Ordered in May 1946, the third ship to proudly bear the name Chusan, was a smaller version of the P&O Company's Himalaya and designed as the principal element in the postwar regeneration of P&O's Indian and Far East service.

Considered by many as a long overdue replacement for the celebrated Viceroy of India, which was sunk in November 1942 by the German U-boat U-407. Like her celebrated predecessor, the new Chusan was named after a group of islands in the bay beyond the estuary of China's Yangtsze River. From the very start, she introduced superior standards, on the routes to the Orient and the Far East. which were much appreciated by the good people of postwar austerity Britain,

Ordered and designed before the war, she was built in 1949, by Vickers-Armstrong of Barrow-in-Furness, and remained in service until 1973.

Her stem looks a little the worse for wear - but we had just collided with the Barcelona ferry while leaving Palma Majorca....

Chusan at Kowloon

 A selection of photographs from the Waring & Gillow archive, taken by Elsam Mann and Cooper, Commercial Photographers of Liverpool in 1949.

http://www.pandosnco.co.uk/chusan.html