What happened to the Nevasa?
The Nevasa was built in 1955 as a troopship for service between the United Kingdom and her overseas dependencies. A twenty thousand ton vessel, it had accommodation for 500 officers and their families, and a thousand NCOs. on the troop deck.
The Nevasa did not have a long trooping career and, in 1962, the government decided to end the movement of soldiers by sea so the ship was withdrawn from service.
For two years the ship lay idle but then British India decided to spend £500,000 on a conversion and turn her into an education cruise ship, with accommodation for 1,100 pupils and teachers, and 230 private cabins for cruise passengers.
On the 28th October 1965, she left Southampton on her first educational cruise. She made nearly 200 voyages, steamed around 750,000 miles and carried 187,000 students. However, a few years later, faced with huge rises in oil costs, the ship ended its last cruise in Malta, and went to the breaker's yard in Taiwan. In March the Nevasa arrived at Kaohsiung where she was scrapped.
I understand that the sister ship Uganda continued for a while, but was then converted into a troop ship during the Argentine conflict in 1982, after which it too was scrapped.
Slide show of the March 1966 cruise, which included some sixty pupils and four staff from Ewell County Secondary school.
If you were on the Nevasa or the Uganda please share with us your memories!