67 inches, and 96 inches respectively. The HP and the smaller IP cylinder were placed at the end of the engine so as to accommodate poppet valves which, with the slide valves of the other IP and the LP cylinder, were operated by rods driven off the eccentric straps. The stroke of the piston was 5 feet and the sight of the 30-inch diameter crank rotating in an open crank pit at 80 rev/min was indeed awe inspiring. It was even more nerve racking to watch the Third Engineer checking the big-end bearing temperatures by touching the crank web as it came up to top dead centre and then, having judged the timing, bending the tops of his fingers down over the webs until they touched the crankpin bearing brass to pick up a trace of oil from the journal. This oil was important because the presence of grit or metal particles in it was the only indication the engineer would get of impending failure. It was very noticeable that the regular watchkeepers wore short-sleeved overalls and no rings on their fingers. In contrast, when feeling the slipper guides and small-end pin face, he kept his fingers well tucked in, to avoid the sharp edge of the oil feeder box on the crosshead, and touched the metal with the back of his fist. It was with trepidation that we copied him, but were pleasantly surprised how soon the knack of it came though the crank pin gave us some nasty bruises until we got the timing right. At the after end of the engine, a small exhaust-driven steam turbine was coupled to the main engine crank shaft through a hydraulic coupling and double reduction gearing. This was known as the Bauer-Wach system. Steam was exhausted from the LP cylinder at a higher pressure than usual, through a water eliminator, and expanded in the steam turbine down to 0.75psia. This lowered the output of the reciprocating engine but made available a correspondingly greater pressure drop in the turbine. Furthermore, this auxiliary drive had a soothing effect on the reciprocating forces and so reduced the vibration considerably. The turbine was engaged by a control valve which directed oil to the hydraulic coupling which, when full, allowed oil to overflow to the control valve piston that operated the change-over valve in the exhaust steam line. Steam was then directed to the turbine. A push rod operated by a way-shaft prevented the control valve from being operated when the engine was stopped or going astern. A high-speed 150 kW electric generator was coupled to the first reduction pinion of the Bauer-Wach turbine with an independent auxiliary turbine in series with the Bauer-Wach turbine connected to the first reduction pinion by a hydraulic clutch. This clutch was kept filled when the exhaust turbine was driving the generator and emptied when the auxiliary turbine drive was required either when in port or when the exhaust turbine was for any reason cut out. Steam to the auxiliary turbine was off or on according to the state of the hydraulic clutch. In Ranchi the control valve to the exhaust turbine proved unreliable and had a tendency to come out on its own; in consequence, the hand lever was lashed 'in' and a knife was hung near the lashing to disconnect the turbine in an emergency! In addition to the direct drive generators, Ranchi was fitted with a 100 kW Shanks reciprocating generator and a 250 kW Allens turbo-generator. The Allens turbo-generator had a temperamental generator tail-end bearing which tended to overheat. This was overcome by fitting a copper coil in the bearing sump and running a rubber hose from this to the engine-room tap. A close watch had to be kept as the vibration of the machine caused the hose to chafe and fail. Many other parts of the main engine were water cooled. The eccentric straps were cooled by dipping into water-filled boxes which, of course, had to be replenished as the water splashed out into the bilges on every revolution of the crankshaft. This was the task of one of the paniwallas, as the Patan engineroom hands were called. 'Paniwalla' is a native word for 'water carrier' and this was literally his task. For four hours he went round the eight eccentric boxes topping them up from two two-gallon buckets which he filled from a tap. Practically every Third Engineer at some time had compassion on the paniwalla and suggested that he put a hose on the tap for the purpose. However, it was not long before the paniwalla had wrapped his hose around the eccentric rods and the engine had to be stopped to unravel it all-so back to the buckets. He did, however, use a hose to spray the slipper guides to keep them cool. The crew except for the officers were nearly all Asian. The seamen were Lascars, the stewards Goanese, the engine-room hands Patans, and the firemen silent turbaned fellows from the Punjab. These firemen were called 'agwallas' and there were three in each watch under a leading hand or 'tindal'. In one stokehold, the tindal was the water tender and in the other the senior agwalla carried out the task. The two stokeholds were in the charge of the Fourth Engineer. The engine-room watch consisted of the Third Engineer in overall charge with a junior who double-banked him and, in addition, carried out most of the maintenance and running repairs. There were also the two paniwallas under their tindal, one looking after the eccentric boxes and the other looking after the two evaporator shells and doing routing greasing. Since salt water was used for all bathing and washing facilities, the only domestic requirement for fresh water was for drinking and this was catered for by storage tanks refilled each time the ship bunkered. The evaporators therefore were solely for use on make-up feed but, as the distilling capacity was small, great attention was given to rectifying steam leaks as soon as possible after they arose. The deck and engine-room sections of the Indian crew were each under the charge of a boss man or 'serang'. Such a section would often come from one village where the 'serang' would be held in high esteem and from him the crew would buy their jobs at the start of the voyage. They were paid by the Shipping Company but it was the serang who recruited them, brought them to Bombay to join the ship, arranged their watches, and took care of the discipline usually by way of a sharp cuff or kick. He rarely appeared down below but when he did he was treated with the utmost respect. As well as the watchkeeping officers already mentioned, the engine-room complement consisted of the Chief Engineer, the Second Engineer, and three more junior engineers who did daywork. In addition there was a refrigeration engineer and two electricians who