DARRO

[aukepalmhof]

£2 RMS DARRO
Called at Tristan 11 October 1945. Built at the shipyard Harland and Wolff, Belfast for the Royal Mail Line she was launched on 7 July 1935. A refrigerated general cargo ship, registered to the Royal Mail Meat Transport Ltd (a subsidiary of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.) she was later converted to a troop carrier and believed to be the first vessel to call at Tristan after WW2. (I can’t find that she was built for the Royal Mail Meat Transport Ltd. and that she ever was used as a troopship.)
Tristan da Cunha Press Release.

Built as a cargo-reefer vessel under yard No 1148 by Harland & Wolff Ltd., Belfast for the Royal Mail Lines Ltd., London.
21 November 1942 launched as the DARRO.
Tonnage 9,733 gross, 5,765 net, 7.680 dwt, dim. 142.9 x 19.9 x 10.82, length bpp. 138.2m.
Powered by two B&W 6-cyl. each, 2 DA oil engines manufactured by the shipbuilder, 1,803 nhp, twin shafts, speed 15 knots.
29 June 1943 completed, homeport London.

This class of vessels was ordered before the outbreak of World War II, four of this class were built as a reefer vessel under which the DARRO. The reefer vessels were built for the chilled meat trade from the La Plata River ports to the U.K.
During World War II I find her regular in convoys across the Atlantic from the U.K, to New York.
Probably after the war used in the chilled meat trade but I can’t find if she was used in this trade, otherwise used in the frozen meat services from South America and Australia and New Zealand to the U.K. with on the outward voyage from the U.K loaded with general cargo.
1967 Sold to Embajada Cia Naviera SA, Piraeus, Greece and renamed in SURREY.
She was not sailing long for this company, she arrived December 1967 at Kaohsiung, Taiwan for scrapping.

Tristan da Cunha 2015 £2 sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Lloyds Registers. Internet.

[D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen]

IMO.5508659.
On 13th August 1967 she sailed from Rotterdam as SURREY bound for Whampoa and then breakers at Kaohsiung, arriving there in December 1967.