El Horriya is the fifth largest yacht in the world is also one of the oldest super yachts still in operation. El Horriya was originally built in London in 1865 for the King of Egypt and the length was extended in 1872 and in 1905 and last refitted in 1987.
Length is 478 feet, top speed 16 knots and total power is 19,550 hp.
The yacht is berthed out of Alexandria and is listed as a training ship by the Egyptian Navy, but it still has the capacity for carrying up to 160 crew-members.
Khedivial Mail Line once operated service between Egypt and New York. As history records the event in Cairo… here is a blog on Egypt’s once excellent trans-Atlantic steamship service.
SS Mohamed Ali el-Kebir
The original name of the company is unknown but it is thought that it was founded in 1858. The Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock Co. was formed in 1898 to operate ships and docks owned by various departments of the Egyptian Government, but little is known of the early years of the company or it’s ships.
The new fleet was registered under the British flag and operated passenger and cargo services between Alexandria, Constantinople and Syrian ports and between Suez and Red Sea ports. Later services were extended to Piraeus, Malta, Marseilles and Cyprus. P & O Line took control of the company between 1919 and 1924.
In 1936 the company was re-formed in Alexandria as Pharaonic Mail Line and in 1941 was changed to Khedivial Mail Line. Services from the Mediterranean to Boston and New York started in 1948 and from 1951 calls were often made at Charleston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. A Port Said – Bombay – Karachi service started in 1953.
Orient Line’s SS OTRANTO…
British Service dependents, mothers and children, sailed in January 1948 aboard the Orient Line’s “SS Otranto” from Southampton to Egypt and the Suez.
Their husbands were already in the Suez Canal for conflicts at that time.
The mothers, along with their children, and possibly for the first time in their lives, set off alone to be with their soldier fathers.
It was a great adventure and the photographs tell the story.
Service Families on board Orient Line’s SS Otranto bound for Port Said Jan 48…
SS Otranto docks in Valletta Harbor enroute…
SS Otranto’s program for a Children’s Party…
Baggage Label and Drinks Card…
SS Otranto leaving Suez in 1952 for the United Kingdom…