also did daywork. The engineer officers messed in the main saloon at their own table but provision was made for the watchkeepers to have their meals separately in a watchkeepers' mess near their cabins on the boat deck. The watch bill was made out in three watches in fixed sequence and the choice of watch was given in strict order of seniority. In Ranchi, a supernumerary Second Engineer was filling one of the Third's billets and he therefore had the first choice of watches. In a passenger liner, it was clear that preference was given to being able to participate in the social programme of the ship rather than the requirement for sleep. Thus the senior watchkeeper would keep the morning and dog watches, the next chose the middle and afternoon watches leaving the junior Third Engineer with the unsocial first and forenoon watches. Working as they did in an old ship in very adverse conditions, the task of keeping her running with the minimum delays to her passage schedule engendered in the watchkeepers an intense pride of achievement. It led to remarkable examples of ingenuity and improvisation, and resulted in a grand old ship still maintaining a steady 80 rev/min on her last voyage to the breakers yard after twenty-five years in service. They had a saying in the P. & 0. at that time, 'hardworking ships are happy ships'. This was certainly true of the Ranchi right to the end when she settled high and dry on the mud banks of the River Usk. The first impressions on joining Ranpura at Rosyth were the lack of freedom of movement between machinery spaces. The watertight doors that allowed access from the forward stokehold to the tiller flat had all been welded to preserve watertight integrity; access to the machinery spaces was therefore only possible from the main deck. For the boiler rooms, this meant a breathless exercise through a sulphurous atmosphere in the uptake spaces caused by the many leaks in the boiler air casings, and elsewhere an exhausting marathon up and down vertical ladders. Flashing up from cold was a novel experience. The operation started forty eight hours before going to sea with a pile of firewood, a bundle of rags, and a box of matches. As only the centre boiler in the forward stokehold was fitted with an auxiliary stop, the first operation was to raise steam in this boiler by lighting the wood fire in the furnace and waiting until sufficient steam pressure had been raised to warm through the oil-fuel heaters and to run the fuel pump. It was a relatively straightforward operation then to warm through the steam ranges and flash up and bank the other boilers. For this reason in Ranpura the steam plant was rarely shut down, one boiler being kept flashed or banked. Thus, it was usually from this condition that the flashing-up watch started. Some twenty-four hours previously, the main-steam bulkhead valves had been opened to admit steam slowly to the main-engine valve chests and the IP and LP jackets. All drains were opened and the engines warmed through. The flashing-up watch started the main circulators and air pumps to raise 5 inches of vacuum. The reversing engines were warmed through and started. These engines were used to operate the cumbersome link gear by which the ahead or the astern main-engine eccentrics were lined up with the valve gear. This was achieved by means of a massive way-shaft which ran the full length of the engine. The operation of this gear was preceded by a bellowed warning 'mind the links' to warn any watchkeepers who might be in the way on the upper gratings. Needless to say, reversing the engines was not a very rapid process. This was further delayed if the engine stopped (as it frequently did) with the HP piston at top dead centre. The engine had to be moved over this position by admitting starting steam to one of the other cylinders. To do this, one of a series of valve levers, hung at the forward end of the engine, had to be pulled in sequence until the engine obliged and turned over. In the warming through routine, the engines were first rocked-that is turned up towards the top of the stroke but not allowed to move over top dead centre on any cylinder until it was certain that there was no water on the top of any piston. After this, they were turned frequently and vacuum raised to 20 inches to prepare the engines for trial. It was the practice in the Navy at this time to use Admiralty compound oil OC160 to lubricate the crossheads, connecting rods, crankshaft, and eccentric boxes. This oil emulsifies readily with water and so provides adequate lubrication even when contaminated with water and steam from the drains and glands of the engine. The eccentric straps also were lubricated from semi-circular baths secured across the engine bed plate under each pair of eccentrics. These baths contained a mixture of the same oil and water. However, we failed to get this mixture right and during the basin trials the eccentric straps overheated; it was found that the emulsion had churned like butter, and this had to be hosed out of the eccentrics before the trial could continue. From then on, only water was used in the eccentric baths. Apart from this incident, the first basin trials in Ranpura were very successful and on completion the ship was stored and made ready for sea. Not long after the basin trials and while embarking fuel, a seepage of oil into the sand-pit in the foundry was discovered. This sand-pit was directly over one of the double-bottom tanks, the top of which had split releasing the oil into the sand. There was a considerable delay while the sand-pit was emptied and the damaged fuel tank isolated before fuelling could recommence. After making sure that the main machinery was operating correctly, attention was turned to the distilling plant. This was an impressive contrivance of three triple effect evaporators arranged on three sides of their compartment. On each set, the brine discharged from the first shell was the feed for the second and the brine from the second shell the feed for the third. This arrangement required a delicate balance to be achieved in the triple pump to maintain a steady level in the three shells. It was nearly impossible to measure the density of the brine from the last shell because, being so high, the brass hydrometer well-nigh stood out of the pot. The first set was commissioned without too much difficulty but the second and third sets would not feed at all. After opening up some of the pipelines, the reason for this was discovered: whoever had refitted the brine lines had failed to knock out the centres of many of the pipe joints ! It took most of the night to