SS Matra at Sea.
Although I paid one on-board visit to her in Colombo harbour, the SS Matra was the only one of the three sister ships namely Matra, Mahseer and Manaar that I never sailed on. This image of her was taken as she was returning to the UK after loading in Colombo in 1964. Not only were her holds full but she was also carrying a large amount of deck cargo of (I think) Jute on the numbers three, four and five holds a situation that would have made her owner (Thos and Jno Brocklebank Ltd) extremely happy. I apologise for the poor quality of this image because of camera shake and the very visible deterioration caused by the ravages of mould. Matra was built in Glasgow in 1949, was registered in the UK and had a gross tonnage of 8954 Tons. Her call sign was GZYJ. She was sold out of the Brocklebank fleet to a Greek shipping company in 1971 but was scrapped in Spain in 1972.