CITY OF HAVANA (West India Fruit & SS Co)

official postcard by Florida Keys Photo Service, no. 24557, 

not posted, minor knocks, 

5.5" x 3.5", 140mm x 90mm (approx)

our ref: SRZ181

pictured entering Havana harbour

CITY OF HAVANA (West India Fruit & Steamship Company)

Built at Newport News in 1943 as LSD11 (Landing Ship Dock) but named HMS Cutlass for transfer to the Royal Navy, who upon receipt renamed her HMS Northway. Her one military action was the D-Day landings. In 1946 she was returned to the US and "moth-balled", although in 1951 she appears to have been renamed Jose Marti, but we have no history for that. In 1956 she emerged as the ferry City Of Havana for the West India Fruit and Steamship Company, operating between Key West and Cuba. The route finally closed in 1960 following the Cuban revolution. In 1962 she was purchased by the West German navy but sat idle at Bremerhaven. Atlantic SN purchased her at auction in 1967 and she was refitted on the Tyne. She emerged as Celtic Ferry to run between Felixstowe, Antwerp and Rotterdam. She was scrapped at Hamburg in 1972/3.