put this right, but in the morning all three sets were operating and it was a grand sight to stand back and see the three triple pumps jogging away with the light flashing on the gleaming pump rods. Thus with the machinery tried and proved H.M.S. Ranpura completed storing and sailed from the Forth into the North Sea and down the East Coast towards the Straits of Dover at a steady cruising speed of nine knots. The ship had not been under way long when the weather began to deteriorate and gales began to develop to the north of us moving steadily southwards at about our speed. We were apprehensive about our stability because the ship carried a large amount of top weight. As part of her conversion to a heavy repair ship, large rolling mills were installed in the upper-deck workshops in which were also stored many tons of steel plate and timber for shipment to Malta. Luckily this was compensated to some extent by 70 tons of torpedoes in crates stowed down in the foundry. While examining the Ship's Book during this period, an entry was discovered warning of a loss of stability if there was an accumulation of more than 6 inches of water in the machinery space bilges. As may be imagined, being an old ship that had not steamed for a long time, there were a considerable number of steam leaks which kept topping up the bilges, and so a fervent pumping routine was started. This brought to light many defects in the ship's bilge system: the valves were heavily contaminated with paint chippings, the system joints were perished, and, in one suction valve, the valve disc had been lost and replaced by an empty 'Zube' tin! The refitting of this system turned out to be an on-going event for the rest of the voyage. We plodded on down the North Sea just ahead of those gales that were to wreak such havoc along the East Coast, particularly in the Thames Estuary, and it was with considerable relief that we finally turned westwards through the Straits of Dover experiencing nothing worse than some heavy rolling. The effect of this rolling was most marked in the engine room because, in addition to the continuous movement of bilge water, the water in the open-topped feed system hot wells was continuously slopping about, resulting in considerable loss of feed water. One of the auxiliary petty officers discovered a valve which allowed feed water from the evaporator makeup feed discharge to be admitted directly to these hot wells. By surreptitiously opening this valve he not only saved himself the trouble of running down water from the reserve tanks but also made it look as though the feed losses were less when he was on watch! It was some time before this 'irregular practice' was discovered. The steam-driven compressor of the CO2, refrigerating plant at the other end of the engine room had a huge flywheel on the crankshaft. During passage, one of the gas glands on the compressor developed a leak and a cure was attempted by pulling up on the gland. Such was our inexperience that we did not know that the gland was packed with Allenite lead-foil packing and that once packed this should never be compressed further. In the event, the compressor objected strongly to this malpractice and stopped abruptly, bending the connecting rod in the process. However, skilled hands subsequently straightened the rod and we were able to run the plant again within a few hours. As in Ranchi, the boilers were double-ended Scotch boilers and they operated at an exceedingly low air pressure of half an inch water gauge. This air pressure was controlled by judicious opening of a series of vent louvres in the floor of the fan flat above the boiler room; any excess movement of these flaps resulted in a complete loss of air pressure and the probable extinguishing of the oil-fuel sprayers. These sprayers were little more than steel tubes with the ends flattened and small holes drilled! If therefore one was extinguished for any length of time, an accumulation of unburnt oil would rapidly build up in the corrugations of the furnace with very serious risk of explosion and fire in the stokehold if an attempt were made to re-light it. For this reason, they were frequently examined from the remote end of their individual furnace. This was, in fact, the cause of a major fire in Ranpura's boiler room some years later. In other respects the auxiliary machinery in Ranpura was very similar to that fitted in Ranchi. She had no Bauer-Wach turbine, but had additional generators fitted to provide power for her heavy workshop machinery; and right aft, there was still the massive steam steering gear. Throughout the twelve days on passage to Malta, we were always finding something new. The watches were therefore never dull and the morale of the engine-room crew was very high. It was with considerable pride therefore that we welcomed the relieving staff who were to take over Ranpura in Malta for the last stage of the passage, when they arrived in a destroyer. The peculiarities of the machinery were explained, and a dramatic demonstration given why soluble oil was not used in the eccentric boxes-at full power, the visitors were showered with oily white droplets before the mixture started to churn and had once more to be hosed out with fresh water. We also, of course, pointed out to them the 96-inch complete spare LP piston securely secured to the engine-room bulkhead! The impression left by these experiences in Ranchi and in Ranpura has remained ever since and has yet to meet its equal. How, when reminiscing with former colleagues at reunions or at gatherings of marine engineers, they bring real meaning to these lines of Rudyard Kipling from M'Andrew's Hymn written in 1893 : 'Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam! To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime Whaurto-uplifted like the Just-the tail-rods mark the time. The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves, An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves: Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides, Till-hear that note?-the rod's return whings glimmerin' through the guides. They're all away! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin' dynamoes.' It is doubtful whether watchkeeping on steam turbines would have inspired such lines and, with diesels, the noise would have stifled them at birth. Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance given by Mr. S. Mole, P. & 0. Container Fleet Ltd. (formerly Third Engineer, S.S. Ranchi) and also Mr. S. Rabson, Group Librarian, P. & 0. Group for loan of the photographs of S.S. Ranchi and S.S. Ranpura and for permission to reproduce them.

