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The
Centaur was one of the
most versatile passenger-cargo combination liners ever built. She was
built by
the famous John Brown & Co. (Clydebank) Ltd in 1964 for the Alfred
Holt
Group (Blue Funnel Line) for their Australia
to Singapore
service. She was also the last of the Blue Funnel Line and brought is
long
tradition of passenger ships to a close. She was also Australia’s last regularly scheduled
overseas
liner, and will always be remembered in Western Australia as a special and
much loved ship.
Design
and Construction (1961 – 1964):
In the
early 1960s, Alfred Holt & Co. (Blue
Funnel Line) placed an order with
John Brown & Co. (Clydebank) Ltd to build the MS Centaur for their Australia
to Singapore
service. Centaur replaced two ships on that service, the 3,633 GRT
MS Gorgon built 1933 and scrapped 1964, and the 3,703 GRT MS Charon built in 1936, also
scrapped in 1964.
Centaur proved to be one of the most attractive
passenger-cargo liners to be built. Unlike all combination liners
before her, which
were built in the three island configuration, the Centaur featured a
long
forward freighter section and a high aft superstructure. This, combined
with
her tall streamlined funnel gave her an unusual, but attractive profile.
Centaur
had many unique
features, whilst having excellent passenger accommodations; she also
carried
general, refrigerated and liquid cargoes. In addition, Centaur, like
the ships
she replaced, carried up to 700 head of cattle or some 4,500 sheep in
her ’tween decks. Livestock was loaded both
in Broome or Derby.
Both these ports had operational difficulties as they have extreme
tidal
ranges, for this reason Centaur was built with a strengthened hull in
order to
cope having to sit on the bottom at an even keel at low tide. Another
unusual
item was that vitiated air was discharged through mast tops, as the
image above
clearly shows.
Centaur
was launched on 20th
June 1963 by Mrs. Brand, the wife of the Western Australian
Premier.
After her official handover in January 1964, she departed for
Liverpool, where
she loaded cargo for Australia.
Centaur was the only passenger vessel completed in a British shipyard
in 1963 and the second to last liner that was Clydebank built for a
British company. The last being the legendary RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 for
Cunard Line.
Blue
Funnel Line era (1964 – 1982):
On the
20th January 1964, Centaur departed Liverpool for
her
delivery voyage to Australia,
sailing via the Suez Canal to Singapore, after
which she
headed for Sydney
where she
arrived on February 23.
Her first
voyage out of Australia was
under charter
by the Australian Department of Commerce as a floating trade exhibition
to the
Far East and Japan.
The charter concluded in April and after returning to Sydney
the Centaur finally headed for her Australian homeport Fremantle (Perth).
She departed on her first official voyage on the
27th May 1964 for Singapore via Port
Swettenham (now known as Port Klang for Kuala
Lumpur)
and Georgetown
(now
known as Penang).
Her
predecessors the Charon
and Gordon made their final sailings in 1964 and the Centaur was left
to
maintain the service single handed, with thrice weekly sailings. By
this time
the UK to Australia passenger service had ended,
leaving
the Centaur as Blue Funnel’s sole passenger liner and the Fremantle to Singapore
service as Blue Funnel’s only passenger service.
Originally
Centaur was
registered under the ownership of Ocean Steamship Co. Ltd, part of the
Alfred
Holt Group. She was then transferred to another Alfred Holt subsidiary,
the
China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. In 1973 she was re-registered in Singapore,
becoming part of the Eastern Fleets Ltd. It was not until 1978 that she
was
officially transferred to Blue Funnel Line, another Alfred Holt
subsidiary.
However, interestingly enough, from the day she was launched her funnel
was
painted in traditional Blue Funnel Line colours, although she was the
first of
the fleet to have a white hull.
Centaur
offered excellent
accommodation for 196 one class passengers. Promenade (A) Deck had two
luxury
suites with private facilities located forward flanking the library.
Amidships
were ten twin cabins with private facilities. Aft was a spacious lounge
overlooking Lido Deck and the ships pool. B and C Decks had
seventy-seven 1-2-4
bedded/berth cabins, of which twenty-three 1 and 2 bedded cabins on B
Deck had
private facilities. B Deck also facilitated the Children’s facilities
and a
paddle pool, whereas the Dinning Room, Cinema and the Music Room were
located on
C deck. The entire accommodation was fully air
conditioned
and Denny Brown stablisers were fitted. Indeed she was a most stylish
combination liner.
