Viagem inaugural do IMPÉRIO

A 20 de Julho de 1948 o novo paquete a turbinas IMPÉRIO largou de Lisboa dando início à viagem inaugural. Gémeo do PÁTRIA, o IMPÉRIO seria o segundo de quatro paquetes de 13.000 GRT e 18 nós de velocidade destinados à linha Lisboa - África Oriental, serviço que assegurou até 1974.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho, se descarregar imagens para uso pessoal sugere-se que contribua para a manutenção deste espaço fazendo um donativo via Paypal, sugerindo-se €1,00 por imagem retirada. Utilização comercial ou para fins lucrativos não permitida (ver coluna ao lado) / No piracy, please. If photos are downloaded for personal use we suggest that a small contribution via Paypal (€1,00 per image or more). Photos downloaded for commercial or other profit making uses are not allowed. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Paquete IMPÉRIO na doca de Alcântara

Duas imagens de Arne Sognnes registadas em Dezembro de 1970 de bordo do STATSRAAD LEHMKUHL, vendo-se em primeiro plano, na foto a cores, o paquete IMPÉRIO da Companhia Colonial de Navegação, pintado e com aspecto de pronto para mais uma viagem a Moçambique. Junto ao IMPÉRIO vislumbram-se os rebocadores MUTELA e MONSANTO, igualmente da CCN, e mais ao fundo, na muralha sul da doca, o PONTA GARÇA e a popa de um cargueiro da classe B da Sociedade Geral.

Na segunda imagem, a preto e branco, vê-se ainda, no cais sul da doca, o CABINDA, da Sociedade Geral, e na muralha norte, um pequeno pormenor do FUNCHALENSE, e o cargueiro norueguês ESTRELLA, que fazia a linha da América do Sul.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

The ANCHOR LINE Indian Run

Bill Miller writes about the old Scottish steamship company Anchor Line, of Glasgow:

"The smell of curry!  "They were said to be the best kept, most immaculate passenger ships using the port of Liverpool in the 1950s & '60s," said Mike McDougle, who served aboard Britain's long-gone Anchor Line and aboard the Company's three, 11,000-ton passenger ships, the Caledonia, Cilicia & Circassia, which carried up to 300 one-class passengers each.   "We were on the Indian run – sailing by way of Gibraltar, Port Said and the Suez Canal to Karachi and, the final stop, to Bombay.   We carried very few tourists actually, but mostly government people, lots of the old colonials, businessmen, tea merchants and Indians including the occasional maharaja.   Those Indian princes traveled with entire entourages that occupied as many as a dozen cabins onboard.   One royal, I think it was the Maharaja of Rawalpindi, had a stateroom just for his pet falcon."

"These Anchor liners were famed for their cuisine," added Mike.   "They had all-Indian galley crews that prepared the most wonderful curries.   Just having, say, lunch aboard at Liverpool was a treat.   Anchor Line food was equal to the finest Indian restaurant.  Anchor was also noted for its exceptional maintenance and shipboard care.   Everything, even the engine room, was in pristine condition.   Even though these ships were over 20 years of age, it was as if they'd just left the shipyard."

Luís Miguel Correia end note: In Portugal the Companhia Colonial de Navegação had an unofficial link to Anchor Line in two ways: 
In 1929 CCN purchased from Anchor Line the liner ASSYRIA and as the COLONIAL she served under the Portuguese colours until sold for breaking up in 1950.
 Then at the end of WW2 an agreement between the Governments of Portugal and Great Britain gave priority to the building of merchant ships in British yards for Portuguese owners. CCN ordered two fine 13 000 grt passenger liners from John Brown of Clydebank, the PÁTRIA, delivered in December 1947 and the IMPÉRIO, delivered six months later while the rival Companhia Nacional de Navegação (CNN) ordered two passenger motor ships of similar size but of more modern design from Newcastle yards, the sisters ANGOLA and MOÇAMBIQUE. 

The CCN pair was built and delivered one years in advance of the Nacional sisters mainly because instead of designing the PÁTRIA and IMPÉRIO from scratch, original plans developed by John Brown for Anchor Line before WW2  were used and adapted to Cia. Colonial requirements. This saved a full year and in fact The Colonial sisters were very similar in terms of exterior design to the Anchor final three passenger liners.

Built for the Lisbon-East Africa passenger and mail service, the PÁTRIA and the IMPÉRIO only made one voyage each homebound by Suez, the IMPÉRIO in the 1950s and the PÁTRIA in 1962 when she sailed from Mozambique for Karachi and then home to Lisbon. 

Further to the official mail service, the Portuguese liners also cruised from time to time and also used to embark in Cape Town and Durban tourists from South Africa for the round coastal trip up to Mozambique and back, using the first class cabins alloted to passenger from Angola and left vacant after the ships sailed South from Moçamedes. 
There was always a group of South African cruise passengers aboard when the ships sailed the Indian Ocean and often there was occasion for romance between young Portuguese ship officers and S.A. pretty girls, some giving way to weddings.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

O PÁTRIA a chegar, o IMPÉRIO de saída...