I was taken off a draft to COSSACK and flew out to Malta in May or June 1955 to work on the Reserve Fleet, such as it was. We lived on LOFOTEN alongside RANPURA and later on, FIERCE, one of 3 Algerines laid up. The worst bit about RANPURA was the long climb up an accommodation ladder on to the forr'd well deck. If you had had a skin full the night before, that climb finished you off! Then there was a traipse through a long workshop and the danger of tripping over something or other to reach the after well deck and a rickety gangway connecting with the accommodation ship.. Later in 1955 I was co-opted to join Ranpura for a trip to Porto Vechio and Marseilles. It wasn't a lot of fun but made a change from laying in the Lazaretto Creek doing not a lot. I have no memory of submarines coming alongside RANPURA in my 18 months attached to her but more often than not there was a destroyer, usually a Battle, alongside. I have no memories of RANPURA at Rosyth when I was in LARGO BAY there, but I will never forget the gales mentioned in a previous post. We sailed just as dusk was falling for the doubtful pleasure of a visit to Hartlepool. It was really blowing and a foretaste of what was to come was made evident by a Fishery Protection Algerine, COCKATRICE or CHAMELEON I think, and she looked very battered as we passed each other under the Forth railway bridge. she having lost her boats and her 4" gun. I stood the middle watch and was taken aback by the sight of the P.O.G.I. warmly wrapped and wearing a life jacket, standing right next to the funnel and I'm told he stayed there all night. Apprehension spread amongst we young lads; if an old salt such as he declined to stay between decks we felt that we were in some peril. Certainly standing on the quarterdeck acting a lifebuoy sentry was a character building experience. With a free board of about 6 feet and mountainous following seas overtaking the ship I felt sure that tons of water would come crashing down on me. I remember calculating that if a gallon of water weighed 10 pounds then surely each wave tipped the scales at over 1000 tons. I let out a sigh of relief every time that the blunt end lifted with the wave and passed under the ship. Having experienced the motion of RANPURA in a choppy Med sea, the discomfort of those aboard her in the Prince of Gales passes beyond my imagination.

