The SS Redang Written and Researched by Margaret Sypniewska, B.F.A.

The SS Redang (some statistics):
• was a steel screw steamer

• was launched in 1901, as Yard No. 32 by Kjobenhavens Flydedock of Skibsverft, Copenhagen, Denmark.

• weighed 500 gross tons, 570 dwt.

• was 165 feet in length, had a 28 foot beam (draught), and was 12 feet in depth.

• has a triple expansion engine and one "Scotch" boiler operating at 160 pounds per square foot pressure supplied and fitted by the ship builders.

• It was fitted for the burning of oil fuel at building.

• machinery was aft.

• 350 horse power

• speed was nine (9) knots or 9.25 knots.

• Owned by: A/S Det Ostasiastiske Kompagni, Bangkok, Thailand (Siam).

• was sold in 1908 to the Siam Steam Navigation Company, with no name change.

• one of eight ships owned and operated by the Siam Steam Navigation Company, in this time period.

• provided passenger and cargo service on the coast of Siam and the Malay States.

• was registered in Bangkok, Thailand.

• Their vessels had either gray or black hulls with a white band, cream colored masts, green inside the vent cowls, and red boot-topping.

• was the oldest ship in the Siam Steam Navigation fleet.

• on December 9, 1941, the SS Redang was seized by the British government on its arrival in Singapore.

• after the British took the ship, it was operated by the Singapore Strait Steamship Company. Limited, on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport.

• left Singapore harbor on February 12, 1942 with ninety-nine (99) passengers, including its crew.
  .....tally was reported as a crew of ten (10) and 89 passengers (including 6 women and 3 children).

• ship's captain, Capt. Rasmusson (a Dane) survived, and was released as a nuetral civilian, in June 1942. He then returned to Singapore.

• passengers of note to me: Alexander Malcolm, Jr. and Tommy Hand (Alexander Malcolm's number one engineer).

• February 13/15, 1942 the SS Redang was attacked by two Japanese destroyers, hit, set on fire, and sunk, within 50 miles of the Berhala Strait. Only thirty (30) passengers, including four (4) of them women and 3 children, got away by boat. While trying to make their way to the shore, they were captured by the Japanese. There were no other known survivors (sources: Escape From Singapore and Sea Breeze and personal archives of John D. Stevenson, A.M.I. Mar. E.)

• was listed on the Singapore Straits Steamship Company's list of lost ships (1941-1945), but misspelled as the "Rewang."

The H.M.S. Lipis of the Singapore Straits Steamship Co., commanded by W.E. Steele (killed in action) was sunk on February 11, 1942. Some of the passengers were rescued by the H.M.S. Li Wo...only 13 people survived as the Li Wo was also brought down by the Japanese. The H.M.S. Trand was sunk under similar circumstances.

RELATED LINKS:

The Fall of Singapore
Ships of the East Asiastic Line Scroll down.
Straits Steamship Company

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