Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 437 by Harland & Wolff Ltd. at Belfast for McLlwraith, McEacharn’s Line Pty., Ltd., Melbourne, Australia.
10 April 1913 launched under the name KATOOMBA.
Tonnage 9.424 grt, 5.499 nrt., dim. 142.6 x 18.2m.
Powered by a triple expansion steam engine + one L.P. turbine., ? speed 16 knots, three screws. Coal burner
Passenger 209 first, 192 second and 156 third class passengers
July 1912 delivered.
After delivery she sailed for Glasgow under command of Captain L.E.D. Moodie-Heddle, (the next 25 years he was the captain of the ship) to board passengers for the maiden voyage to Australia, she sailed on 19 July from Glasgow and via the Cape of Good Hope, she made a call at Durban for bunkers heading to Melbourne where she arrived on 15 September, thereafter continued her voyage to Sydney.
She was built for the Australian coastal service, and on 20 September she sailed for the first coastal voyage from Sydney for Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle.
She was the best know passenger ship on the Australian coast.
May 1918 requisitioned by the Australian Government and converted in a troopship.
02 June 1918 departed from Melbourne via the Panama Canal for New York. She made two voyages with American troops across the North Atlantic.
Then she was transferred to the Mediterranean and after the Armistice she was the first vessel which passed the Dardanelle’s, when on 11 November 1918, at that time she was named IMPERIAL TRANSPORT D.160 she sailed from Salonica Harbour, she had on board baggage, guns and stores and a large body of troops.
13 November she was in a position off the north west coast of the island Imbros, after passing the Dardanelle’s, she anchored early in the morning of 14 November off Constantinople.
After her disembarking of the troops and unloading the stores, baggage and guns in Constantinople the D.610 made many coastal voyages in the Black Sea before she returned home from the U.K. on 15 August 1919 she sailed home from London with on board a full capacity of Australian troops, she arrived Sydney on 25 September. Then she was released from Government service, and was refitted by the Cockatoo Dock in a passenger ship again.
06 March 1920 returned to service, under her old name KATOOMBA, she was used in the coastal trade but also used for cruises to the Pacific Islands in the time between the two world wars.
March 1941 again requisitioned by the Australian Government and converted in a troopship.
Her first voyage with troops was to New Guinea, then she made a voyage to Darwin in May 1941.
Thereafter used till November 1941 in the commercial service from Sydney to Fremantle.
Then she made an other voyage to New Guinean with troops, returning with women and children.
On 12 February 1942 she sailed from Melbourne in convoy MS5 with on board American troops for Colombo where she arrived on 5 March, she returned home via Mauritius.
Again used in the coastal commercial trade on 4 August 1942 a Japanese submarine attacked her but she escaped undamaged.
Later again taken up for trooping and the rest of the war she was used in the Pacific Ocean to carry Australian and American troops to the islands.
08 October 1944 a fire broke out in hold No 1 at Townsville, the hold was flooded to douse the flames.
She was under Government control till February 1946.
Then laid up at Sydney.
July 1946 Sold to Cia Maritime del este S.A., Panama (Greek Line and Ormos Shipping Co., London), not renamed, she sailed in October 1946 from Sydney for Genoa, Italy
Got a refit at Genoa and sailed 31 December 1946 with on board passengers under the Greek Line colours from Genoa via Lisbon to New York were she arrived on 9 January 1947, with on board 578 passengers, she sailed 26 Jan. from New York bound for Piraeus.
She was then chartered by the French Line for two years in a service between France and the West Indies.
April 1949 handed back to owners, and she sailed for Genoa, were she was converted from coal to oil firing, her passenger accommodation was altered to 52 first and 752 tourist class passengers, her hull was painted white. After her refit she was renamed in COLUMBIA.
1949 Her first voyage under her new name was from the Mediterranean to Australia with emigrants, later from the Mediterranean to Central America.
April 1950 made the first voyage with emigrants from Piraues to Quebec and Montreal, and sometimes from Cherbourg and Southampton, during the winter she sailed to Halifax.
1951 Used in the service from Bremen via Southampton to Montreal and Quebec.
1954 Transferred to the Neptune Shipping Co, Panama.
Made thereafter several voyages from Liverpool, Belfast to Quebec.
18 August 1957 slightly damaged in a collision during fog with the HOMERIC at Quebec.
02 October 1957 made her last voyage from Quebec to Southampton, then proceeded to Piraeus, where laid up.
22 August 1959 sailed under her own power from Piraeus for the breakers yard in Nagasaki, Japan, where she arrived 29 September 1959.
Papua 1938 2d/1s sg 158/162 scott C5/C9
Source: Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1913. Passenger Ships of Australia & New Zealand Vol. 2 by Peter Plowman. North Atlantic Seaway Vol. 4 by N.R.P Bonsor. The Dog Watch.