As páginas do "Diário de Lisboa" de Janeiro de 1949 inseriam com frequência anúncios de chegada e saída de paquetes da Companhia Colonial de Navegação, caso da chegada do N/T PÁTRIA, na manhã de 26 de Janeiro - trouxe 351 passageiros para Lisboa, ou da saída do seu irmão gémeo IMPÉRIO, a 2 de Fevereiro. 

O PÁTRIA e o IMPÉRIO eram então os maiores paquetes da Colonial e da Marinha Mercante portuguesa, e faziam a carreira da África Oriental, que partia de Lisboa, e visitava os portos do Funchal, São Tomé, Luanda, Lobito, Moçamedes, Cabo, Lourenço Marques, Beira e Moçambique, com regresso pelos mesmos portos, em rotações de 50 dias. Este serviço era partilhado pelos melhores paquetes da Colonial e da Nacional, que tinha os irmãos ANGOLA e MOÇAMBIQUE.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

VERA CRUZ e IMPÉRIO

Diário de Lisboa de 25 de Julho de 1955: notícia relativa ao movimento marítimo, isto é a largada do paquete VERA CRUZ, então o nosso maior navio, para a América Central, e a chegada do IMPÉRIO vindo de um cruzeiro aos Açores e à Madeira. Dois dos seis paquetes que então integravam a frota da Companhia Colonial de Navegação, um dos quais, o SERPA PINTO estava já desarmado e para venda, fundeado no Mar da Palha. Os cinco paquetes restantes eram todos novos e construídos de propósito para a Colonial, na Escócia e na Bélgica.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Paquete IMPÉRIO no cais da CCN

Paquete IMPÉRIO (1948-1974), da Companhia Colonial de Navegação (1922-1974), atracado ao cais privativo da companhia, na Rocha do Conde de Óbidos, a jusante da Estação Marítima, num espaço hoje ocupado pela LISCONT.

O navio está a carregar para mais uma viagem a África, com pintura geral nova, o que era sempre feito durante as estadias entre viagens. Os navios eram então pintados de fresco, desde as borlas dos mastros até à linha de água e de seis em seis meses iam à doca seca, normalmente no estaleiro da Rocha, na época explorado pela CUF / Navalis. Vê-se bem o edifício de armazéns e escritórios da Colonial que sobreviveu até finais de 2009, sendo utilizado pela LISCONT nos últimos anos. A fotografia, que não tem data e foi enviada amavelmente por Nuno Bartolomeu, deve ter sido tirada em meados dos anos cinquenta, pois o edifício parece estar já concluído, e o navio ainda só tem o primeiro par de frades por vante da chaminé, junto à escotilha do porão nº 3. Um segundo par de frades foi instalado em 1958.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

STEAMER's DAY IN PORTUGUESE AFRICA

Portuguese passenger and mail liner IMPÉRIO (1948-1974) berthed in a Portuguese Africa port, probably Porto Amélia, in Mozambique.
Can someone identify the place?
IMPÉRIO was one of three Cia Colonial liners on the Mozambique service with fleet mates PÁTRIA (1947-1973) and INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE (1961-1975).
The Lisbon - East Africa service was also operated by three other passenger ships, the sisters ANGOLA (1948-1974) and MOÇAMBIQUE (1949-1972), and the PRINCIPE PERFEITO (1961-1975). What a beautiful fleet so much missed...
Photo kindly sent by Nuno Bartolomeu. Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

CCN liner IMPÉRIO (1948-1974)

The Portuguese liner IMPÉRIO arriving at Leixões dressed overall on a festive mood surrounded by fishing vessels in the 1960s or early 1970s...
Constructed in 1948 at Clydebank by Messrs John Brown side by side with Cunard CARONIA and her sister PÁTRIA.
Both sisters replaced three older CCN mail liners in the Lisbon - East Africa service: COLONIAL, MOUZINHO and JOÃO BELO and operated on the Lisbon, Leixões, Lisbon, Funchal, São Tomé, Luanda, Lobito, Moçamedes, Cape Town, Lourenço Marques, Beira, Moçambique, Nacala and Porto Amélia regular service, the round voyage taking about 50 days. In October 1961 a third mail liner was introduced, the magnificent INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE. The jet age and the independence of Portuguesa Africa led to the demise of those ships: PÁTRIA in May 1973, IMPÉRIO early in 1974 and INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE in December 1975.
Although built for the East Africa trade, the IMPÉRIO was also used on the Lisbon - Brazil service and did an Atlantic islands cruise in 1955. After 1961 she also operated as a trooper.
Photograph kindly sent by Mr Nuno Bartolomeu.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia