MS Jutlandia
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| Career Denmark |   |
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| Ordered: | 1934 |
| Builder: | East Asiatic Company, Nakskov Shipyard, Denmark |
| Completed: | 1934 |
| Status: | Retired |
| General Characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 8,456 GRT; 5,203 NRT |
| Length: | 425 feet |
| Beam: | 61 feet |
| Draught: | 36 feet |
| Propulsion: | 2 Burmeister & Wain 5-cylinder diesel motors type: 545-WF-120 Twin screw, 7,850 ihp, 6,500 bhp |
| Speed: | 15 knots (cruising); 17.1 knots (trial) |
| Crew size: | 70, including 1 doctor |
| Capacity: | 69 in 34 first class cabins
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MS Jutlandia was contracted by and built for the East Asiatic Company (EAC) in 1934, as a combined passenger and cargo ship at EAC's Nakskov Shipyard, Denmark. Following an extended operational life in which it also served as a hospital ship and a royal yacht, it was finally decommissioned in 1965.
Jutlandia was the only ship in the EAC fleet to be designed with a Meyer bow.
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[edit] History
Jutlandia was contracted by EAC in 1934, to replace older ships on the then regular service between Copenhagen and Bangkok. It operated on this route from November, 1934, until January, 1940. When World War II broke out in September, 1939, the ship had just arrived at Rotterdam en route for Copenhagen. It completed its voyage and one further voyage to Bangkok, finally returning to Copenhagen in January, 1940.
[edit] World War II
Following its arrival in Copenhagen, Jutlandia was placed at the disposal of the Danish Government. It was sent to Argentina to collect a consignment of grain, returning to Copenhagen on March 31, 1940. On April 1, it was sent to Nakskov Shipyard for routine overhaul. Jutlandia was in dry-dock when Germany attacked and occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940. Due to a shortage of diesel oil, Germany did not seize the Jutlandia. Instead, it was concealed in a small inlet close to the shipyard, together with two other motorships from the EAC fleet, manned only by a skeleton crew. Here it remained until the end of the War, despite an allied air raid in the spring of 1945, which resulted in only minor damage.
The Jutlandia was fully seaworthy again by August 11, 1945 and re-entered commercial service between Europe and the East Coast of the USA. In the fall of 1950, EAC again agreed to place the ship at the disposal of the Danish Government, whilst it was en route to New York.
[edit] Korean War
When North Korean communist forces attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950, Denmark immediately agreed to provide assitance to the UN and to give humanitarian support to the allied forces in South Korea. The Danish Government undertook the refitting of Jutlandia as a modern hospital-ship, again at Nakskov Shipyard, and consigned it to Korea.
After the Korean War cease-fire on July 27, 1953, the ship returned to Denmark via Japan, picking up wounded allied soldiers and recently released prisoners of war for transport to their homelands en-route to Denmark. It departed from Tokyo on August 29, and arrived in Copenhagen on October 19, 1953. After 999 days in the service of the UN, the ship again flew a Danish flag.
Following a refit at the Nakskov Shipyard, the Jutlandia resumed its normal duties between Copenhagen and Bangkok for the first time since 1939.
[edit] Royal yacht
In September, 1960, Jutlandia became a Royal Yacht when EAC placed it at the disposal of the king of Thailand and his suite during the official visit to Scandinavia by Their Majesties King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit. From Copenhagen, the Royal couple sailed in Jutlandia to Oslo, the capital of Norway, and Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
Following the visit, the ship returned to normal duty. Three years later Jutlandia was selected to sail Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Margrethe (from 1972, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark) on her official visit to the Far East, via Genoa, Heraklion, the Suez Canal, Aden, Karachi, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. On its return to Denmark, the ship resumed its commercial operations between Copenhagen and Bangkok.
[edit] Decommissioning
Jutlandia completed its final voyage between Bangkok and Copenhagen on December 19, 1964. On January 14, 1965, it left Copenhagen on its last ever cruise to Bilbao, where it was scrapped.