The
Centaur was the first
twin screw Blue Funnel liner since before the Second World War. She was
powered
by twin Burmeister & Wain supercharged two stroke diesels, each
developing
9,250 hp at 180rpm, giving her a fast 20 knot service speed. Externally
she was
a very stylish ship with an elegant streamlined and curving
superstructure,
quite unlike the upright ocean liners previously associated with Blue
Funnel.
Indeed the Centaur ranked as one of the most handsome and stylish combi
ships ever
built. Centaur was the first Blue Funnel Line ship to have a white hull
and the first twin screw diesel ship in the fleet since before the
Second World War. She was also the first built for the Line with an AC
electrical system and fitted with stablisers.
Centaur
was designed to
offer her passengers a cruise-like voyage, rather than a liner service
between
Fremantle and Singapore,
a voyage of five days. She became a popular ship, with round trip
passengers,
and those travelling on her one way, be it from Fremantle or Singapore,
returning by air. Soon, Centaur became so popular; many of her
passengers
travelled thousands of kilometres across Australia
to join one of her voyages.
On the 23rd
April
1970, Centaur sailed from Fremantle on her 100th voyage to Singapore and added another 100 voyages
by the
12th March 1976, by which time she was a firm favourite in Australia.
In 1979,
Blue Funnel Line
placed her on a new service, a 25 day circle voyage from Fremantle to Singapore,
Hong Kong and Manila,
returning via Singapore
to Fremantle. This was now marketed as the “Ship-Jet” service (perhaps
one of
the first fly cruises?) with passengers flying from the UK to Singapore and thence by
ship to
Fremantle, and also as a round trip cruise aboard the “Pleasure Island
Centaur”.
She remained on this service for the next three years, but as passenger
numbers
between Australia
and Asia
were rapidly declining, Centaur was taken out of service in 1982. On the
15th September 1982, on a wet and windy day,
Centaur
departed Fremantle for her 330th and final official voyage
to Singapore.
This departure is recorded in Australian maritime history as the last
ever
liner departure out of Australia.
All future ships based in Australia
were round voyage cruise ships. Sadly, Blue Funnel Line concluded all
their
services from Australia
at the same time.
St
Helena Line era (1982 – 1983):
After her
arrival in Singapore
a new role was needed. However the Centaur was chartered to the St
Helena
Shipping Company for one year. This maintained the UK
to Ascension Island, St Helena and South Africa. The route was
operated by the St Helena Shipping Co. and managed by Curnow Shipping.
They had
continued the Union-Castle service since 1978 with the RMS St Helena
(formerly Northland Prince built in 1964). However RMS St Helena had
been
requisitioned by the British Government as a supply ship and
minesweeper
support ship on the 12th May 1982 for the Falklands War. As
a result
Centaur headed for Cape Town
with her
funnel repainted in their colours to stand in for the RMS St Helena on
this
lifeline service. On 5th
November 1982, she departed Cape Town for her first voyage to St
Helena and thence to Ascension, Cape Verde,
Tenerife and Avonmouth near Bristol in
the UK.
She
maintained this 24 day round voyages until the end of the twelve month
charter
contract in November 1983.
Blue
Funnel had hoped that
St Helena Shipping Company would take up the purchase option, but this
was not
the case, and she was handed back to her owners. Instead the RMS St
Helena
returned to her duties and returned to the mailship service on the 20th
September 1983.
The
Final Years (1983 – 1995):
On the 18th
October
1983 the Centaur sailed from Avonmouth for the final time bound for
Singapore
via Tenerife, Cape Verde, Ascension, St Helena, Cape Town, Durban,
Mauritius,
Fremantle and Singapore. This voyage back from Avonmouth to Singapore
included one last call at Fremantle where she arrived on the 3rd
December.
After three days in Fremantle, Centaur departed Australia
on 6th
November 1983, for the last time, arriving in Singapore
on the 12th December 1983. She was then laid up off Sentosa Island, Singapore.
Whilst
laid up, she remained
idle until May 1985, when she was sold to China’s
Shanghai Haixing Shipping Co., who renamed her MS Hai
Long, and placed her on the Hong Kong to Shanghai
service. In 1986 she was renamed Hai Dai. She continued in this service
until
1995 when she was retired and scrapped by the Xinhui scrapyard at Guangdong in China.
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