The report on Ranpura being re-commissioned has really stirred the grey cells. I was a Leading Stoker Mechanic drafted to join a ship in the Far East. I was detailed to take passage in Ranpura & then Tyne. Reading the report brought it all back, I was one of the lucky few who kept watches on the Evaporators, it was all as described . I can only add it was an experience!

My Father, Walter Allan Dobson, served on Ranpura for a mere week, the final day of which was D-Day. I understand she was in the English channel during his time, but I do not know what she was doing. My Pa was a Cambridge mathemetician and physicist, served in Naval intelligence and had spent several months doing codebreaking work at Bletchley Park during 1942. Subsequent to this he served in the Med, and was involved with the capture of U205 in Feb 43. In the 3-4 months before D-Day he was at HMS Vernon, where countermeasures for the German magnetic mines were developed. There is a family story (unproven) that in recognition of his service he was offered a "grandstand view" of the D-Day assault although we don't know on what ship or wheher he accepted. To assist in my research, does anyone know exactly what Ranpura may have been doing immediately before and on D-Day? Does anyone know if such "grandstand views" were available in a controlled manner, and if so who what you had to do to qualify for one? Many thanks in advance. Nick

I can't be certain but it would seem she was there to repair damage to warships. The old minelayer Adventure was there to support landing craft. Ships had to be kept operational, time could not be spared to send ships back to UK dockyards.

I am trying to flesh out missing parts of my dads WW2 history [AS Walter Wright] who served on HMS Ranpura and then on the newly built Mull of Galloway. My dad did not talk about the war at all but had the Atlantic Star; Burma Star and Pacific Clasp. I would love any information at all on the movements of the Ranpura in the first 6 months of 1942. I believe in January 1942 she left the clyde for Halifax - Was this as part of a convoy and does anyone know its designation ? She had a major refit in Baltimore and was then used in June 1942 as a troop ship out of New York. Was she part of a convoy and does anyone know of its designation ? I have another thread running on the Mull of Galloway which has provided me some valuable information.

Hi Ron, Not much but the use of Ranpura immediately after her 1942 refit was as part of the escort of convoy WS21. Ranpura embarked 785 personnel for West Africa on the Clyde. The ocean escort of the convoy was Hawkins, Ranpura, Catterick and Petard and because Hawkins was not available till 30th July the convoy did not sail till then. After some incidents, none involving Ranpura, the convoy, 12 ships plus an a/s escort of 7 ships, reached Freetown on 9th August. Ranpura dropped off some troops at Freetown then independently went to Takoradi to land the remainder then return to rejoin on 18th. The voyage continued past Capetown with the convoy progressively dropping off ships which had different ultimate destinations. Ranpura continued towards Durban escorting seven transports. which she reached by 30th August having previously been joined by Corfu, which detached at this point. More later. (Info extracted from Winston Specials by Archie Munro) Cheers, Sandy McAuslan

Sorry Ron I was interrupted, On 10th September the convoy split and Ranpura and Petard escorted Samarai, Aorangi and 4 storeships towards Aden. Late in the evening of 13th a fire broke out on Silverwalnut which threatened 200 tons of ammunition. This was controlled and the convoy was dispersed on reaching Aden on 16th. The whole convoy WS21 is listed as carrying 28,290 troops. Time to Suez was 55 days with half the troops landed at Suez the rest mostly in West Africa. Ranpura then joined the East Indies Station (?possibly at Kilindini) where she operated along with other AMCs - Canton, Alaunia, Bulolo, Carthage, Chitral, Kanimbla, Ranchi, Ranpura and Worcestershire. One by one they left for transfer to troopships. Most of her time would be spent between Bombay, Aden and Socotra. On 30th September 1943 she rescued survivors from the merchantman Banffshire. On he same date she began a long trip home from Kilindini joining slow convoys. She was part of convoy MKS30 which on 14 the November 1943 joined up with SL139 and this was a huge assembly of 66 ships. From the dark days of mid 1942 the whole convoy escort picture had changed and the escort of this convoy was immense in comparison to WS21. Close escort was 7 ships. By 21st November these had been joined by 7th Support Group - 6 more, 5th Support Group -7 more and 8 additional escort vessels. The World Ship Society publication Armed Merchant Cruisers states 'The heavy escort thwarted any significant successes by the large number of U-Boats and Hs (sic) 177 bombers deployed against the convoy.' On 1-3-1944 she passed to Rosyth command and was purchased in 8-12.1944. That's all I have post her major 1942 refit at Baltimore Navy Yard. Cheers, Sandy McAuslan

Hi Ron, One last snippet. In May 1941 Ranpura joined up with convoy OB318. This was for her own protection and not as an Ocean Escort. This convoy was savaged by U-Boats with Eastern Star, Ixion, Esmond, Bengore Head, Empire Cloud, Gregalia and Hercules all torpedoed. The convoy was then scattered and Ranpura arrived at Halifax on 14th May. The Trade Division interviewed the senior surviving officers of six of the ships sunk and they all criticised the presence of an AMC in the convoy. They also advised that their crews were apprehensive when they saw an AMC join a convoy. Their reservations were against AMCs in general and not specifically Ranpura. Although their fears were not shared (pure size of the AMC was more visible to a U-Boat and a superb radar target) by the Director of Anti-Submarine Warfare (U-Boats were not known to be employing radar and it was more often smoke that was their first visible contact) he observed that, in future, AMCs would only sail with trans-Atlantic convoys when the necessity for transporting personnel via Iceland arose. From November 1941 till February 1942 she is listed as being part of East Indies Station so I would surmise that she therefore crossed the pond independently then sailed down the East coast of Canada/USA to the Baltimore Navy Yard where she underwent a major refit till July 1942. Cheers, Sandy McAuslan

Pictures of Ranpura from my Liner's/Merchant Ships Gallery.... :) [url]http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10096764&postcount=733[/url]

According to the ConvoyWeb database, the Ranpura escorted several SC / OB / BHX / HX / MKS series of Atlantic convoys 1940-41. The last mentioned is SC.45 from Canada to Liverpool in September 1941. She next appears in mid-1942 as outlined above. This would suggest that she steamed independently across the Atlantic for her US refit

[QUOTE=oldsalt;24530]Happy to oblige. Ranpura was built by R & W Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn on Tyne. She was launched 13th Sept. 1924.The other ships of the class were built by, Ranchi -Hawthorn. Leslie, Rawalpindi & Rajputana by Harland & Wolff. In April 1936 Ranpura ran aground near Gibraltar while carrying art treasures on loan from China for a London exhibition. She was re-floated with no damage to ship, passengers or cargo. For the remainder of that trip she was given a destroyer, Veteran, escort. During the build of these ships they were designed to be easily converted to armed merchant cruisers. On conversion at Calcutta, most of her officers were RNR & they stayed with the ship.Many of the peace time crew including Lascars also stayed, they were joined by extra RNVR ratings sent from England.The changes inside the ship were considerable. During the war she was employed on contraband control in the Aegean, then in the S Atlantic escorting convoys up to the western approaches. For 21/2 yrs she was part of the Halifax Escort Force. In Nov. 1940 she escorted a convoy to a rendezvous with another convoy whoes escort was Jervis Bay, Ranpura returned to Canada. Two days later Jervis Bay had her valiant but fatal battle with Admiral Scheer, allowing her convoy to escape.After a refit in Norfolk Virginia she trooped US soldiers from New York to the UK. Ranpura then served on the East Indies station until 1943. In Dec. 43 she was purchased outright by the Admiralty , she was converted to a heavy repair ship at Portsmouth D/Y , the conversion taking two years. That brought Ranpura's war record to an end. There is much more to Ranpura's history, saved to a later date, the rheumatics in my fingers are needing a rest .:):):):confused:[/QUOTE] I have only just found this message, hence the delay. My late father was an Ordinary Seaman on HMS Ranpura from September 40 to March 42. Re Jervis Bay, he always maintained that they escorted a convoy (BHX 84 I presume) from Bermuda to join the other half of the Convoy (HX 84?) out of Halifax and the intention was for Ranpura to escort the combined convoy across the Atlantic. However, they encountered a bad storm after leaving Bermuda and bent a shaft. They were able to continue to the meeting point but it was decided that the smaller Jervis Bay would take the Convoy while Ranpura put into Halifax for repairs. Can this be confirmed? As an aside, judging by the dates of his service, he would have been on board during the capture of U-110 and its Enigma on Convoy OB 318 but he never mentioned this fact. Best wishes, Keith W

My dad was on HMS Rampura during the war....sadly with him passing away 11 years ago I am unable to ask him any questions regarding the ship.... I think some of these were at Port Said 1944 [ATTACH]160165[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]160166[/ATTACH] Last photo was his home town Melbourne Derbyshire
Attachments :

[quote=Mauser;10160343]My dad was on HMS Rampura during the war....sadly with him passing away 11 years ago I am unable to ask him any questions regarding the ship.... I think some of these were at Port Said 1944 Last photo was his home town Melbourne Derbyshire[/quote] Hello Mauser and a warm welcome to the Forums. Sorry to hear of the passing of your dad. I have changed the images as attachments in accordance with the site requirements. Jim

Re-reading post #34 brought back all my memories of that voyage from Rosyth to Malta. What a relief it was to join Tyne where the machinery was more familiar, she was only different in the fact she had saturated steam turbines.

[QUOTE=traceyf;34589]Hi I love reading the storys i just wondered if anyone remembers the cooks names Thanks:)[/QUOTE] I'm one of them... Frank Mifsud I was a ships cook. Don't ask me about the rest my memory doesn't serve me well these days. it's been over 60 years.

Hello I am from Malta. My Father owns a Lambretta LD150 (1958) that was used (leased) by a certain Noor A.Cassim RN who at that time used to serve on the HMS Ranpura. I have paperwork showing that the Lambretta was used by Noor A.Cassim RN and then sold to my father.

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