WesWorld

Please ..........

16.December
The "Kiang Ya" and her sister ship "Kiung Yu" were built for Tjianjin Shipping 's monthly scheduled high-speed european service, coming into operation from the spring of 1944. Both ships were specially designed for tropical conditions, with state-of-the-art air conditioning and fresh air circulation systems, as their routing was south from China, through the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea. Both ships were initially designed for use with geared turbine engines for projected cruising speed of 21 knots. However, under increasing pressure from the chinese government to use only equipment and technologies available domestically, the design was changed to use standard Huang-Po-Sulzer marine diesel engines, which reduced cruising speed to 18 knots.
The steel-hulled vessel has a length of 154m and a beam of 20m, with a single funnel, two masts, and double screws. The ships provided accommodation for 121 first-class passengers and 68 second class passengers. There is also room for up to 60 third-class passengers. The ship and passengers is served by a crew of 177.

"Kiang Ya" under command of Merchant Captain Mi Ping Wu departed Tjianjin on her maiden voyage on 16 December 1943 for London, with ports of call in between at Hong Kong, Singepore, Penang, Colombo, Aden, Suez, Port Said, Marseilles, and Gibraltar.

Heh, probably not likely to be a popular or long-running service - the Japanese will sink her right quick... ;)

I was thinking the same thing, Brock, because...

Whoops! There goes one to the bottom of the Arabian Sea...

... and there goes the other one down to the bottom of the Gulf of Aden...

Torpedoing merchant ships in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden would probably displease the locals.

Yep .... and even more if it is an unarmed passenger ship - a uncivilized inhuman and criminal behavior.

... you forgot to add "carrying contraband" to the "'passenger ship" bit.

"contraband" ??? Sure the wonderbra's of the women are definitely contraband

22th December - Hall of wisdom - Forbidden City - Beijing
His Majesty Emperor Pu Yi awarded today several Chinese generals and soldiers for extraordinary bravery.

I think that the Chosen and Japanese newspapers would brand them as extraordinary traitors and cowards... but that is just based on our opinions and our side of the war.