Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 03:55:47 _800
From: "Michael Palmer" <...>
To: GERMAN-CANADIAN-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Ship "Beaverbray" 1951 - Bremen to St. John NB Canada

BEAVERBRAE

• built by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (ship #518) and launched for the Hamburg-America Line as the HUASCARAN on 15 December 1938.
• 6,951 tons; 464 ft 9 in x 60 ft 4 in x 26 ft 11 in/141.66 x 18.39 x 8.21 meters (length x breadth x depth of hold); 1 funnel, cruiser stern; steel construction, 3 decks, forecastle 88 ft (26.82 meters); single screw propulsion, 3 oil engines and electric drive; fuel capacity, 1098 tons oil; accommodation for 35 or 58 1st class passengers according to season; crew of 27; cargo space for 55,600 cubic ft (15,706 cubic meters) grain.
• 1939, placed in the Hamburg-America Line's service between Hamburg and the west coast of South America. 1940-1945, service in the German Navy as a U-boat depot ship.
• 14 November 1945, allocated to the Canadian Government; managed by Park Steamship Co.
• 2 September 1947, purchased from the Canadian Reparations Commission by Canadian Pacific, Montreal.
• Rebuilt in Sorel, Quebec; 9,034 tons; 2 masts; service speed 16 knots; accommodation for 775 emigrant passengers. 7 February 1948, renamed BEAVERBRAE.
• 8 February 1948, first voyage, St. John-Bremerhaven (51 roundtrip voyages Bremen-Canada with displaced persons).
• 1 November 1954, sold to the Compagnia Genovese di Armamento (Cogedar Line), Genoa; renamed AURELIA; rebuilt at Montefalcone; 10,022 tons; service speed 17 knots; accommodation for 1124 passengers tourist class.
• 13 May 1955, first voyage, Trieste-Suez Canal-Australia; later voyages from Genoa. 1958/59, new diesel engines by Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg; 10,480 tons.
• 12 June 1959, first voyage, Bremen-Suez Canal-Australia. 1960-1969, 34 roundtrip voyages, English channel port(s)-New York, chartered to the Council on Student Travel. 9 December 1964, first voyage, Rotterdam-Australia/New Zealand.
• 1968, passenger accommodation refitted for 470 passengers, single class; cruise ship, Southampton-Madeira.
• 1970, sold to the Chandris Group. September 1970, renamed ROMANZA.
• 1971, rebuilt in Piraeus; 8,891 tons. Cruise ship.
• 1979, laid up at Scaramanga, Piraeus, awaiting disposal.

Sources:
Duncan Haws, Merchant Fleets in Profile, 4: The Ships of the Hamburg America, Adler and Carr Lines (Cambridge: Patrick Stephens, 1980), pp. 167-168, no. 624;
Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 3 (1979), p. 1320; vol. 4 (1979), pp. 1760-1762 (photograph as the AURELIA);
Arnold Kludas, Die grossen Passagierschiffe der Welt; Eine Dokumentation, Bd. 5: 1950-1974 (Oldenburg/Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling, 1974), pp. 74-75 (photograph as the AURELIA).